Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. Grows Stake in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC)

Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. boosted its position in shares of WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) by 60.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 25,778 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,676 shares during the quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc.’s holdings in WEC Energy Group were worth $2,424,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Coastline Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of WEC Energy Group during the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. William B. Walkup & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in WEC Energy Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in WEC Energy Group during the third quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new position in shares of WEC Energy Group during the 2nd quarter worth $38,000. Finally, Friedenthal Financial purchased a new position in shares of WEC Energy Group during the 3rd quarter worth $50,000. Institutional investors own 77.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WEC has been the topic of several analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded WEC Energy Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. KeyCorp boosted their price objective 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 target price on shares of WEC Energy Group from $103.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of WEC Energy Group from $97.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of WEC Energy Group in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $102.00 price objective for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $98.40.

WEC Energy Group Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of WEC stock opened at $94.62 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $29.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.13, a PEG ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.48. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $96.56 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $92.84. The company has a quick ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a 52 week low of $75.13 and a 52 week high of $102.79.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.93 billion. WEC Energy Group had a net margin of 15.14% and a return on equity of 11.72%. WEC Energy Group’s revenue was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.00 earnings per share. Analysts predict that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

WEC Energy Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a $0.8925 dividend. This is a positive change from WEC Energy Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.84. This represents a $3.57 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio is 87.29%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Scott J. Lauber sold 6,720 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.89, for a total value of $677,980.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 45,709 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Gale E. Klappa sold 1,805 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.40, for a total value of $179,417.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 273,248 shares in the company, valued at $27,160,851.20. The trade was a 0.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 48,794 shares of company stock valued at $4,866,579 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

WEC Energy Group 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.