WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eighteen brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $120.7333.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on WEC Energy Group from $124.00 to $117.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on WEC Energy Group from $117.00 to $126.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Bank of America set a $116.00 price objective on shares of WEC Energy Group in a report on Wednesday, December 31st. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $121.00 target price on shares of WEC Energy Group in a report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of WEC Energy Group from $113.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 15th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other WEC Energy Group news, Director Ulice Payne, Jr. sold 1,450 shares of WEC Energy Group stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.60, for a total value of $166,170.00. Following the sale, the director owned 20,541 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,353,998.60. The trade was a 6.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Scott J. Lauber sold 8,089 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.70, for a total transaction of $895,452.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 66,801 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,394,870.70. The trade was a 10.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 42,354 shares of company stock valued at $4,855,505. 0.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of WEC Energy Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in WEC Energy Group by 175.0% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,357,608 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $354,093,000 after purchasing an additional 2,136,542 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 41,099,951 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,334,401,000 after purchasing an additional 819,627 shares during the period. Freestone Grove Partners LP increased its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 30,697.3% in the third quarter. Freestone Grove Partners LP now owns 620,565 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $71,111,000 after purchasing an additional 618,550 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. raised its position in shares of WEC Energy Group by 324.1% in the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 774,679 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $80,722,000 after buying an additional 592,028 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP raised its position in shares of WEC Energy Group by 160.6% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 943,962 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $98,361,000 after buying an additional 581,748 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.20% of the company’s stock.

WEC Energy Group Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of WEC stock opened at $114.25 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $37.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.65, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.58. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $113.59 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $111.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a current ratio of 0.59. WEC Energy Group has a fifty-two week low of $100.61 and a fifty-two week high of $118.53.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.42 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.19 billion. WEC Energy Group had a net margin of 15.90% and a return on equity of 12.40%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 8.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.43 earnings per share. WEC Energy Group has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.510-5.610 EPS. Research analysts forecast that WEC Energy Group will post 5.23 earnings per share for the current year.

About WEC Energy Group

WEC Energy Group is a Milwaukee, Wisconsin–based regulated energy holding company whose primary businesses are the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity and the distribution of natural gas. The company operates through a set of utility subsidiaries that provide bundled energy service, customer billing and energy-related programs to residential, commercial and industrial customers. As a regulated utility group, WEC’s operations focus on delivering reliable service while managing infrastructure investment and compliance with state and federal utility regulation.

Its utility subsidiaries include well-known regional operators such as We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service, along with Chicago-area natural gas utilities that were part of the Integrys Energy Group acquisition.