NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) Upgraded at Melius Research

Melius Research upgraded shares of NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) to a strong-buy rating in a research report report published on Wednesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Barclays raised their price objective on NextEra Energy from $65.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Erste Group Bank downgraded NextEra Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. HSBC dropped their price objective on NextEra Energy from $88.00 to $86.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Melius assumed coverage on NextEra Energy in a research note on Wednesday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $77.00 price objective for the company. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on NextEra Energy from $94.00 to $84.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.23.

NextEra Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NEE stock opened at $76.2270 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $156.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.63. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $73.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $70.79. NextEra Energy has a 12-month low of $61.72 and a 12-month high of $86.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The utilities provider reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $6.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.52 billion. NextEra Energy had a return on equity of 12.31% and a net margin of 22.84%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.96 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that NextEra Energy will post 3.68 EPS for the current year.

NextEra Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.5665 per share. This represents a $2.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 28th. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 79.37%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NextEra Energy news, EVP Robert Coffey sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.84, for a total transaction of $538,800.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 26,539 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,906,561.76. This represents a 22.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Treasurer James Michael May sold 2,177 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.50, for a total value of $168,717.50. Following the sale, the treasurer owned 27,662 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,143,805. This trade represents a 7.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NextEra Energy

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 28,282 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,028,000 after purchasing an additional 1,840 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 4,854 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $348,000 after purchasing an additional 298 shares during the last quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 40.5% during the fourth quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP now owns 9,724 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $697,000 after purchasing an additional 2,802 shares during the last quarter. MGO One Seven LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 61,671 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,421,000 after purchasing an additional 891 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Burling Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NextEra Energy during the fourth quarter worth $4,224,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

NextEra Energy Company Profile

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.