Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Sells 7,913 Shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System decreased its position in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 6.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 110,680 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 7,913 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $7,935,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in NextEra Energy by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 42,418,748 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,571,650,000 after purchasing an additional 820,704 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 14,523,786 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,041,210,000 after buying an additional 588,038 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,630,784 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $977,191,000 after buying an additional 345,999 shares during the last quarter. Amundi lifted its position in NextEra Energy by 49.8% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 9,543,552 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $676,008,000 after buying an additional 3,172,405 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 1,525,436 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on NEE. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of NextEra Energy from $81.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on NextEra Energy from $84.00 to $79.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on NextEra Energy from $82.00 to $84.00 in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Scotiabank upped their price target 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on NextEra Energy from $93.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $85.92.

NextEra Energy Trading Down 2.1 %

NYSE:NEE opened at $70.63 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $60.26 and a 1-year high of $86.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $145.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.96, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.58. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $70.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $75.70.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53. NextEra Energy had a net margin of 28.06% and a return on equity of 11.85%. On average, equities analysts expect that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.68 earnings per share for the current year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th were given a dividend of $0.5665 per share. This represents a $2.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.21%. This is a boost from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 67.06%.

Insider Activity

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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,427 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,867,504.43. The trade was a 7.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company 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.