WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) Upgraded to “Equal Weight” at Barclays

Barclays upgraded shares of WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. Barclays currently has $93.00 price objective on the utilities provider’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $89.00.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of WEC Energy Group from $103.00 to $106.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Bank of America upgraded WEC Energy Group from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $90.00 to $98.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on WEC Energy Group from $103.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. KeyCorp lifted their target price on WEC Energy Group from $108.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of WEC Energy Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $98.40.

WEC Energy Group Stock Down 0.1 %

WEC stock opened at $93.99 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $96.91 and a 200-day moving average of $91.79. WEC Energy Group has a fifty-two week low of $75.13 and a fifty-two week high of $102.79. The company has a market capitalization of $29.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.98, a PEG ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.65.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.93 billion. WEC Energy Group had a net margin of 15.14% and a return on equity of 11.72%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.00 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that WEC Energy Group will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

WEC Energy Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a $0.8925 dividend. This is an increase from WEC Energy Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.84. This represents a $3.57 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 87.29%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other WEC Energy Group news, CEO Scott J. Lauber sold 6,720 shares of WEC Energy Group stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.89, for a total transaction of $677,980.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 45,709 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,611,581.01. The trade was a 12.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Gale E. Klappa sold 40,269 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.56, for a total value of $4,009,181.64. Following the transaction, the director now owns 273,248 shares in the company, valued at $27,204,570.88. This trade represents a 12.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 48,794 shares of company stock valued at $4,866,579 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On WEC Energy Group

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its position in WEC Energy Group by 106,685.0% in the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 26,000,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,500,680,000 after purchasing an additional 25,975,652 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 1.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,952,851 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $762,453,000 after buying an additional 105,580 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 17.0% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,806,360 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $462,276,000 after buying an additional 699,177 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 17,270.5% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,718,179 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $453,794,000 after acquiring an additional 4,691,017 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in WEC Energy Group by 102.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,776,071 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $362,971,000 after acquiring an additional 1,912,223 shares during the period. 77.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

WEC Energy Group Company Profile

WEC Energy Group, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides regulated natural gas and electricity, and renewable and nonregulated renewable energy services in the United States. It operates through Wisconsin, Illinois, Other States, Electric Transmission, and Non-Utility Energy Infrastructure segments.