Triangle Securities Wealth Management Lowers Stock Position in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC)

Triangle Securities Wealth Management trimmed its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) by 2.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,363 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 209 shares during the quarter. Triangle Securities Wealth Management’s holdings in WEC Energy Group were worth $692,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Coastline Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of WEC Energy Group in the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. William B. Walkup & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in WEC Energy Group in the second quarter valued at about $31,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new position in WEC Energy Group in the second quarter worth about $38,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of WEC Energy Group during the third quarter valued at about $45,000. Finally, Friedenthal Financial bought a new stake in shares of WEC Energy Group in the 3rd quarter valued at about $50,000. Institutional investors own 77.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on WEC. Bank of America raised shares of WEC Energy Group from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the company from $90.00 to $98.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on WEC Energy Group from $103.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com raised WEC Energy Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on WEC Energy Group from $97.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Barclays upgraded shares of WEC Energy Group from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $89.00 to $93.00 in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $98.40.

WEC Energy Group Stock Up 0.8 %

WEC opened at $99.18 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $96.65 and a two-hundred day moving average of $93.05. 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 fifty-two week low of $75.13 and a fifty-two week high of $102.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.25, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.48.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.93 billion. WEC Energy Group had a return on equity of 11.72% and a net margin of 15.14%. WEC Energy Group’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.00 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current 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 3.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 81.66%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Scott J. Lauber sold 6,720 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.89, for a total transaction of $677,980.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 45,709 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,611,581.01. This represents a 12.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Gale E. Klappa sold 1,805 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was 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 directly owns 273,248 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,160,851.20. This represents a 0.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.