NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.52

NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, July 25th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 30th will be paid a dividend of 0.515 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.81%.

NextEra Energy has increased its dividend by an average of 10.1% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 30 years. NextEra Energy has a payout ratio of 55.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect NextEra Energy to earn $3.68 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.06 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 56.0%.

NextEra Energy Stock Down 2.6 %

Shares of NYSE NEE traded down $1.97 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $73.44. 13,784,994 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,754,760. The company’s fifty day moving average is $74.00 and its two-hundred day moving average is $65.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.51. NextEra Energy has a fifty-two week low of $47.15 and a fifty-two week high of $80.47. The stock has a market cap of $150.88 billion, a PE ratio of 20.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.54.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.03. NextEra Energy had a return on equity of 11.72% and a net margin of 27.62%. The company had revenue of $6.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.29 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.88 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that NextEra Energy will post 3.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of NextEra Energy from $61.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded NextEra Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on NextEra Energy from $76.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of NextEra Energy from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of NextEra Energy from $74.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.79.

NextEra Energy Company 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.