Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. Acquires Shares of 11,042 NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new position in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 11,042 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $792,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of NEE. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of NextEra Energy during the 4th quarter worth $3,484,197,000. Boston Partners bought a new stake in NextEra Energy in the fourth quarter worth about $244,169,000. Amundi boosted its stake in NextEra Energy by 49.8% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 9,543,552 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $676,008,000 after acquiring an additional 3,172,405 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of NextEra Energy by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 205,297,225 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $14,717,758,000 after acquiring an additional 2,090,538 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 20.9% during the 4th 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 last quarter. 78.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Scotiabank upped their price objective on NextEra Energy from $92.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $89.00 price objective on shares of NextEra Energy in a report on Thursday, March 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of NextEra Energy from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of NextEra Energy from $81.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of NextEra Energy from $95.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Eight equities research 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.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $85.92.

NextEra Energy Price Performance

NextEra Energy stock opened at $70.44 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $144.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.90, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $70.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $75.19. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $61.31 and a 52 week high of $86.10.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.53. NextEra Energy had a net margin of 28.06% and a return on equity of 11.85%. On average, research analysts forecast that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th were issued a dividend of $0.5665 per share. This is an increase from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.22%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. NextEra Energy’s payout ratio is currently 67.06%.

Insider Activity at NextEra Energy

In other NextEra Energy news, CAO James Michael May sold 2,383 shares of NextEra Energy stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.09, for a total transaction of $162,258.47. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,427 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,867,504.43. The trade was a 7.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.