WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) Rating Increased to Equal Weight at Barclays

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC - Get Free Report) was upgraded by investment analysts at Barclays from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a $93.00 price objective on the utilities provider's stock, up from their previous price objective of $89.00. Barclays's price objective would suggest a potential downside of 1.05% from the company's current price.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. KeyCorp increased 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 note on Wednesday, December 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of WEC Energy Group from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America raised WEC Energy Group from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $90.00 to $98.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on WEC Energy Group from $103.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $98.40.

WEC Energy Group Price Performance

Shares of WEC Energy Group stock traded down $0.05 during trading on Thursday, reaching $93.99. 955,901 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,083,027. WEC Energy Group has a 52-week low of $75.13 and a 52-week high of $102.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.46. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $96.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $91.79. The company has a market capitalization of $29.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.46.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.12. WEC Energy Group had a return on equity of 11.72% and a net margin of 15.14%. The business had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.00 EPS. The company's revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that WEC Energy Group will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at WEC Energy Group

In other news, CEO Scott J. Lauber sold 6,720 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.89, for a total transaction of $677,980.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 45,709 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,611,581.01. This represents a 12.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Gale E. Klappa sold 40,269 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director now directly owns 273,248 shares of the company's stock, valued at $27,204,570.88. The trade was a 12.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 48,794 shares of company stock valued at $4,866,579. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WEC. Mizuho Securities USA LLC increased its position in shares of WEC Energy Group by 106,685.0% in the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 26,000,000 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $2,500,680,000 after acquiring an additional 25,975,652 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in WEC Energy Group by 1.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,952,851 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $762,453,000 after purchasing an additional 105,580 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of WEC Energy Group by 17.0% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,806,360 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $462,276,000 after buying an additional 699,177 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 17,270.5% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,718,179 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $453,794,000 after buying an additional 4,691,017 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of WEC Energy Group by 102.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,776,071 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $362,971,000 after buying an additional 1,912,223 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.