WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) VP Tom Metcalfe sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.44, for a total transaction of $644,400.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 16,059 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,034,841.96. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.
Shares of WEC Energy Group, Inc. (WEC) traded down 0.79% during trading on Thursday, hitting $64.06. 1,500,524 shares of the stock were exchanged. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $62.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $61.14. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a one year low of $53.66 and a one year high of $64.94. The stock has a market cap of $20.22 billion, a PE ratio of 21.00 and a beta of 0.11.
WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.05. WEC Energy Group had a return on equity of 10.75% and a net margin of 12.72%. The business had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.58 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.57 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post $3.11 EPS for the current year.
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 1st. Investors of record on Monday, August 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 10th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.25%. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.42%.
A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Edgemoor Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of WEC Energy Group during the first quarter valued at $202,000. Shell Asset Management Co. raised its position in WEC Energy Group by 7.5% in the first quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. now owns 36,628 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,221,000 after buying an additional 2,565 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc. raised its position in WEC Energy Group by 1.6% in the first quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 808,590 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $49,025,000 after buying an additional 13,000 shares during the period. Archford Capital Strategies LLC raised its position in WEC Energy Group by 20.4% in the first quarter. Archford Capital Strategies LLC now owns 7,735 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $469,000 after buying an additional 1,313 shares during the period. Finally, BlackRock Inc. raised its position in WEC Energy Group by 3,275.9% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 25,838,999 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,566,618,000 after buying an additional 25,073,593 shares during the period. 70.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services raised their price objective on shares of WEC Energy Group from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 9th. BidaskClub lowered shares of WEC Energy Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 1st. Barclays PLC restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $68.00 target price (up from $61.00) on shares of WEC Energy Group in a research report on Sunday, April 23rd. Wolfe Research restated a “peer perform” rating on shares of WEC Energy Group in a research report on Monday, April 24th. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (The) restated a “sell” rating and set a $58.00 target price (down from $59.00) on shares of WEC Energy Group in a research report on Monday, June 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. WEC Energy Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.86.
About WEC Energy Group
WEC Energy Group, Inc was a diversified holding company with natural gas and electric utility operations, an approximately 60% equity ownership interest in American Transmission Company LLC, and non-utility electric operations through its We Power business, as of December 31, 2016. Its segments include Wisconsin; Illinois; Other States; Electric Transmission; We Power, and Corporate and Other.
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