Vanguard Group Inc. Purchases 334,563 Shares of WEC Energy Group, Inc. $WEC

Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) by 0.8% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 40,280,324 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 334,563 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 0.12% of WEC Energy Group worth $4,615,722,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. CoreFirst Bank & Trust purchased a new position in WEC Energy Group during the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in WEC Energy Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $27,000. New England Capital Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 265.8% during the 2nd quarter. New England Capital Financial Advisors LLC now owns 278 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC bought a new stake in WEC Energy Group during the third quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, NewSquare Capital LLC boosted its stake in WEC Energy Group by 60.5% in the second quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 305 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. 77.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Scott J. Lauber sold 8,089 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.70, for a total value of $895,452.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 66,801 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,394,870.70. This represents a 10.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

WEC Energy Group Price Performance

Shares of WEC stock opened at $115.47 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $108.11 and its 200 day moving average is $109.98. The stock has a market cap of $37.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.91, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $100.61 and a twelve month high of $118.18.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.03. WEC Energy Group had a net margin of 15.90% and a return on equity of 12.40%. The company had revenue of $2.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.19 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.43 EPS. WEC Energy Group’s revenue was down 8.8% on a year-over-year basis. WEC Energy Group has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.510-5.610 EPS. Research analysts expect that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 5.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

WEC Energy Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.9525 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 13th. This is a boost from WEC Energy Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. This represents a $3.81 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.3%. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio is 78.88%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $121.00 price objective on shares of WEC Energy Group in a research note on Friday, February 6th. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and set a $135.00 target price on shares of WEC Energy Group in a report on Friday, January 30th. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of WEC Energy Group in a research note on Friday, January 16th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on WEC Energy Group from $119.00 to $115.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of WEC Energy Group in a research note on Monday, December 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $120.07.

WEC Energy Group Company Profile

WEC Energy Group is a Milwaukee, Wisconsin–based regulated energy holding company whose primary businesses are the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity and the distribution of natural gas. The company operates through a set of utility subsidiaries that provide bundled energy service, customer billing and energy-related programs to residential, commercial and industrial customers. As a regulated utility group, WEC’s operations focus on delivering reliable service while managing infrastructure investment and compliance with state and federal utility regulation.

Its utility subsidiaries include well-known regional operators such as We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service, along with Chicago-area natural gas utilities that were part of the Integrys Energy Group acquisition.