Confluence Wealth Services Inc. Raises Stake in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Confluence Wealth Services Inc. boosted its position in shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 12.7% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 10,362 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,170 shares during the period. Confluence Wealth Services Inc.’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $662,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kessler Investment Group LLC grew its holdings in NextEra Energy by 66.3% during the 1st quarter. Kessler Investment Group LLC now owns 5,862 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $375,000 after acquiring an additional 2,337 shares in the last quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in NextEra Energy by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 15,079 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $964,000 after acquiring an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co grew its holdings in NextEra Energy by 34.5% during the 1st quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co now owns 101,766 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,504,000 after acquiring an additional 26,080 shares in the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC grew its holdings in NextEra Energy by 360.1% during the 1st quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 52,842 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,377,000 after acquiring an additional 41,357 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Donaldson Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in NextEra Energy by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Donaldson Capital Management LLC now owns 686,099 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $43,849,000 after acquiring an additional 14,617 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on NEE. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $74.00 target price on shares of NextEra Energy in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of NextEra Energy from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of NextEra Energy from $70.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Guggenheim upped their target price on shares of NextEra Energy from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of NextEra Energy from $77.00 to $79.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NextEra Energy has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $71.50.

NextEra Energy Stock Performance

NEE stock traded down $0.44 on Tuesday, hitting $66.99. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 10,042,329 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,865,637. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $61.26 and a two-hundred day moving average of $59.34. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $47.15 and a 1 year high of $78.53. The stock has a market cap of $137.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.11. NextEra Energy had a net margin of 27.62% and a return on equity of 11.72%. The firm had revenue of $5.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. NextEra Energy’s revenue for the quarter was down 14.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 27th were given a dividend of $0.515 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 26th. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.08%. This is an increase from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.47. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 56.13%.

About NextEra Energy

NextEra Energy, Inc, through its subsidiaries, generates, transmits, distributes, and sells electric power to retail and wholesale customers in North America. The company generates electricity through wind, solar, nuclear,natural gas, and other clean energy. It also develops, constructs, and operates long-term contracted assets that consists of clean energy solutions, such as renewable generation facilities, battery storage projects, and electric transmission facilities; sells energy commodities; and owns, develops, constructs, manages and operates electric generation facilities in wholesale energy markets.