New York State Teachers Retirement System Cuts Stake in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC)

New York State Teachers Retirement System lessened its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) by 4.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 249,568 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 11,184 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in WEC Energy Group were worth $23,469,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Marshall Financial Group LLC raised its stake in WEC Energy Group by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Marshall Financial Group LLC now owns 2,198 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $207,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Tsfg LLC raised its position in shares of WEC Energy Group by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 2,699 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $254,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. Concord Wealth Partners boosted its stake in WEC Energy Group by 20.7% in the 3rd quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 777 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $75,000 after purchasing an additional 133 shares in the last quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC grew its position in WEC Energy Group by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC now owns 10,755 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,034,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp increased its stake in WEC Energy Group by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 2,980 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $287,000 after purchasing an additional 135 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on WEC shares. Bank of America upgraded shares of WEC Energy Group from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $90.00 to $98.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. StockNews.com downgraded WEC Energy Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on WEC Energy Group from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on WEC Energy Group from $103.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of WEC Energy Group from $108.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $101.88.

WEC Energy Group Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of WEC Energy Group stock opened at $103.10 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $97.05 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $95.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.60. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $76.50 and a fifty-two week high of $104.01. The company has a market cap of $32.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.49.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The utilities provider reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by ($0.06). WEC Energy Group had a return on equity of 12.39% and a net margin of 17.75%. The business had revenue of $2.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.10 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 5.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

WEC Energy Group Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $0.835 per share. This represents a $3.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 73.91%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Scott J. Lauber sold 6,720 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.89, for a total value of $677,980.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 45,709 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,611,581.01. This represents a 12.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Gale E. Klappa sold 1,805 shares of WEC Energy Group stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.40, for a total transaction of $179,417.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 273,248 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,160,851.20. This trade represents a 0.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 48,794 shares of company stock worth $4,866,579 over the last 90 days. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

WEC Energy Group 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.