Rakuten Investment Management Inc. Takes $57.03 Million Position in WEC Energy Group, Inc. $WEC

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 497,671 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $57,028,000. Rakuten Investment Management Inc. owned about 0.15% of WEC Energy Group at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 39,945,761 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,162,348,000 after acquiring an additional 816,243 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its position in WEC Energy Group by 324.1% during the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 774,679 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $80,722,000 after purchasing an additional 592,028 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP raised its stake in WEC Energy Group by 160.6% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 943,962 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $98,361,000 after purchasing an additional 581,748 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA acquired a new position in shares of WEC Energy Group in the 3rd quarter valued at $40,362,000. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd grew its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 477.4% during the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 333,552 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $34,756,000 after buying an additional 275,786 shares during the period. 77.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

WEC Energy Group Price Performance

WEC stock opened at $109.04 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $35.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.33 and a current ratio of 0.50. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $96.37 and a 1 year high of $118.18. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $107.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $109.33.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.02. WEC Energy Group had a return on equity of 12.60% and a net margin of 17.75%.The firm had revenue of $2.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.86 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.82 EPS. WEC Energy Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. WEC Energy Group has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.170-5.270 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 5.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

WEC Energy Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.9525 per share. This represents a $3.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 13th. This is a positive change from WEC Energy Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 67.49%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group set a $116.00 target price on WEC Energy Group in a research report on Wednesday, December 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $131.00 price target on WEC Energy Group in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of WEC Energy Group in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on WEC Energy Group from $124.00 to $117.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Bank of America cut their price target on shares of WEC Energy Group from $122.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $120.29.

About WEC Energy Group

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.