First Pacific Financial Increases Stock Position in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

First Pacific Financial grew its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 8,885 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 177 shares during the quarter. First Pacific Financial’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $540,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. United Bank grew its holdings in NextEra Energy by 9.8% during the 1st quarter. United Bank now owns 9,966 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $844,000 after purchasing an additional 891 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management grew its stake in NextEra Energy by 9.2% in the 1st quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 32,180 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,726,000 after acquiring an additional 2,700 shares in the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. grew its stake in NextEra Energy by 11.2% in the 1st quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 15,731 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,333,000 after acquiring an additional 1,587 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd grew its stake in NextEra Energy by 59.1% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 878 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $74,000 after acquiring an additional 326 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ergoteles LLC bought a new position in NextEra Energy in the 1st quarter worth about $793,000. 78.72% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of NextEra Energy from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. StockNews.com cut shares of NextEra Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, February 19th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of NextEra Energy from $76.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of NextEra Energy from $65.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 29th. Finally, Guggenheim increased their target price on shares of NextEra Energy from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $72.46.

NextEra Energy Price Performance

NextEra Energy stock opened at $63.79 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $130.92 billion, a PE ratio of 17.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.50. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $47.15 and a 52-week high of $79.78. The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The company’s 50 day moving average is $57.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $58.58.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $6.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.72 billion. NextEra Energy had a net margin of 26.00% and a return on equity of 11.73%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.51 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 27th were paid a dividend of $0.515 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 26th. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.23%. This is a boost from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.47. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 57.06%.

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.