EP Wealth Advisors LLC Grows Stake in NextEra Energy Partners, LP (NYSE:NEP)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in NextEra Energy Partners, LP (NYSE:NEP) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 325,612 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,325 shares during the quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in NextEra Energy Partners were worth $9,902,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. CWM LLC grew its stake in shares of NextEra Energy Partners by 160.2% during the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 830 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 511 shares in the last quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in NextEra Energy Partners during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Heritage Wealth Advisors purchased a new stake in NextEra Energy Partners during the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its position in shares of NextEra Energy Partners by 60.2% in the 3rd quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,208 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 454 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CI Investments Inc. boosted its stake in shares of NextEra Energy Partners by 1,418.2% during the 3rd quarter. CI Investments Inc. now owns 1,837 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 1,716 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on NEP. Raymond James cut their price objective on NextEra Energy Partners from $50.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $25.00 target price on shares of NextEra Energy Partners in a research note on Thursday, May 23rd. Marathon Capitl restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of NextEra Energy Partners in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. StockNews.com raised shares of NextEra Energy Partners to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Barclays cut shares of NextEra Energy Partners from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $25.00 in a report on Thursday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.79.

NextEra Energy Partners Price Performance

NEP traded down $0.93 during trading on Friday, reaching $27.95. The stock had a trading volume of 2,054,962 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,400,193. NextEra Energy Partners, LP has a 1-year low of $20.17 and a 1-year high of $63.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.16 and a beta of 1.07. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $30.92 and a two-hundred day moving average of $29.33. The company has a quick ratio of 1.31, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

NextEra Energy Partners (NYSE:NEP) last announced its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The solar energy provider reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.63. NextEra Energy Partners had a negative return on equity of 0.48% and a net margin of 23.55%. The business had revenue of $257.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $331.78 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.17) earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that NextEra Energy Partners, LP will post 1.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NextEra Energy Partners Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 7th were given a $0.8925 dividend. This is a positive change from NextEra Energy Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 6th. This represents a $3.57 annualized dividend and a yield of 12.77%. NextEra Energy Partners’s payout ratio is 117.05%.

NextEra Energy Partners Profile

NextEra Energy Partners, LP acquires, owns, and manages contracted clean energy projects in the United States. It owns a portfolio of contracted renewable generation assets consisting of wind, solar, and battery storage projects. The company owns contracted natural gas pipeline assets. NextEra Energy Partners, LP was incorporated in 2014 and is based in Juno Beach, Florida.