West Family Investments Inc. Takes Position in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

West Family Investments Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 6,475 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $393,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of NEE. BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in shares of NextEra Energy in the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp grew its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 59.8% in the 3rd quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp now owns 556 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 208 shares during the last quarter. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. grew its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 315.4% in the 4th quarter. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. now owns 540 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 410 shares during the last quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of NextEra Energy in the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Rakuten Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of NextEra Energy in the 4th quarter worth $34,000. 78.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on NEE. Bank of America lifted their target price on NextEra Energy from $61.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on NextEra Energy from $77.00 to $79.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Guggenheim lifted their price target on NextEra Energy from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $74.00 price target on shares of NextEra Energy in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, 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, April 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $71.50.

NextEra Energy Stock Down 0.8 %

NYSE NEE traded down $0.55 on Thursday, reaching $68.06. The stock had a trading volume of 4,186,933 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,796,059. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $61.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $59.41. The company has a current ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $47.15 and a 1 year high of $78.53. The company has a market capitalization of $139.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.50.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $5.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.28 billion. NextEra Energy had a return on equity of 11.72% and a net margin of 27.62%. The firm’s revenue was down 14.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.84 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.4 EPS for the current fiscal 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 dividend of $0.515 per share. This represents a $2.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 26th. This is an increase from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.47. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 56.13%.

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.