NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the eighteen analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twelve have given a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $91.9444.

A number of analysts have commented on NEE shares. UBS Group set a $91.00 price target on shares of NextEra Energy and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of NextEra Energy in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th. TD Cowen began coverage on NextEra Energy in a report on Thursday, October 16th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $98.00 target price for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on NextEra Energy from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Argus set a $90.00 price target on NextEra Energy in a report on Wednesday, October 29th.

NextEra Energy Price Performance

NextEra Energy stock opened at $85.09 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $82.23 and its 200 day moving average is $78.49. NextEra Energy has a one year low of $61.72 and a one year high of $87.53. The firm has a market cap of $177.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.55 and a quick ratio of 0.45.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.04 by $0.09. NextEra Energy had a net margin of 24.72% and a return on equity of 12.42%. The firm had revenue of $7.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.13 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.03 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that NextEra Energy will post 3.68 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Armando Pimentel, Jr. sold 145,140 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.91, for a total transaction of $12,178,697.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 162,693 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,651,569.63. This represents a 47.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NextEra Energy

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in NextEra Energy during the 2nd quarter valued at $2,375,545,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of NextEra Energy by 2.7% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 212,877,021 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $14,777,923,000 after acquiring an additional 5,554,603 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of NextEra Energy by 1,765.3% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 3,968,305 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $299,567,000 after acquiring an additional 3,755,563 shares in the last quarter. Danica Pension Livsforsikringsaktieselskab acquired a new stake in shares of NextEra Energy in the 3rd quarter worth about $177,198,000. Finally, Amundi lifted its position in NextEra Energy by 16.7% in the 3rd quarter. Amundi now owns 12,461,783 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,012,129,000 after acquiring an additional 1,780,881 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

NextEra Energy Company Profile

NextEra Energy, Inc (NYSE: NEE), headquartered in Juno Beach, Florida, is a leading clean energy company with both regulated utility operations and competitive renewable generation businesses. The company’s principal operating subsidiaries include Florida Power & Light Company (FPL), a regulated electric utility serving customers in Florida, and NextEra Energy Resources, which develops, constructs, owns and operates a large portfolio of wind, solar and energy storage projects. Together these businesses provide electricity supply, transmission and distribution services as well as utility-scale renewable generation and related services.

NextEra’s activities cover the full lifecycle of power assets, from project development and construction to operation, maintenance and asset optimization.