Obermeyer Wealth Partners Invests $292,000 in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Obermeyer Wealth Partners purchased a new position in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 4,073 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $292,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in NextEra Energy in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Bellwether Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of NextEra Energy in the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of NextEra Energy in the 4th quarter worth about $33,000. Luken Investment Analytics LLC purchased a new stake in NextEra Energy in the fourth quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, Midwest Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in NextEra Energy in the fourth quarter worth approximately $44,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

NextEra Energy Stock Up 3.5%

Shares of NYSE NEE opened at $72.12 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $68.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $71.39. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $61.72 and a 12 month high of $86.10. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $148.47 billion, a PE ratio of 21.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.69.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.99 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99. The firm had revenue of $6.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.58 billion. NextEra Energy had a net margin of 28.06% and a return on equity of 11.85%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.91 EPS. Equities analysts expect that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.68 earnings per share for the current year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were given a dividend of $0.5665 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. This is a positive change from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.14%. NextEra Energy’s payout ratio is currently 84.64%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Charles E. Sieving sold 23,684 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total transaction of $1,657,880.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 196,817 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,777,190. The trade was a 10.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO James Michael May sold 2,383 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,867,504.43. This represents a 7.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on NEE. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of NextEra Energy from $84.00 to $77.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of NextEra Energy from $102.00 to $97.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of NextEra Energy from $73.00 to $65.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on NextEra Energy from $84.00 to $79.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Erste Group Bank cut NextEra Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $83.46.

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.