Argus Investors Counsel Inc. Decreases Holdings in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Argus Investors Counsel Inc. decreased its position in shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 32.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,663 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 6,623 shares during the period. Argus Investors Counsel Inc.’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $1,155,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of NEE. M&G Plc purchased a new position in shares of NextEra Energy in the first quarter worth $303,065,000. Zimmer Partners LP raised its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 8,447.5% in the first quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 2,735,200 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $174,807,000 after buying an additional 2,703,200 shares during the last quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 400.7% in the first quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 2,812,198 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $179,728,000 after buying an additional 2,250,500 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 57.0% in the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 5,957,220 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $421,831,000 after buying an additional 2,163,437 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LGT Group Foundation raised its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 962.8% in the second quarter. LGT Group Foundation now owns 1,514,482 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $107,240,000 after buying an additional 1,371,982 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

NEE has been the topic of a number of research reports. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of NextEra Energy from $77.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of NextEra Energy from $91.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of NextEra Energy from $73.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of NextEra Energy from $69.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of NextEra Energy from $76.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $85.46.

NextEra Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:NEE traded down $0.08 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $83.95. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,159,385 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,728,063. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.49. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $81.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $75.76. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $50.95 and a 12-month high of $86.10. The company has a market cap of $172.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.56.

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

NextEra Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.515 per share. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.13%.

NextEra Energy 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.