Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 160,114 Shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its stake in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE - Free Report) by 2.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,656,964 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 160,114 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.28% of NextEra Energy worth $405,548,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 5,831 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 20.9% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,833,725 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $634,703,000 after purchasing an additional 1,525,436 shares during the period. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd increased its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd now owns 1,216,077 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $102,495,000 after purchasing an additional 26,270 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank increased its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 6,098,200 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $515,481,000 after purchasing an additional 21,400 shares during the period. Finally, Czech National Bank increased its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 27,340 shares during the period. 78.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on NEE. Scotiabank increased their price objective on NextEra Energy from $92.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on NextEra Energy from $84.00 to $79.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. Barclays increased their price target on NextEra Energy from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Guggenheim increased their price objective on NextEra Energy from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, NextEra Energy has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $85.85.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO James Michael May sold 2,383 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at $1,867,504.43. The trade was a 7.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.18% of the company's stock.

NextEra Energy Trading Up 1.5 %

NEE traded up $1.06 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $70.12. 9,339,386 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,303,559. 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, Inc. has a one year low of $53.95 and a one year high of $86.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $144.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.81, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.58. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $70.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $76.64.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share 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%. As a group, analysts forecast 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of $0.5665 per share. This is a positive change from NextEra Energy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.23%. NextEra Energy's payout ratio is 61.13%.

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.