Donaldson Capital Management LLC Sells 18,783 Shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Donaldson Capital Management LLC reduced its stake in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 2.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 671,482 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 18,783 shares during the quarter. NextEra Energy makes up about 1.8% of Donaldson Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest holding. Donaldson Capital Management LLC’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $40,786,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Flputnam Investment Management Co. lifted its position in NextEra Energy by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Flputnam Investment Management Co. now owns 445,631 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,068,000 after acquiring an additional 6,721 shares in the last quarter. Capital Analysts LLC lifted its position in NextEra Energy by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Capital Analysts LLC now owns 32,400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,968,000 after acquiring an additional 816 shares in the last quarter. BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in NextEra Energy in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors lifted its position in NextEra Energy by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors now owns 16,832 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,022,000 after acquiring an additional 451 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Glassy Mountain Advisors Inc. bought a new position in NextEra Energy in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $222,000. 78.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Guggenheim upped their price objective on NextEra Energy from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. StockNews.com cut NextEra Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on NextEra Energy from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on NextEra Energy from $76.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and set a $67.00 price target (up from $65.00) on shares of NextEra Energy in a report on Friday, March 15th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $72.00.

NextEra Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:NEE traded down $0.33 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $62.75. The company had a trading volume of 11,146,114 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,825,646. 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 $128.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.48, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.51. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $47.15 and a 12-month high of $79.78. The company has a fifty day moving average of $59.19 and a two-hundred day moving average of $58.28.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.52 EPS 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.72 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.51 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 27th were given a dividend of $0.515 per share. This is a positive change from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.47. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 26th. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.28%. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.