By Avi Salzman
NextEra Energy stock soared 7.2% to a record high on Thursday. The Florida-based power company is successfully pitching itself as a one-stop-shop electricity provider for everyone from homeowners to data centers.
NextEra's first quarter earnings of $1.09 per share beat analysts' expectations for $1.03, fueled by multiple parts of its business. NextEra owns Florida Power & Light, a regulated utility in Florida that's been adding customers quickly. And it owns NextEra Energy Resources, a power provider building renewable and natural gas plants across the country, selling that power to utilities and businesses.
NextEra Energy Resources is benefiting from the surge in demand for power from AI data centers. The company says it's planning to build out 30 data center "hubs" that can power massive warehouses. It's one of the top developers of solar and wind projects, which are particularly attractive to tech companies looking to add power while also reducing their carbon footprints.
NextEra also owns nuclear plants, including a defunct reactor in Iowa at a site called Duane Arnold that it's looking to restart through a partnership with tech giant Alphabet.
A year ago, NextEra was reeling from the tax changes that President Donald Trump and Congress were preparing for the One Big Beautiful Bill. That law ended up reducing subsidies for renewable energy. But parts of it preserved credits for developments that were under construction, providing a lifeline to NextEra. Going forward, rising power prices -- driven by the data center boom and other factors like the rise of electric vehicles -- could continue to lift the stock.
"NextEra energy was built for this moment of extraordinary growth," said CEO John Ketchum on the company's earnings call. The market certainly thinks so.
Write to Avi Salzman at avi.salzman@barrons.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 23, 2026 13:33 ET (17:33 GMT)
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