Polaris Capital Management LLC Sells 27,425 Shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. $NEE

Polaris Capital Management LLC reduced its stake in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) by 6.6% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 387,487 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 27,425 shares during the quarter. NextEra Energy makes up 1.8% of Polaris Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest position. Polaris Capital Management LLC’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $26,899,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in NEE. GQG Partners LLC increased its position in shares of NextEra Energy by 58.4% during the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 17,236,502 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,221,896,000 after acquiring an additional 6,352,798 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of NextEra Energy by 20.7% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 16,446,413 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,165,748,000 after acquiring an additional 2,815,629 shares in the last quarter. Amundi increased its position in shares of NextEra Energy by 27.8% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 12,200,990 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $878,447,000 after acquiring an additional 2,657,438 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of NextEra Energy by 1.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 207,322,418 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $14,697,086,000 after acquiring an additional 2,025,193 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners increased its position in shares of NextEra Energy by 55.3% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,300,839 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $374,639,000 after acquiring an additional 1,886,999 shares in the last quarter. 78.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Mizuho set a $78.00 target price on shares of NextEra Energy in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of NextEra Energy from $65.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of NextEra Energy in a report on Saturday, September 27th. HSBC cut their price target on shares of NextEra Energy from $88.00 to $86.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of NextEra Energy from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, NextEra Energy presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $84.08.

NextEra Energy Stock Up 2.5%

NEE opened at $80.12 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36. The stock has a market cap of $164.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.01, a PEG ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.66. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $61.72 and a twelve month high of $86.00. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $72.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $71.28.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The utilities provider reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $6.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.52 billion. NextEra Energy had a net margin of 22.84% and a return on equity of 12.31%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.96 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.68 earnings per share for the current year.

NextEra Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 28th were paid a dividend of $0.5665 per share. This represents a $2.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 28th. NextEra Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 79.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NextEra Energy

In related news, EVP Michael Dunne sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.79, for a total transaction of $707,900.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 62,064 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,393,510.56. This represents a 13.88% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Treasurer James Michael May sold 2,177 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.50, for a total transaction of $168,717.50. Following the sale, the treasurer owned 27,662 shares in the company, valued at $2,143,805. The trade was a 7.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 21,369 shares of company stock valued at $1,539,610. 0.20% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.