ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its stake in shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 1.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 22,874 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 242 shares during the quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $1,389,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NEE. Wimmer Associates 1 LLC grew its position in NextEra Energy by 3.6% in the 1st quarter. Wimmer Associates 1 LLC now owns 3,935 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $305,000 after purchasing an additional 135 shares during the last quarter. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in NextEra Energy by 2.1% during the first quarter. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,669 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $514,000 after purchasing an additional 139 shares during the period. Baldwin Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Baldwin Investment Management LLC now owns 35,437 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,731,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the period. Greenfield Savings Bank raised its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Greenfield Savings Bank now owns 32,220 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,957,000 after buying an additional 163 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barnes Pettey Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of NextEra Energy by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Barnes Pettey Financial Advisors LLC now owns 10,181 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $851,000 after buying an additional 169 shares during the period. 78.72% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NEE has been the topic of several analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of NextEra Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on NextEra Energy from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on NextEra Energy from $77.00 to $68.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Barclays started coverage on NextEra Energy in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $66.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Mizuho restated a “buy” rating and issued a $67.00 target price (up from $65.00) on shares of NextEra Energy in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NextEra Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $71.36.

NextEra Energy Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE:NEE traded up $0.29 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $64.30. The company had a trading volume of 13,419,416 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,694,062. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market cap of $131.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.51. The business’s fifty day moving average is $59.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $58.51. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $47.15 and a fifty-two week high of $79.78.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.03. NextEra Energy had a return on equity of 11.73% and a net margin of 26.00%. The firm had revenue of $6.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.72 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.51 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.4 earnings per share for the current year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 27th were paid a $0.515 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 26th. This is a positive change from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.47. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.20%. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 57.06%.

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.