NextEra Energy (NEE +0.28%) stands out for its magnificent ability to grow its dividend. The leading utility has increased its payout for 30 straight years. Even better, it has grown its dividend at an 11% compound annual rate over the past decade.
What's remarkable about the company's supercharged dividend growth rate is it has come during a period of relatively flat U.S. power growth. That's about to change, with several catalysts powering accelerating demand for electricity in the coming years. This outlook should further enhance the utility stock's ability to grow its earnings and dividends in the future.
NYSE: NEE
Key Data Points
Slowly hitting the accelerator
NextEra Energy's CEO, John Ketchum, highlighted the increasingly rosy outlook for U.S. power demand on the company's first-quarter conference call. He stated,
After years of relatively flat U.S. power growth, numerous reports now highlight significant future growth being driven across industries such as oil and gas, manufacturing, and technology. The redomestication of industry in the U.S., supported by public policy, will drive the need for more electricity, and the tech industry is going to need data centers to support the expected cloud capacity demands that come with artificial intelligence applications.
Ketchum noted that this demand won't materialize overnight. Building new manufacturing capacity, data centers, and other power-hungry facilities will take years. However, he pointed out that more companies are starting to grow concerned about future power supplies. That's leading them to begin taking action by signing power purchase agreements (PPAs) to support new renewable energy projects.
That should power supercharge growth for the sector over the coming years. Ketchum stated on the call, "We believe the U.S. renewables and storage market opportunity has the potential to be 3x bigger over the next seven years compared to the last seven, growing from roughly 140 gigawatts (GW) of additions to approximately 375 to 450 GW. That's a 13% compound annual growth rate. It's more capacity than the country has built over the last 30 years (245 GW).
Positioned to capitalize on rising power demand
NextEra Energy has spent years building a leading clean energy infrastructure company. Its legacy Florida electric utility (FPL) is capitalizing on that state's abundant sunshine to install low-cost solar energy and battery storage. Meanwhile, NextEra's energy resources segment is building renewable energy and storage capacity for other utilities and large corporate buyers. The company has expertise that few can match.
That drives the company's belief that "no one is better positioned to address these power supply challenges and capitalize on this demand than NextEra Energy," stated Ketchum on the call. Its scale, experience, and technology investments give it a competitive advantage over rivals. It can build projects at lower costs (and higher returns). That's enabling it to secure more growth opportunities. It has captured a market-leading 20% of renewable and energy storage project originations over the past several years.
The company's energy resources segment added nearly 2.8 GW of new renewable and storage projects to its backlog over the past three months. That was the second-best quarter in its history for renewable and storage project originations (and its best-ever quarter for solar and storage originations at roughly 1.5 GW and 1 GW, respectively). The company ended the first quarter with 21.5 GW of projects in its backlog. That's massive, considering that its energy resources segment currently has 36 GW of operating clean energy assets. Meanwhile, it's a fraction of the roughly 300 GW of projects it has in its overall pipeline. While it won't capture all those opportunities, it should secure a meaningful portion of the country's renewable energy development projects.
Powerful growth ahead
NextEra Energy has delivered double-digit adjusted earnings and dividend per share growth over the last decade. That's in an environment with relatively flat power demand. While the company expects more moderate earnings growth in the near term (likely the upper end of 6% to 8% annually through 2026 with 10% dividend growth), it could accelerate in the future. Given its scale, expertise, and technology investments, it's one of the best-positioned companies to capitalize on surging demand for renewable energy. That makes it a top stock to buy for renewable-powered growth.
