Cypress Capital Group Reduces Stock Position in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Cypress Capital Group lowered its stake in shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 10.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 40,686 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 4,757 shares during the period. Cypress Capital Group’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $2,917,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its position in shares of NextEra Energy by 14.7% during the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 45,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,267,000 after acquiring an additional 5,831 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position 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 worth $634,703,000 after acquiring an additional 1,525,436 shares in the last quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC lifted its position in shares of NextEra Energy by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,823,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $130,714,000 after acquiring an additional 41,328 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank lifted its position in shares of NextEra Energy by 0.4% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 6,098,200 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $515,481,000 after acquiring an additional 21,400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank lifted its position in shares of NextEra Energy by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 445,870 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,964,000 after acquiring an additional 27,340 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO James Michael May sold 2,383 shares of NextEra Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.09, for a total transaction of $162,258.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,427 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,867,504.43. This trade represents a 7.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on NEE. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on NextEra Energy from $84.00 to $79.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on NextEra Energy from $92.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on NextEra Energy from $99.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Monday, January 27th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on NextEra Energy from $82.00 to $84.00 in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased 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 equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NextEra Energy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $85.85.

NextEra Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NEE opened at $70.85 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 0.47 and a quick ratio of 0.38. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $54.95 and a one year high of $86.10. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $70.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $76.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $145.74 billion, a PE ratio of 21.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.58.

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

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.5665 per share. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.20%. This is a positive change from NextEra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 67.06%.

NextEra Energy 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.