ING Groep NV Makes New Investment in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC)

ING Groep NV acquired a new position in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 6,441 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $619,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WEC. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV grew its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 5.2% during the third quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 2,248 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $216,000 after buying an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT grew its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 2.0% during the second quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 6,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $474,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 58.1% during the second quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. now owns 321 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Drake & Associates LLC grew its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 2.0% during the third quarter. Drake & Associates LLC now owns 6,216 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $598,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park National Corp OH grew its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 3.4% during the third quarter. Park National Corp OH now owns 3,964 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $381,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on WEC shares. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of WEC Energy Group from $86.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of WEC Energy Group from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of WEC Energy Group from $90.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of WEC Energy Group from $91.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of WEC Energy Group from $103.00 to $108.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $94.45.

WEC Energy Group Trading Up 1.9 %

WEC stock opened at $97.98 on Monday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $96.24 and its 200-day simple moving average is $88.34. 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 $100.31. The firm has a market cap of $31.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.96, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.44.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.93 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.00 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 4.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

WEC Energy Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th will be paid a $0.835 dividend. This represents a $3.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.41%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 14th. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 81.66%.

Insider Activity at WEC Energy Group

In related news, VP Mary Beth Straka sold 3,240 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.04, for a total value of $301,449.60. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 3,662 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $340,712.48. This trade represents a 46.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP William J. Guc sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.99, for a total transaction of $557,940.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 7,702 shares in the company, valued at $716,208.98. This represents a 43.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.