WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) Director Ulice Payne, Jr. Sells 1,620 Shares

WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) Director Ulice Payne, Jr. sold 1,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.00, for a total value of $179,820.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 20,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,259,960. This trade represents a 7.37% 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.

WEC Energy Group Price Performance

NYSE WEC opened at $109.93 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $106.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $105.95. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a 52-week low of $88.14 and a 52-week high of $111.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a current ratio of 0.55. The stock has a market cap of $35.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.06, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.42.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.71 by $0.05. WEC Energy Group had a return on equity of 12.90% and a net margin of 17.87%. The business had revenue of $2.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.67 EPS. WEC Energy Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 5.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

WEC Energy Group Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 14th will be given a dividend of $0.8925 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 14th. This represents a $3.57 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.2%. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio is 68.39%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On WEC Energy Group

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in WEC Energy Group by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 39,945,761 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,162,348,000 after acquiring an additional 816,243 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in WEC Energy Group by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,594,608 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $892,020,000 after acquiring an additional 235,653 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its position in WEC Energy Group by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 5,722,158 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $538,112,000 after acquiring an additional 173,006 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in WEC Energy Group by 34.9% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,213,304 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $567,727,000 after acquiring an additional 1,349,522 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in WEC Energy Group by 16.6% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,103,604 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $556,191,000 after acquiring an additional 726,267 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. UBS Group set a $107.00 target price on WEC Energy Group and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut WEC Energy Group from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $106.00 to $100.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 25th. Wall Street Zen cut WEC Energy Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, July 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on WEC Energy Group from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on WEC Energy Group from $99.00 to $101.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $106.40.

WEC Energy Group Company Profile

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.