Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC Reduces Holdings in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC)

Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) by 71.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,349 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 5,768 shares during the quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in WEC Energy Group were worth $221,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WEC. StockNews.com raised shares of WEC Energy Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America raised shares of WEC Energy Group from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $90.00 to $98.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on WEC Energy Group from $103.00 to $106.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Barclays raised WEC Energy Group from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $89.00 to $93.00 in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price target on WEC Energy Group from $103.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, WEC Energy Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $98.40.

WEC Energy Group Stock Down 0.2 %

WEC Energy Group stock opened at $99.27 on Friday. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $75.13 and a fifty-two week high of $102.79. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $96.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $94.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.27, a PEG ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.46.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.12. WEC Energy Group had a return on equity of 11.72% and a net margin of 15.14%. The business had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.00 earnings per share. WEC Energy Group’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

WEC Energy Group Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $0.835 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $3.34 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.36%. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 81.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Gale E. Klappa sold 1,805 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.40, for a total value of $179,417.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 273,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,160,851.20. This represents a 0.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott J. Lauber sold 6,720 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.89, for a total value of $677,980.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 45,709 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,611,581.01. This represents a 12.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 48,794 shares of company stock worth $4,866,579 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

About WEC Energy Group

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.