Salem Investment Counselors Inc. Buys 1,263 Shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Salem Investment Counselors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 67,838 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,263 shares during the quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc.’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $4,863,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in NextEra Energy by 20.9% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,833,725 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $634,703,000 after purchasing an additional 1,525,436 shares during the period. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd grew its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 2.2% in the third quarter. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd now owns 1,216,077 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $102,495,000 after acquiring an additional 26,270 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank grew its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 0.4% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 6,098,200 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $515,481,000 after acquiring an additional 21,400 shares during the last quarter. Dillon & Associates Inc. grew its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 16.0% in the third quarter. Dillon & Associates Inc. now owns 59,320 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,042,000 after acquiring an additional 8,184 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ST Germain D J Co. Inc. grew its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 171,735 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,312,000 after acquiring an additional 9,425 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NEE has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of NextEra Energy from $92.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective 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. Dbs Bank cut NextEra Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on NextEra Energy from $95.00 to $94.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Guggenheim raised their target price on NextEra Energy from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $87.15.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NextEra Energy news, EVP Nicole J. Daggs sold 4,007 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.57, for a total value of $302,808.99. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,193,401.44. This represents a 20.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

NextEra Energy Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of NEE traded down $0.96 on Monday, hitting $66.42. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 8,087,119 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,343,904. 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’s fifty day moving average price is $74.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $77.32. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $53.95 and a fifty-two week high of $86.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $136.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.58.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last released its 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 for 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 quarterly revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.94 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.41 EPS for the current year.

NextEra Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.515 per share. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.10%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 22nd. NextEra Energy’s payout ratio is presently 60.95%.

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.