Leavell Investment Management Inc. Grows Position in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Leavell Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 1.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,178 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 220 shares during the period. Leavell Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $1,367,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Intech Investment Management LLC grew its stake in NextEra Energy by 35.7% during the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 100,308 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,411,000 after purchasing an additional 26,382 shares during the last quarter. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd now owns 1,216,077 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $102,495,000 after buying an additional 26,270 shares during the period. Ancora Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 10.6% in the first quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 79,994 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,112,000 after buying an additional 7,677 shares during the last quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 1,224.3% in the second quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC now owns 72,453 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,130,000 after buying an additional 66,982 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in NextEra Energy by 57.0% during the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 5,957,220 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $421,831,000 after acquiring an additional 2,163,437 shares during the period. 78.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on NEE shares. Guggenheim upped their price objective on NextEra Energy from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of NextEra Energy from $91.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of NextEra Energy from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of NextEra Energy from $83.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on NextEra Energy from $77.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, NextEra Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $86.54.

NextEra Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE NEE opened at $76.97 on Friday. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $53.81 and a 52 week high of $86.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $158.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a quick ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $82.05 and a 200-day simple moving average of $77.11.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The utilities provider reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $7.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.11 billion. NextEra Energy had a return on equity of 11.94% and a net margin of 26.49%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.94 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NextEra Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.515 per share. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 60.95%.

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.