SRS Capital Advisors Inc. Buys 2,587 Shares of WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC)

SRS Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) by 461.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 3,148 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,587 shares during the period. SRS Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in WEC Energy Group were worth $296,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Stephens Inc. AR increased its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 34.4% in the 3rd quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 4,906 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $472,000 after acquiring an additional 1,257 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its holdings in WEC Energy Group by 3.9% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 6,677 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $642,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares during the period. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC bought a new stake in WEC Energy Group in the third quarter valued at approximately $389,000. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its holdings in WEC Energy Group by 14.2% in the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 69,286 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,664,000 after purchasing an additional 8,628 shares during the period. Finally, Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. bought a new position in shares of WEC Energy Group during the third quarter worth $225,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on WEC. Bank of America upgraded shares of WEC Energy Group from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $90.00 to $98.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays upgraded WEC Energy Group from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $89.00 to $93.00 in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com cut WEC Energy Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. KeyCorp increased their target price on WEC Energy Group from $108.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted 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 note on Monday, December 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $101.88.

WEC Energy Group Trading Down 2.6 %

NYSE WEC opened at $105.50 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $33.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.84, a PEG ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.49. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a 52 week low of $77.47 and a 52 week high of $108.87. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $99.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $97.28. 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 earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The utilities provider reported $1.43 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.49 by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $2.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. WEC Energy Group had a return on equity of 12.39% and a net margin of 17.75%. During the same quarter 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, analysts anticipate 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were given a $0.835 dividend. This represents a $3.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 73.91%.

Insider Activity at WEC Energy Group

In other WEC Energy Group news, Director Ulice Payne, Jr. sold 1,150 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.17, for a total value of $119,795.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,951 shares in the company, valued at $2,286,635.67. This trade represents a 4.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.34% of the stock is 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.