Casablanca, NEE, And SRE -- February 12, 2021

TCM tonight: Casablanca. Wow, every time I watch it, I see something new. What a great movie. 

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site.  Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. 

******************************
Investing
SRE vs NEE
Elevator Speech

This caught my eye tonight. Over at NASDAQ dividend announcements, the site had a "down" arrow for the newly announced dividend declaration for NEE, but when I checked, everything suggested that, in fact, the company increased its dividend over the previous quarter, which was accurate. The dividend was increased 10% from the previous quarter. 

Going back through the dividend history, NEE paid $1.40 / share one year ago, compared to 35 cents/share last quarter, and now 38.5 cents / share for holders or record, February 26, 2021. 

LATER: a reader said the dividend was decreased because the stock split 4 -1 , October 26, 2020, or thereabouts.That explains everything. In fact this utility has outpaced every other utility. This is an incredible story. See Motley Fool at these links:

• February 14, 2021; 
• December 29, 2020;
  

So, year-over-year, NEE's dividend is significantly lower (38.5 cents versus $1.40) -- and maybe that explains the down arrow, despite being up over the previous quarter. But it certainly was wrong. I've seen this before.

Whatever, it caught my attention.

Again, I don't follow utilities very closely, but I'm watching Casablanca and don't have much else to do, so thought this was a good time to compare NextEra Energy with my favorite public utility, Sempra Energy. 

Right, wrong, or indifferent, I see:

• NEE:
• great region to be a utility with few risks: Florida
• domestic focus
• heavily committed to wind and solar
• SRE:
• with huge operations in California, huge risks: litigation, regulation, fires, local antagonism to natural gas;
• heavily committed to natural gas
• cutting risk by taking interest in Texas
• a more international focus
  

Then at Yahoo!Finance (figures may be rounded):

• NEE:
• earnings date: late April, 2021
• market cap: $160 billion
• P/E: 55
• pays: 1.67% (at $1.40 was paying 5 - 7%)
• share price, over the past year: $45 - $90
• today: $85
• one year target: $90
• SRE:
• earnings date: Feb 25, 2021
• market cap: $36 billion
• P/E: 10
• pays: 3.32%
• share price, over the past year: $88 - $160
• today: $125
• one year target: $145

Yahoo!Finance considers share prices over-valued for both companies. 

This may be fascinating to watch. 

Although this is dynamic and not current, this is what Yahoo!Finance is reporting:

• NEE:
• EPS: $1.48
• Forward dividend: $1.40
• SRE:
• EPS: $13.01/share
• Forward dividend: $4.18