WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) Director Ulice Payne, Jr. Sells 980 Shares

WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) Director Ulice Payne, Jr. sold 980 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.58, for a total value of $103,468.40. Following the sale, the director directly owned 19,588 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,068,101.04. This trade represents a 4.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

WEC Energy Group Trading Up 2.1%

WEC opened at $108.96 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $35.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a quick ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $102.95 and a twelve month high of $119.91. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $113.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $113.76.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The utilities provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $2.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.11 billion. WEC Energy Group had a net margin of 16.69% and a return on equity of 12.90%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.76 EPS. WEC Energy Group has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.510-5.610 EPS. Analysts predict that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 5.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

WEC Energy Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 14th will be issued a $0.9525 dividend. This represents a $3.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 14th. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 73.84%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WEC. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in WEC Energy Group by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 41,099,951 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,334,401,000 after acquiring an additional 819,627 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,838,003 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $928,653,000 after acquiring an additional 88,557 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,336,861 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $562,826,000 after purchasing an additional 52,467 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,641,145 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $383,995,000 after purchasing an additional 48,903 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 175.0% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,357,608 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $354,093,000 after purchasing an additional 2,136,542 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings downgraded WEC Energy Group from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Barclays boosted their target price on WEC Energy Group from $111.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $127.00 target price on shares of WEC Energy Group in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of WEC Energy Group from $120.00 to $117.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, KeyCorp lowered their price objective on shares of WEC Energy Group from $126.00 to $117.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, WEC Energy Group presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $122.41.

About WEC Energy Group

WEC Energy Group is a Milwaukee, Wisconsin–based regulated energy holding company whose primary businesses are the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity and the distribution of natural gas. The company operates through a set of utility subsidiaries that provide bundled energy service, customer billing and energy-related programs to residential, commercial and industrial customers. As a regulated utility group, WEC’s operations focus on delivering reliable service while managing infrastructure investment and compliance with state and federal utility regulation.

Its utility subsidiaries include well-known regional operators such as We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service, along with Chicago-area natural gas utilities that were part of the Integrys Energy Group acquisition.