WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) Stock Rating Upgraded by Barclays

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) was upgraded by Barclays from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $93.00 price target on the utilities provider’s stock, up from their prior price target of $89.00. Barclays‘s target price indicates a potential downside of 0.84% from the company’s previous close.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of WEC Energy Group from $97.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. KeyCorp boosted their price target on WEC Energy Group from $108.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of WEC Energy Group from $103.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Bank of America raised shares of WEC Energy Group from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $90.00 to $98.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of WEC Energy Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $98.40.

WEC Energy Group Stock Down 0.2 %

NYSE:WEC opened at $93.79 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $96.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $91.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.65. WEC Energy Group has a fifty-two week low of $75.13 and a fifty-two week high of $102.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.46.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.12. WEC Energy Group had a net margin of 15.14% and a return on equity of 11.72%. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.93 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.00 earnings per share. WEC Energy Group’s revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that WEC Energy Group will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at WEC Energy Group

In other news, CEO Scott J. Lauber sold 6,720 shares of WEC Energy Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.89, for a total transaction of $677,980.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 45,709 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,611,581.01. The trade was a 12.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Gale E. Klappa sold 40,269 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.56, for a total value of $4,009,181.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 273,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,204,570.88. The trade was a 12.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 48,794 shares of company stock worth $4,866,579. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of WEC Energy Group

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of WEC Energy Group by 34.6% during the second quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,444 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $741,000 after acquiring an additional 2,427 shares during the last quarter. Stablepoint Partners LLC purchased a new stake in WEC Energy Group in the second quarter valued at approximately $364,000. Mattern Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in WEC Energy Group by 0.7% during the second quarter. Mattern Capital Management LLC now owns 91,650 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,191,000 after purchasing an additional 649 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of WEC Energy Group by 0.8% during the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 181,143 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $14,212,000 after buying an additional 1,471 shares during the period. Finally, Journey Advisory Group LLC grew its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 10.6% in the second quarter. Journey Advisory Group LLC now owns 29,599 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,322,000 after buying an additional 2,835 shares in the last quarter. 77.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.