Jefferies Financial Group Has Lowered Expectations for WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) Stock Price

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) had its price target decreased by stock analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from $124.00 to $121.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “hold” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s target price indicates a potential upside of 9.75% from the company’s previous close.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of WEC Energy Group from $113.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of WEC Energy Group in a research note on Monday, December 29th. BTIG Research raised WEC Energy Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Wall Street Zen lowered WEC Energy Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, November 1st. Finally, TD Cowen began coverage on shares of WEC Energy Group in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $125.00 price objective for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, WEC Energy Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $120.40.

WEC Energy Group Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of WEC stock opened at $110.25 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $35.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.84, a PEG ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.58. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $107.07 and a 200-day moving average of $109.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. WEC Energy Group has a 1-year low of $96.37 and a 1-year high of $118.18.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.02. WEC Energy Group had a net margin of 17.75% and a return on equity of 12.60%. The company had revenue of $2.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.86 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.82 EPS. WEC Energy Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that WEC Energy Group will post 5.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WEC. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 41,099,951 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,334,401,000 after buying an additional 819,627 shares during the last quarter. Freestone Grove Partners LP boosted its stake in WEC Energy Group by 30,697.3% during the 3rd quarter. Freestone Grove Partners LP now owns 620,565 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $71,111,000 after purchasing an additional 618,550 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 324.1% in the 2nd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 774,679 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $80,722,000 after purchasing an additional 592,028 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 581,748 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rakuten Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of WEC Energy Group during the third quarter valued at $57,028,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.20% of the company’s stock.

WEC Energy Group Company Profile

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.