What happened

Shares of NextEra Energy Partners (NEP -0.89%) stock collapsed in Wednesday morning trading, down 17.1% as of 12:02 p.m. ET after the operator of wind, solar, and battery storage renewable energy projects issued a press release revising its growth expectations for the next few years.  

The problem: By "revising," they meant "reducing."

So what

In order "to continue to deliver long-term value for unitholders," management said it was reducing growth expectations for limited partner distributions (dividends, in other words) to a range of from 5% to 8%, with a target of about 6%, through "at least 2026."

Previously, NextEra Energy had targeted a payout growth rate of 12% annually. However, as CEO John Ketchum explained, "tighter monetary policy and higher interest rates obviously affect the financing needed to grow distributions at 12%." That payout growth rate wasn't sustainable in this environment, so NextEra is going to be a bit tighter with its cash over the next few years.

On the plus side, NextEra Energy hopes to be able to invest that cash in higher-yielding growth opportunities that may enable it to grow distributions more strongly further down the road. The adjusted policy may also reduce its need to raise capital through borrowings and unit offerings in the near term.

Now what

So what's the upshot of this for investors? In Q3, you should expect NextEra Energy's distribution to approximate an annual rate of $3.47, growing to $3.52 in Q4. For a stock -- er, a unit -- that trades at $38 and change right now, that works out to about a 9% yield this quarter, and 9.2% next quarter.

This isn't quite the same thing as a 9% or 9.2% dividend yield, but it's close enough for government work, as the saying goes. And it's still a pretty nice return on your investment, assuming you're a new buyer looking at the stock (er, unit) after Wednesday's sell-off -- rather than an investor who bought NextEra Energy Tuesday afternoon, in which case you're staring at a 17% loss.

That's also assuming, of course, that NextEra doesn't revise its growth expectations any lower in the months and quarters to come.