D.A. Davidson & CO. Acquires 288 Shares of WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC)

D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its holdings in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) by 2.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,040 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 288 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in WEC Energy Group were worth $1,320,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Marshall Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in WEC Energy Group by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Marshall Financial Group LLC now owns 2,198 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $207,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Tsfg LLC increased its holdings in WEC Energy Group by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 2,699 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $254,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares during the period. Concord Wealth Partners increased its holdings in WEC Energy Group by 20.7% during the 3rd quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 777 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $75,000 after acquiring an additional 133 shares during the period. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC increased its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 134 shares during the period. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp increased its holdings 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 worth $287,000 after acquiring an additional 135 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 77.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on WEC shares. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of WEC Energy Group from $108.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. StockNews.com cut shares of WEC Energy Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Bank of America raised shares of WEC Energy Group from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $90.00 to $98.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of WEC Energy Group from $103.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Barclays raised shares of WEC Energy Group from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $89.00 to $93.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $101.88.

WEC Energy Group Price Performance

Shares of WEC Energy Group stock opened at $104.04 on Friday. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a 52-week low of $76.50 and a 52-week high of $104.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a fifty day moving average of $97.76 and a 200-day moving average of $96.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.60.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The utilities provider reported $1.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by ($0.06). WEC Energy Group had a net margin of 17.75% and a return on equity of 12.39%. The business had revenue of $2.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.50 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.10 EPS. WEC Energy Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 5.23 EPS for the current year.

WEC Energy Group Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $3.34 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.21%. WEC Energy Group’s payout ratio is currently 73.91%.

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.