Chesley Taft & Associates LLC Buys 322 Shares of WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC)

Chesley Taft & Associates LLC raised its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) by 6.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,602 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 322 shares during the period. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s holdings in WEC Energy Group were worth $527,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Coastline Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of WEC Energy Group in the third quarter valued at about $29,000. William B. Walkup & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in WEC Energy Group in the 2nd quarter worth about $31,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new stake in WEC Energy Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $38,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of WEC Energy Group during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $45,000. Finally, Friedenthal Financial purchased a new position in shares of WEC Energy Group in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $50,000. 77.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on WEC shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on WEC Energy Group from $103.00 to $106.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Barclays upgraded WEC Energy Group from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $89.00 to $93.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of WEC Energy Group from $103.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Bank of America raised 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 report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of WEC Energy Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, WEC Energy Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $98.40.

WEC Energy Group Stock Performance

Shares of WEC stock opened at $100.23 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $96.66 and its 200 day moving average is $93.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.51, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.48. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a 12 month low of $75.13 and a 12 month high of $102.79. 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 posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 return on equity of 11.72% and a net margin of 15.14%. The business’s quarterly revenue 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, sell-side analysts anticipate 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 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 3.33%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. WEC Energy Group’s payout ratio is presently 81.66%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Scott J. Lauber sold 6,720 shares of the business’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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 45,709 shares in the company, valued at $4,611,581.01. The trade was a 12.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Gale E. Klappa sold 40,269 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.56, for a total value of $4,009,181.64. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 273,248 shares in the company, valued at $27,204,570.88. This trade represents a 12.84 % 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 ninety days. Company insiders own 0.44% 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.