Sapient Capital LLC Purchases New Shares in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Sapient Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 42,087 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,556,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in NextEra Energy during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp increased its stake in NextEra Energy by 59.8% during 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 period. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. lifted its position in shares of NextEra Energy by 315.4% during the 4th quarter. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. now owns 540 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 410 shares during the period. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NextEra Energy during the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Rakuten Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of NextEra Energy in the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on NEE shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of NextEra Energy from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on NextEra Energy from $77.00 to $79.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Bank of America boosted their price target on NextEra Energy from $61.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Barclays started coverage on NextEra Energy in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $66.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of NextEra Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, NextEra Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $71.50.

NextEra Energy Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE:NEE traded up $1.29 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $70.14. The company had a trading volume of 12,687,503 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,442,457. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.43. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $47.15 and a one year high of $78.53. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $62.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $59.58. The company has a market capitalization of $144.10 billion, a PE ratio of 19.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.50.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 27.62% and a return on equity of 11.72%. The firm had revenue of $5.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.84 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 14.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.4 EPS for the current year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 27th were issued a $0.515 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 26th. This represents a $2.06 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.94%. This is a positive change from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.47. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 56.13%.

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.