What happened
Generally speaking, Tuesday was an excellent and prosperous day to be a stock investor. One of the scattered exceptions to this, however, was NextEra Energy (NEE -1.36%). Shares of the clean energy specialist slipped by nearly 1% on the day, compared to the S&P 500 index's 1.3% pop. A major culprit in this was a price target cut from an analyst at an influential investment bank.
So what
Said investment bank is white-shoe mainstay Morgan Stanley. That morning before market open, the company's David Arcaro trimmed his price target on NextEra. This wasn't a deep cut, but it was a cut nonetheless -- Arcaro pegged his new fair value of the utility's stock at $94 per share, a short distance down from his previous level of $97.
That wasn't enough to change his recommendation on NextEra. He's still in the bull camp, maintaining his overweight (read: buy) designation on the shares.
On top of that, Morgan Stanley as an institution still considers the stock to be one of the best plays in the market, full stop. Just before Arcaro made his adjustment Tuesday morning, his fellow analyst at the bank, Michelle Weaver, published its "30 for 2025" list of top picks for long-term investment. NextEra was one of those 30 stocks, along with such luminaries as Costco Wholesale and Microsoft.
Now what
In her analysis, Weaver expressed the opinion that the present bear market is not over, although it will be bettered by "a stronger earnings picture in 2024." Driving this will be the results of companies like NextEra, according to her.
