HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC Buys New Stake in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 305,224 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $25,801,000. NextEra Energy accounts for about 3.0% of HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of NextEra Energy by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 21,298,642 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,508,155,000 after purchasing an additional 143,748 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in NextEra Energy by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,284,785 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,122,963,000 after purchasing an additional 86,758 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in NextEra Energy by 5.5% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 8,630,775 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $729,559,000 after purchasing an additional 452,590 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 14.3% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 6,809,093 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $575,573,000 after acquiring an additional 851,873 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in NextEra Energy by 7.2% in the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 6,100,348 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $431,966,000 after purchasing an additional 409,708 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on NextEra Energy in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. They set a “hold” rating and a $87.00 target price for the company. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on NextEra Energy from $83.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on NextEra Energy from $95.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on NextEra Energy from $95.00 to $94.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of NextEra Energy from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NextEra Energy currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $86.85.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Nicole J. Daggs sold 4,007 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.57, for a total value of $302,808.99. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,193,401.44. The trade was a 20.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

NextEra Energy Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of NEE stock opened at $77.06 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $80.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $77.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $53.95 and a fifty-two week high of $86.10. The stock has a market cap of $158.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.80, a P/E/G ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.56.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The utilities provider reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.05. NextEra Energy had a net margin of 26.49% and a return on equity of 11.94%. The firm had revenue of $7.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.11 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.94 earnings per share. NextEra Energy’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NextEra Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be issued a dividend of $0.515 per share. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.67%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 60.95%.

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.