Insider Selling: WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) Director Sells 1,805 Shares of Stock

WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) Director Gale E. Klappa sold 1,805 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.40, for a total transaction of $179,417.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

WEC Energy Group Price Performance

WEC opened at $100.66 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $96.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $88.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.65. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $75.13 and a 1 year high of $101.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.84 billion, a PE ratio of 24.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.44.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.12. WEC Energy Group had a net margin of 15.14% and a return on equity of 11.72%. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.93 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.00 earnings per share. WEC Energy Group’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 4.87 EPS for the current year.

WEC Energy Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th will be issued a $0.835 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $3.34 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.32%. WEC Energy Group’s payout ratio is 81.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on WEC shares. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of WEC Energy Group in a report on Thursday, September 19th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $102.00 price target for the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of WEC Energy Group from $103.00 to $106.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of WEC Energy Group from $91.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Barclays raised their target price on shares of WEC Energy Group from $86.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of WEC Energy Group from $90.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $94.45.

Institutional Trading of WEC Energy Group

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Second Line Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of WEC Energy Group in the third quarter worth $211,000. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group increased its stake in WEC Energy Group by 4.0% during the third quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 5,036 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $488,000 after purchasing an additional 192 shares during the last quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC increased its stake in WEC Energy Group by 85.4% during the third quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 29,957 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,881,000 after purchasing an additional 13,797 shares during the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of WEC Energy Group by 31.7% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,689 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $356,000 after acquiring an additional 888 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of WEC Energy Group by 1.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,952,851 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $762,453,000 after acquiring an additional 105,580 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.20% of the company’s stock.

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.