Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Grows Position in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 2.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 13,630,784 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 345,999 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $977,191,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of NEE. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in NextEra Energy by 20.9% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,833,725 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $634,703,000 after purchasing an additional 1,525,436 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in NextEra Energy by 167.7% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 2,186,225 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $184,795,000 after purchasing an additional 1,369,689 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its position in NextEra Energy by 13,375.2% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 946,231 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $67,835,000 after purchasing an additional 939,209 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in NextEra Energy by 2.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 42,418,748 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,571,650,000 after purchasing an additional 820,704 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in NextEra Energy by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 14,523,786 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,041,210,000 after purchasing an additional 588,038 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO James Michael May sold 2,383 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.09, for a total value of $162,258.47. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,427 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,867,504.43. This represents a 7.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on NEE shares. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of NextEra Energy from $84.00 to $79.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of NextEra Energy from $82.00 to $84.00 in a research report on Monday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of NextEra Energy from $99.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of NextEra Energy from $81.00 to $77.00 in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of NextEra Energy from $92.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $85.85.

NextEra Energy Trading Up 2.1 %

NYSE NEE opened at $71.64 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $70.42 and its 200-day moving average price is $76.25. The company has a current ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20. The stock has a market cap of $147.37 billion, a PE ratio of 21.26, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.58. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $53.95 and a 12 month high of $86.10.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53. NextEra Energy had a net margin of 28.06% and a return on equity of 11.85%. Equities research analysts forecast that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.68 earnings per share for the current year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a $0.5665 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This is a positive change from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.16%. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 67.06%.

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.