NextEra Energy resumes upward trend after pullback in utilities
The utilities sector got hit with some selling pressure in the first part of November as investors were in risk-on mode and abandoned the safety of the sector. Almost all stocks in the sector fell in the first few weeks of November. One company that dropped was NextEra Energy (NYSE: NEE), but in its case, the loss was bigger than some of the other stocks.
From the end of October through November 8, NextEra dropped 6.82% while the Utilities Select Sector SPDR (NYSE:XLU) fell 3.89%. This seems a little odd because NextEra is the number one rated stock in Investor's Business Daily's electric utilities group.
The company has seen its earnings grow by 11% per year over the last three years and they were up 10% last quarter. Sales have increased by 3% per year over the last three years and they jumped 26% in the third quarter. The company boasts a profit margin of 24.1% and a return on equity of 11.8%.
While the earnings growth, sales growth, and management efficiency ratings aren't great compared to other companies in other industries, but within the utilities sector these statistics are really good.
The stats above aren't the only ones that are solid. Looking at the Tickeron Fundamental Analysis overview, the Tickeron Profit vs. Risk Rating is a 1 and that is the best reading a company can get. It indicates low risk on high returns. The average Profit vs. Risk Rating for the industry is 53, placing this stock well above average.
Another really good rating is the PE Growth Rating. NextEra's rating is 5, pointing to outstanding earnings growth. The PE Growth rating is based on a comparative analysis of stock PE ratio increase over the last 12 months compared against S&P 500 index constituents.
The Tickeron Valuation Rating of 46 indicates that the company is fair valued in the industry. A rating of 1 points to the most undervalued stocks, while a rating of 100 points to the most overvalued stocks. This rating compares market capitalization estimated by our proprietary formula with the current market capitalization.
Turning our attention to the technical picture for NextEra, we see on the daily chart that the stock has been trending higher over the past year with a well-formed trend channel. The recent pullback brought the stock down to and below the lower rail, but the stock has bounced back in the last few days.
The daily overbought/oversold indicators dropped in to oversold territory on the pullback and it was the first time since last December that both indicators had been oversold.
If we step a little further and look at a weekly chart of the stock, we see a stock that has been trending higher for a long time now. The stock was in a trend channel from the end of 2016 through the end of 2018, but the rally took it to a new level in 2019. We see how the trajectory of the rally changed and became much steeper.
Looking at the sentiment toward NextEra, analysts are extremely bullish on the stock with 14 "buy" ratings, one "hold" rating, and one "sell" rating. This puts the buy percentage at 87.5% and that is well above average. The short interest ratio is at 3.5 and that is a little higher than average, but not terribly high.
The fundamentals for NextEra are really good and the technical picture looks really good as well. The extreme bullishness from analysts is a little concerning, but it seems to be warranted in this case.
