NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) Trading Up 1.5% – Should You Buy?

NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) rose 1.5% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $82.56 and last traded at $81.79. Approximately 1,896,372 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average daily volume of 10,824,517 shares. The stock had previously closed at $80.58.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on NEE shares. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of NextEra Energy from $73.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Citigroup increased their target price on NextEra Energy from $69.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on NextEra Energy in a report on Thursday, September 19th. They set a “hold” rating and a $87.00 target price for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on NextEra Energy from $95.00 to $102.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on NextEra Energy from $77.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NextEra Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $83.07.

NextEra Energy Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $81.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $74.73. The stock has a market cap of $168.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.56.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $6.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.29 billion. NextEra Energy had a return on equity of 11.75% and a net margin of 24.45%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.88 EPS. Analysts forecast that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NextEra Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 30th were issued a dividend of $0.515 per share. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NextEra Energy news, EVP Nicole J. Daggs sold 658 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.97, for a total transaction of $50,646.26. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 100 shares in the company, valued at $7,697. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its position in NextEra Energy by 35.7% during the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 100,308 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,411,000 after purchasing an additional 26,382 shares in the last quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 10.6% during the first quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 79,994 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,112,000 after buying an additional 7,677 shares during the last quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 1,224.3% during the second quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC now owns 72,453 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,130,000 after buying an additional 66,982 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates boosted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 57.0% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 5,957,220 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $421,831,000 after acquiring an additional 2,163,437 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Studio Investment Management LLC grew its position in NextEra Energy by 12.9% during the 4th quarter. Studio Investment Management LLC now owns 94,852 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,761,000 after acquiring an additional 10,837 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

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.