Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Increases Holdings in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System boosted its position in shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 1.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 157,607 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,678 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $9,573,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Greenfield Savings Bank boosted its position in NextEra Energy by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Greenfield Savings Bank now owns 32,220 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,957,000 after acquiring an additional 163 shares during the last quarter. Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 22.7% in the 4th quarter. Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC now owns 930 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 172 shares during the last quarter. MKT Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. MKT Advisors LLC now owns 6,233 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $387,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the last quarter. Meritage Portfolio Management boosted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Meritage Portfolio Management now owns 4,701 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $269,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Pacific Financial boosted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. First Pacific Financial now owns 8,885 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $540,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares during the last quarter. 78.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NEE has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of NextEra Energy from $72.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of NextEra Energy from $67.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of NextEra Energy from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of NextEra Energy from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of NextEra Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NextEra Energy presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $71.93.

NextEra Energy Stock Performance

NextEra Energy stock traded up $0.38 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $71.63. 9,332,868 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,873,946. The company has a current ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $62.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $59.80. The firm has a market cap of $147.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.53, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.50. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $47.15 and a fifty-two week high of $78.53.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $5.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.28 billion. NextEra Energy had a net margin of 27.62% and a return on equity of 11.72%. NextEra Energy’s revenue was down 14.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.84 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.4 earnings per share for the current year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 27th were paid a $0.515 dividend. This is a positive change from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.47. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.88%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 26th. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.13%.

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.