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Reasons to Add NextEra Energy (NEE) to Your Portfolio Now

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NextEra Energy’s (NEE - Free Report) strong investment plan, robust renewable backlog, contributions from organic assets and strong infrastructure efficiently serving its expanding customer base are contributing to its strong performance.

Let’s focus on the factors that make this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock a strong investment pick at the moment. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Growth Projections

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2022 earnings per share (EPS) is pegged at $2.89, suggesting an increase of 13.3% from the year-ago reported figure. The bottom-line estimate has moved up 0.7% in the past 60 days.

The consensus mark for 2023 earnings is pegged at $3.13 per share, suggesting an 8.4% year-over-year increase. The bottom-line estimate has moved up 1% in the past 60 days.

Surprise History, Dividend Yield & Earnings Growth

NextEra Energy’s trailing four-quarter earnings surprise is 5.5%, on average.

NEE’s dividend yield is currently pegged at 2.2%, better than the Zacks S&P 500 Composite’s average of 1.8%.

The long-term (three to five years) earnings growth of the company is projected at 9.7%.

Regular Investments

NextEra Energy aims at investing $85 to $95 billion from 2022 through 2025 to strengthen its infrastructure to provide efficient power and energy services across various states.

NextEra Energy Resources, a unit of NextEra Energy, continues to work on its strategy of making a long-term investment in clean energy assets. The company expects to add 27 to 37 gigawatts of new renewables in the 2022-2025 period to the generation portfolio via clean energy investments.

Due to persistent renewable asset additions to the generation portfolio and execution across all business segments, NextEra Energy expects to witness a CAGR of more than 10% for EPS through 2025 from the 2021 reported adjusted EPS of $2.55.

ROE & Debt Management

Return on Equity (ROE) is a measure of a company’s financial performance and shows how it is utilizing its funds. NextEra Energy’s ROE is currently pegged at 12%, better than the industry’s average of 10.3%. This indicates that the company is utilizing its funds more efficiently than its peers.

NextEra Energy has been managing debt effectively and has top-tier credit ratings ranging from A- to Baa1 from all major rating agencies.

Its times interest earned (TIE) ratio at the second quarter-end was 4.2, better than 1.2 in the last reported quarter. The strong TIE ratio indicates that the firm will be able to meet debt obligations in the near future without difficulties.

Price Performance

Over the past six months, the stock has declined 9%, narrower than the industry’s decline of 21.4%.

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Other Stocks to Consider

Some other similar-ranked stocks from the Zacks Utility industry include Eversource Energy (ES - Free Report) , Alliant Energy Corporation (LNT - Free Report) and DTE Energy Company (DTE - Free Report) .

The long-term earnings growth of Eversource Energy, Alliant Energy and DTE Energy is projected at 6.3%, 6.1% and 6%, respectively.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2022 EPS of Eversource Energy, Alliant Energy and DTE Energy has moved up 6.5%, 6.5% and 0.7% year over year, respectively.

ES, LNT and DTE delivered average earnings surprises of 1%, 5.8% and 1%, respectively, in the last four quarters.

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