Dillon & Associates Inc. Purchases 1,148 Shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Dillon & Associates Inc. boosted its stake in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 1.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 60,468 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,148 shares during the quarter. Dillon & Associates Inc.’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $4,354,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in NextEra Energy by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 205,297,225 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $14,717,758,000 after purchasing an additional 2,090,538 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in NextEra Energy by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 42,418,748 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,571,650,000 after purchasing an additional 820,704 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in NextEra Energy by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 14,523,786 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,041,210,000 after purchasing an additional 588,038 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in NextEra Energy by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,630,784 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $977,191,000 after purchasing an additional 345,999 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi boosted its stake in NextEra Energy by 49.8% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 9,543,552 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $676,008,000 after purchasing an additional 3,172,405 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on NEE shares. Scotiabank raised their price target on NextEra Energy from $92.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on NextEra Energy from $84.00 to $79.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on NextEra Energy from $81.00 to $77.00 in a report on Monday, January 27th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on NextEra Energy from $82.00 to $84.00 in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on NextEra Energy from $95.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NextEra Energy presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $85.92.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO James Michael May sold 2,383 shares of NextEra Energy 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,427 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,867,504.43. This trade represents a 7.99 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

NextEra Energy Price Performance

NEE opened at $70.92 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $70.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $75.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 0.47 and a quick ratio of 0.38. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $61.30 and a 1 year high of $86.10. The firm has a market cap of $145.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.04, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.58.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.53. NextEra Energy had a return on equity of 11.85% and a net margin of 28.06%. As a group, analysts predict that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.68 earnings per share for the current year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The business 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. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.20%. This is a positive change from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 67.06%.

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.