WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) Increases Dividend to $0.89 Per Share

WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 5th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th will be given a dividend of 0.8925 per share by the utilities provider on Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $3.57 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.68%. This is a boost from WEC Energy Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.84.

WEC Energy Group has increased its dividend by an average of 7.2% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 22 consecutive years. WEC Energy Group has a dividend payout ratio of 64.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect WEC Energy Group to earn $5.23 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.34 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 63.9%.

WEC Energy Group Trading Down 0.6 %

NYSE:WEC opened at $97.09 on Friday. WEC Energy Group has a 52 week low of $75.13 and a 52 week high of $102.79. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $97.63 and a 200 day moving average of $89.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.74, a PEG ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 0.46.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.93 billion. WEC Energy Group had a net margin of 15.14% and a return on equity of 11.72%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.00 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that WEC Energy Group will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at WEC Energy Group

In other news, Director Gale E. Klappa sold 1,805 shares of WEC Energy Group 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 sale, the director now owns 273,248 shares in the company, valued at $27,160,851.20. This trade represents a 0.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Scott J. Lauber sold 6,720 shares of WEC Energy Group stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 21st. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $4,611,581.01. This trade represents a 12.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 48,794 shares of company stock worth $4,866,579. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of WEC Energy Group from $90.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of WEC Energy Group from $108.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of WEC Energy Group from $103.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of WEC Energy Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of WEC Energy Group from $86.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, WEC Energy Group has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $95.55.

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.