WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) Stock Price Target Lowered at Royal Bank Of Canada

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) had its target price decreased by Royal Bank Of Canada from $124.00 to $122.00 in a research report released on Monday morning. Royal Bank Of Canada currently has a sector perform rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on WEC. Stephens set a $109.00 price objective on shares of WEC Energy Group in a research note on Friday, October 16th. BTIG Research set a $127.00 price target on shares of WEC Energy Group in a research report on Tuesday, October 20th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH downgraded WEC Energy Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $110.50 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on WEC Energy Group from $120.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Truist Financial reduced their target price on WEC Energy Group from $114.00 to $113.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $117.11.

WEC Energy Group Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of WEC stock traded down $0.79 on Monday, hitting $110.64. The stock had a trading volume of 2,235,875 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,254,351. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 0.53 and a quick ratio of 0.39. The business has a 50 day moving average of $105.60 and a 200 day moving average of $111.30. WEC Energy Group has a 12-month low of $99.80 and a 12-month high of $119.91. The stock has a market cap of $36.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.45.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The utilities provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.11. WEC Energy Group had a return on equity of 12.90% and a net margin of 16.69%. The firm had revenue of $2.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.76 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that WEC Energy Group will post 5.60 EPS for the current year.

WEC Energy Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 13th will be given a dividend of $0.9525 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 13th. This represents a $3.81 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 73.84%.

Insider Activity

In other WEC Energy Group news, Director Ulice Payne, Jr. sold 980 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.58, for a total transaction of $103,468.40. Following the sale, the director owned 19,588 shares in the company, valued at $2,068,101.04. This trade represents a 4.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On WEC Energy Group

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WEC. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in WEC Energy Group by 3.1% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,734,979 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $436,133,000 after buying an additional 111,057 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in WEC Energy Group in the second quarter valued at approximately $299,100,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in WEC Energy Group by 0.3% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,571,015 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $297,646,000 after purchasing an additional 7,206 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 5.0% during the second quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 1,644,319 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $192,007,000 after purchasing an additional 78,168 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 3.4% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,286,276 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $148,906,000 after purchasing an additional 42,403 shares during the period. 77.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

WEC Energy Group Company Profile

WEC Energy Group, Inc is an energy holding company headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Through its operating companies, the company generates and delivers electricity and provides natural gas distribution, storage and related energy services to residential, commercial and industrial customers.

WEC Energy’s principal utility businesses include We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service in Wisconsin, Michigan Gas Utilities, Minnesota Energy Resources, Upper Michigan Energy Resources and North Dakota utility operations.