TD Cowen Upgrades NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) to “Strong-Buy”

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) was upgraded by investment analysts at TD Cowen to a “strong-buy” rating in a report released on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on NEE. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $95.00 price target (down from $96.00) on shares of NextEra Energy in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. New Street Research set a $84.00 price target on shares of NextEra Energy in a research report on Monday. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of NextEra Energy in a research report on Tuesday. Melius Research upgraded shares of NextEra Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of NextEra Energy from $65.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $86.40.

NextEra Energy Price Performance

NextEra Energy stock opened at $85.00 on Wednesday. NextEra Energy has a 12-month low of $61.72 and a 12-month high of $86.74. The stock has a market cap of $175.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.72, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $75.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $72.13. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last announced its quarterly 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. NextEra Energy had a net margin of 22.84% and a return on equity of 12.31%. The business had revenue of $6.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.52 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.96 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that NextEra Energy will post 3.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Robert Coffey sold 7,500 shares of NextEra Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.84, for a total value of $538,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 26,539 shares in the company, valued at $1,906,561.76. The trade was a 22.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Michael Dunne sold 10,000 shares of NextEra Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.79, for a total transaction of $707,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 62,064 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,393,510.56. This represents a 13.88% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 32,705 shares of company stock valued at $2,446,490. 0.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in NextEra Energy by 2.7% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 212,877,021 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $14,777,923,000 after acquiring an additional 5,554,603 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in NextEra Energy by 1.2% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 45,724,229 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,161,774,000 after acquiring an additional 526,996 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in NextEra Energy in the second quarter worth approximately $2,375,545,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in NextEra Energy by 1.1% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,353,245 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,655,512,000 after acquiring an additional 262,819 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of NextEra Energy by 6.7% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 21,269,146 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,507,770,000 after buying an additional 1,336,259 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

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.