Sanctuary Advisors LLC Reduces Holdings in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Sanctuary Advisors LLC lowered its holdings in shares of NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE - Free Report) by 9.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 460,821 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 49,559 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC's holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $32,857,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in NextEra Energy by 2.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 42,418,748 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $3,571,650,000 after purchasing an additional 820,704 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in NextEra Energy by 0.7% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,284,785 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,122,963,000 after purchasing an additional 86,758 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 1,525,436 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in NextEra Energy by 5.5% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 8,630,775 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $729,559,000 after purchasing an additional 452,590 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank grew its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 21,400 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.72% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on NEE shares. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on NextEra Energy from $84.00 to $79.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Barclays raised their price objective on NextEra Energy from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on NextEra Energy from $92.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Guggenheim raised their price objective on NextEra Energy from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on NextEra Energy from $99.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $85.85.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 sale, 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

NextEra Energy Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of NEE stock traded up $1.06 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $70.12. The company had a trading volume of 9,339,386 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,303,559. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $53.95 and a 12 month high of $86.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 0.47 and a quick ratio of 0.38. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $70.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of $76.64. The company has a market cap of $144.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.58.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.53. NextEra Energy had a return on equity of 11.85% and a net margin of 28.06%. On average, research analysts expect that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NextEra Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.5665 per share. This is a positive change from NextEra Energy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.23%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. NextEra Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 61.13%.

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.