New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 313,434 Shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

New York State Common Retirement Fund reduced its position in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 10.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,609,696 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 313,434 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $158,513,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of NEE. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 1.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 198,430,172 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $11,368,065,000 after acquiring an additional 1,956,153 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 2.0% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 22,982,250 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,316,653,000 after acquiring an additional 455,271 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 1.5% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,352,695 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $593,106,000 after acquiring an additional 148,674 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 2.4% during the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 9,026,464 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $517,126,000 after acquiring an additional 209,584 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 59.1% during the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 5,784,080 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $337,096,000 after acquiring an additional 2,148,205 shares during the period. 78.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NextEra Energy Stock Up 2.3 %

Shares of NYSE:NEE traded up $1.53 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $66.84. 6,924,822 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,843,248. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $47.15 and a 52 week high of $79.25. The company has a current ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The company has a market cap of $137.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $60.04 and a 200-day moving average price of $58.72.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.11. NextEra Energy had a return on equity of 11.73% and a net margin of 26.00%. The business had revenue of $5.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.84 EPS. NextEra Energy’s revenue for the quarter was down 14.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 27th were issued a dividend of $0.515 per share. This represents a $2.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 26th. This is a boost from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.47. NextEra Energy’s payout ratio is 57.06%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on NEE shares. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on NextEra Energy from $77.00 to $68.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Mizuho reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $67.00 price target (up from $65.00) on shares of NextEra Energy in a report on Friday, March 15th. Scotiabank lifted their price target on NextEra Energy from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $74.00 price target on shares of NextEra Energy in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, StockNews.com raised NextEra Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NextEra Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $69.93.

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.