Smith Salley Wealth Management Has $24.61 Million Stock Position in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Smith Salley Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 3.6% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 291,142 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 10,150 shares during the period. NextEra Energy makes up about 1.6% of Smith Salley Wealth Management’s holdings, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Smith Salley Wealth Management’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $24,610,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of NEE. Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in NextEra Energy by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 21,298,642 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,508,155,000 after buying an additional 143,748 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 9.2% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 8,178,185 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $579,097,000 after buying an additional 691,341 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in NextEra Energy by 22.3% in the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 6,961,556 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $443,834,000 after purchasing an additional 1,268,900 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates boosted its position in NextEra Energy by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 6,809,093 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $575,573,000 after buying an additional 851,873 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 7.2% during the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 6,100,348 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $431,966,000 after purchasing an additional 409,708 shares during the period. 78.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NEE has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of NextEra Energy from $87.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Dbs Bank lowered shares of NextEra Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Bank of America increased their price target on NextEra Energy from $77.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Guggenheim upped their target price on NextEra Energy from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of NextEra Energy from $91.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NextEra Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $86.54.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Nicole J. Daggs sold 658 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.97, for a total value of $50,646.26. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,697. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

NextEra Energy Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of NEE stock opened at $81.43 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $82.36 and a 200 day moving average of $76.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.49 and a quick ratio of 0.41. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $53.81 and a 1-year high of $86.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $167.37 billion, a PE ratio of 26.44, a P/E/G ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.56.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The utilities provider reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.05. NextEra Energy had a return on equity of 11.75% and a net margin of 24.45%. The firm had revenue of $7.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.11 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.94 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.4 earnings per share for the current year.

NextEra Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a $0.515 dividend. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. NextEra Energy’s payout ratio is 66.88%.

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.