West Oak Capital LLC Lowers Holdings in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

West Oak Capital LLC decreased its holdings in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 0.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 54,583 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 185 shares during the quarter. NextEra Energy makes up 1.6% of West Oak Capital LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 14th biggest holding. West Oak Capital LLC’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $3,332,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of NEE. Wimmer Associates 1 LLC increased its position in shares of NextEra Energy by 3.6% during the first quarter. Wimmer Associates 1 LLC now owns 3,935 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $305,000 after acquiring an additional 135 shares in the last quarter. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in NextEra Energy by 2.1% in the first quarter. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,669 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $514,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. Baldwin Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in NextEra Energy by 0.4% in the first quarter. Baldwin Investment Management LLC now owns 35,437 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,731,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Greenfield Savings Bank lifted its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 0.5% during 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Barnes Pettey Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake 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 last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on NEE. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of NextEra Energy from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. StockNews.com lowered NextEra Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, February 19th. Citigroup started coverage on NextEra Energy in a research note on Friday, December 8th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $69.00 price objective on the stock. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on NextEra Energy from $76.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $74.00 price target on shares of NextEra Energy in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $72.46.

NextEra Energy Stock Up 0.2 %

NYSE NEE traded up $0.12 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $63.91. 2,487,989 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,900,659. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $47.15 and a 52 week high of $79.78. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $57.72 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 0.55 and a quick ratio of 0.47. The company has a market cap of $131.17 billion, a PE ratio of 17.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.50.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $5.72 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.51 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.44 earnings per share for the current year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 27th were given a $0.515 dividend. This is a positive change from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.47. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 26th. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.22%. NextEra Energy’s payout ratio is presently 57.06%.

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.