Gale Klappa Sells 5,000 Shares of WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) Stock

WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) Director Gale Klappa sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.55, for a total transaction of $582,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 276,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,237,730. This represents a 1.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

WEC Energy Group Stock Performance

Shares of WEC Energy Group stock opened at $114.25 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 0.59 and a quick ratio of 0.44. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $108.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $110.03. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $100.61 and a fifty-two week high of $118.18. The firm has a market cap of $37.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.58.

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

WEC Energy Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 13th will be given a dividend of $0.9525 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 13th. This represents a $3.81 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.3%. This is a positive change from WEC Energy Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 78.88%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WEC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on WEC Energy Group from $124.00 to $121.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Bank of America set a $116.00 price objective on shares of WEC Energy Group in a research note on Wednesday, December 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped 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 reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of WEC Energy Group in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of WEC Energy Group from $129.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $120.07.

Institutional Trading of WEC Energy Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of 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 worth $4,334,401,000 after buying an additional 819,627 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in WEC Energy Group by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,838,003 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $928,653,000 after acquiring an additional 88,557 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,336,861 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $562,826,000 after acquiring an additional 52,467 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,641,145 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $383,995,000 after acquiring an additional 48,903 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 175.0% in the fourth 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 last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.