Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. Makes New Investment in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm bought 462 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $39,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in NextEra Energy by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 21,298,642 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,508,155,000 after acquiring an additional 143,748 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 9.2% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 8,178,185 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $579,097,000 after acquiring an additional 691,341 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 22.3% during the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 6,961,556 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $443,834,000 after acquiring an additional 1,268,900 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 6,809,093 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $575,573,000 after acquiring an additional 851,873 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of NextEra Energy by 7.2% in the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 6,100,348 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $431,966,000 after buying an additional 409,708 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

NextEra Energy Stock Performance

NEE stock opened at $83.70 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.49 and a quick ratio of 0.41. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $82.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $75.89. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $50.95 and a fifty-two week high of $86.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $171.95 billion, a PE ratio of 22.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.56.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $6.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.29 billion. NextEra Energy had a net margin of 24.45% and a return on equity of 11.75%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.88 EPS. Analysts forecast that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.4 EPS for the current year.

NextEra Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a dividend of $0.515 per share. This represents a $2.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. NextEra Energy’s payout ratio is 56.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NextEra Energy

In other NextEra Energy news, EVP Nicole J. Daggs sold 658 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.97, for a total transaction of $50,646.26. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 100 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,697. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NEE has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Scotiabank raised their target price on NextEra Energy from $73.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on NextEra Energy from $83.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on NextEra Energy from $87.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Citigroup lifted their target price on NextEra Energy from $69.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Dbs Bank downgraded NextEra Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NextEra Energy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $85.46.

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.