WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) Sets New 12-Month High – What’s Next?

WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $103.07 and last traded at $103.05, with a volume of 130443 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $102.43.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on WEC Energy Group from $112.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Bank of America raised 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. KeyCorp boosted their target price on WEC Energy Group from $108.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on WEC Energy Group from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their target price on WEC Energy Group from $103.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, WEC Energy Group presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $101.88.

WEC Energy Group Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $96.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $95.65. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.49.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The utilities provider reported $1.43 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $2.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. WEC Energy Group had a return on equity of 12.39% and a net margin of 17.75%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.10 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 5.23 earnings per share 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 dividend of $0.835 per share. This represents a $3.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.24%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 69.15%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Gale E. Klappa sold 40,269 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 21st. The stock was 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 approximately $27,204,570.88. This represents a 12.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Scott J. Lauber sold 6,720 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 in the company, valued at approximately $4,611,581.01. The trade was a 12.82 % decrease in their position. 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 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On WEC Energy Group

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. West Paces Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in WEC Energy Group by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. now owns 4,418 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $416,000 after purchasing an additional 160 shares during the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its position in shares of WEC Energy Group by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 26,686 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,510,000 after acquiring an additional 869 shares in the last quarter. Guardian Capital LP lifted its position in shares of WEC Energy Group by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Guardian Capital LP now owns 78,523 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,384,000 after acquiring an additional 1,106 shares in the last quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group lifted its position in shares of WEC Energy Group by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 5,344 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $503,000 after acquiring an additional 308 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of WEC Energy Group by 157.2% during the fourth quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 45,030 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,235,000 after acquiring an additional 27,524 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.20% 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.