Covea Finance Reduces Stock Position in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Covea Finance cut its position in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 15.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 106,675 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 20,187 shares during the period. Covea Finance’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $7,648,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of NEE. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 8,641.5% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,861,208 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $326,388,000 after acquiring an additional 3,817,037 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in NextEra Energy by 4,058.2% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,366,795 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $200,065,000 after purchasing an additional 2,309,876 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in NextEra Energy by 20.9% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 167.7% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 2,186,225 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $184,795,000 after purchasing an additional 1,369,689 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James & Associates lifted 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 purchasing an additional 851,873 shares during the period. 78.72% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at NextEra Energy

In related news, EVP Nicole J. Daggs sold 4,007 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.57, for a total value of $302,808.99. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,792 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,193,401.44. This represents a 20.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NEE has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. 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 report on Friday, October 25th. Royal Bank of Canada cut NextEra Energy from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Dbs Bank lowered NextEra Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim upped their target price on NextEra Energy from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of NextEra Energy from $92.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NextEra Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $87.15.

NextEra Energy Trading Up 1.5 %

NEE opened at $67.98 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $139.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.58. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $73.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $77.26. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $53.95 and a 1-year high of $86.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 0.41 and a quick ratio of 0.33.

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

NextEra Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.515 per share. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.03%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 22nd. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.