Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. Takes $792,000 Position in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. purchased a new position in shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 11,042 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $792,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Empowered Funds LLC grew its holdings in NextEra Energy by 14.7% during the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 45,566 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $3,267,000 after purchasing an additional 5,831 shares during the last quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,823,327 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $130,714,000 after buying an additional 41,328 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 20.9% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,833,725 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $634,703,000 after buying an additional 1,525,436 shares during the period. Czech National Bank grew its stake in NextEra Energy by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 445,870 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $31,964,000 after buying an additional 27,340 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ST Germain D J Co. Inc. raised its holdings in NextEra Energy by 5.8% in the 4th quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 171,735 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $12,312,000 after acquiring an additional 9,425 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 78.72% of the company's stock.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on NEE shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of NextEra Energy from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on NextEra Energy from $95.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Evercore ISI dropped their price target 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 upped their price target on NextEra Energy from $92.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of NextEra Energy from $81.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $85.92.

NextEra Energy Price Performance

Shares of NEE stock traded down $0.29 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $70.63. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,450,724 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,611,412. The firm's 50-day moving average is $70.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $74.90. The company has a market cap of $145.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.96, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.58. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $61.31 and a 1-year 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.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share (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, research analysts predict that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.68 earnings per share for the current year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were given a dividend of $0.5665 per share. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This is an increase from NextEra Energy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. NextEra Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 67.06%.

Insider Activity at NextEra Energy

In other NextEra Energy news, CAO James Michael May sold 2,383 shares of NextEra Energy stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,867,504.43. This trade represents a 7.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.18% of the stock is owned by 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.