Chesley Taft & Associates LLC Buys 322 Shares of WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC)

Chesley Taft & Associates LLC grew its stake in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) by 6.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,602 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 322 shares during the period. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s holdings in WEC Energy Group were worth $527,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Coastline Trust Co acquired a new stake in WEC Energy Group in the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. William B. Walkup & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of WEC Energy Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of WEC Energy Group during the 3rd quarter valued at $45,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new stake in WEC Energy Group during the 2nd quarter worth $38,000. Finally, Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in WEC Energy Group in the 3rd quarter worth about $50,000. 77.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WEC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on WEC Energy Group from $97.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Scotiabank boosted 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 report on Monday, December 9th. KeyCorp upped their price target 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. StockNews.com upgraded shares of WEC Energy Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on WEC Energy Group from $103.00 to $106.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. One 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. According to data from MarketBeat, WEC Energy Group currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $98.40.

WEC Energy Group Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of WEC stock opened at $100.23 on Wednesday. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $75.13 and a fifty-two week high of $102.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.65. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $96.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $93.41. The company has a market cap of $31.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.51, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.48.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last released its 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 quarterly revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.00 EPS. Research analysts forecast that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

WEC Energy Group Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a $0.835 dividend. This represents a $3.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. WEC Energy Group’s payout ratio is 81.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other WEC Energy Group news, CEO Scott J. Lauber sold 6,720 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.89, for a total value 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 trade represents a 12.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Gale E. Klappa sold 40,269 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.56, for a total transaction of $4,009,181.64. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 273,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 three months, insiders have sold 48,794 shares of company stock valued at $4,866,579. 0.44% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About WEC Energy Group

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.