Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Increases Holdings in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 15.4% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 57,691 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,713 shares during the quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $3,687,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System grew its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 2.3% during the first quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 161,176 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $10,133,000 after buying an additional 3,569 shares during the last quarter. Cohen Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 7.4% in the first quarter. Cohen Investment Advisors LLC now owns 31,746 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,029,000 after purchasing an additional 2,179 shares during the period. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC increased its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 5.3% in the first quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC now owns 94,340 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,029,000 after purchasing an additional 4,717 shares during the period. FORVIS Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 35.0% during the first quarter. FORVIS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 39,344 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,514,000 after purchasing an additional 10,195 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Everett Harris & Co. CA lifted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 1.8% during the first quarter. Everett Harris & Co. CA now owns 120,991 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,733,000 after purchasing an additional 2,122 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NEE has been the topic of several recent research reports. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of NextEra Energy from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of NextEra Energy from $69.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 27th. StockNews.com raised NextEra Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Barclays cut their target price on NextEra Energy from $74.00 to $73.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $95.00 price target on shares of NextEra Energy in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.57.

NextEra Energy Price Performance

NEE traded up $0.03 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $71.86. 2,190,648 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,831,469. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $73.63 and its 200 day moving average price is $64.73. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $47.15 and a 1-year high of $80.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $147.64 billion, a PE ratio of 19.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.54.

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 11.72% and a net margin of 27.62%. The business had revenue of $5.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.84 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 14.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NextEra Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.515 per share. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 3rd. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 56.13%.

NextEra Energy Company 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.