Providence First Trust Co Invests $110,000 in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC)

Providence First Trust Co purchased a new position in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 1,167 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $110,000.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Annex Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in WEC Energy Group by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 110,644 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $10,405,000 after buying an additional 6,785 shares during the period. DRW Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of WEC Energy Group in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,392,000. Matrix Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of WEC Energy Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,538,000. Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in WEC Energy Group by 51.0% in the third quarter. Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC now owns 29,978 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,883,000 after purchasing an additional 10,126 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gateway Investment Advisers LLC increased its holdings in WEC Energy Group by 20.9% during the 4th quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 453,945 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $42,689,000 after purchasing an additional 78,580 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on WEC shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on WEC Energy Group from $112.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of WEC Energy Group from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of WEC Energy Group from $108.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Bank of America upgraded shares of WEC Energy Group from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $90.00 to $98.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Barclays upgraded shares of WEC Energy Group from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $89.00 to $93.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $101.88.

WEC Energy Group Stock Up 1.1 %

NYSE:WEC opened at $106.73 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $33.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.49. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $98.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $96.93. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $76.78 and a fifty-two week high of $107.14.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The utilities provider reported $1.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.49 by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $2.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.50 billion. WEC Energy Group had a return on equity of 12.39% and a net margin of 17.75%. WEC Energy Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.10 earnings per share. On average, equities 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 firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a $0.835 dividend. This represents a $3.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 73.91%.

Insider Buying and Selling at WEC Energy Group

In other news, Director Ulice Payne, Jr. sold 1,150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $104.17, for a total transaction of $119,795.50. Following the transaction, the director now owns 21,951 shares in the company, valued at $2,286,635.67. This represents a 4.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.34% of the stock is currently 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.