Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Has $2.18 Million Stock Holdings in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its position in shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 21.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 30,428 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,369 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $2,181,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in NEE. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 20.9% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,833,725 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $634,703,000 after acquiring an additional 1,525,436 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI increased its holdings in NextEra Energy by 167.7% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 2,186,225 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $184,795,000 after purchasing an additional 1,369,689 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in NextEra Energy by 2.0% in the third 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 holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 588,038 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RWC Asset Management LLP increased its holdings in NextEra Energy by 313.0% in the fourth quarter. RWC Asset Management LLP now owns 673,317 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $48,270,000 after purchasing an additional 510,302 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at NextEra Energy

In other news, CAO James Michael May sold 2,383 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.09, for a total value of $162,258.47. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,427 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,867,504.43. This trade represents a 7.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on NEE. Scotiabank upped their price objective on NextEra Energy from $92.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on NextEra Energy from $84.00 to $79.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 27th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on NextEra Energy from $81.00 to $77.00 in a report on Monday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on NextEra Energy from $99.00 to $90.00 in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on NextEra Energy from $93.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Eight investment 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 price target of $85.85.

NextEra Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE NEE opened at $70.17 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $70.44 and a 200 day moving average price of $76.32. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $53.95 and a 52 week high of $86.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $144.34 billion, a PE ratio of 20.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.58.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.53. NextEra Energy had a return on equity of 11.85% and a net margin of 28.06%. Analysts predict that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of $0.5665 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This is a boost from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.23%. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 67.06%.

NextEra Energy Company Profile

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.