WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) Shares Sold by Advisors Asset Management Inc.

Advisors Asset Management Inc. trimmed its position in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) by 20.2% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 54,285 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 13,745 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in WEC Energy Group were worth $5,221,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Czech National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 64,388 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,193,000 after acquiring an additional 4,205 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 2,949.7% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 232,018 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $18,204,000 after acquiring an additional 224,410 shares during the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc lifted its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 13.8% in the 3rd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 62,873 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,047,000 after acquiring an additional 7,646 shares during the last quarter. RFG Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 35.0% in the 2nd quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 29,446 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,310,000 after acquiring an additional 7,640 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 359.5% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 115,116 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,453,000 after acquiring an additional 90,062 shares during the last quarter. 77.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at WEC Energy Group

In other WEC Energy Group news, Director Gale E. Klappa sold 1,805 shares of the company’s 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $27,160,851.20. This 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 accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Mary Beth Straka sold 3,240 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.04, for a total transaction of $301,449.60. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 3,662 shares in the company, valued at $340,712.48. This trade represents a 46.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,045 shares of company stock valued at $1,038,807 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of WEC Energy Group from $86.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of WEC Energy Group from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. StockNews.com raised shares of WEC Energy Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of WEC Energy Group from $90.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of WEC Energy Group from $91.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $94.45.

WEC Energy Group Stock Up 1.7 %

WEC stock opened at $100.97 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $31.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.44. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a 52 week low of $75.13 and a 52 week high of $101.00. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $96.60 and its 200 day moving average price is $88.72. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.93 billion. WEC Energy Group had a net margin of 15.14% and a return on equity of 11.72%. The firm’s revenue was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.00 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 4.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

WEC Energy Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, November 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 3.31%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 14th. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 81.66%.

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.