WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.84

WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 14th will be given a dividend of 0.835 per share by the utilities provider on Saturday, June 1st. This represents a $3.34 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.15%.

WEC Energy Group has increased its dividend by an average of 7.2% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 22 consecutive years. WEC Energy Group has a dividend payout ratio of 63.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect WEC Energy Group to earn $5.22 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.34 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 64.0%.

WEC Energy Group Stock Performance

NYSE:WEC opened at $80.44 on Friday. WEC Energy Group has a twelve month low of $75.13 and a twelve month high of $98.80. The company has a current ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The company has a 50-day moving average of $79.70 and a 200-day moving average of $81.31. The firm has a market cap of $25.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.40.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.08 by $0.02. WEC Energy Group had a net margin of 14.98% and a return on equity of 12.17%. The company had revenue of $2.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.82 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.80 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that WEC Energy Group will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at WEC Energy Group

In other WEC Energy Group news, CEO Scott J. Lauber sold 2,830 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.89, for a total transaction of $223,258.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 43,125 shares in the company, valued at $3,402,131.25. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other WEC Energy Group news, CEO Scott J. Lauber sold 2,830 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.89, for a total transaction of $223,258.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 43,125 shares in the company, valued at $3,402,131.25. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Chairman Gale E. Klappa sold 37,180 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.69, for a total value of $2,925,694.20. Following the transaction, the chairman now owns 274,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,622,595.58. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On WEC Energy Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WEC. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 1.0% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,805,548 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $643,696,000 after acquiring an additional 69,710 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 3,863,469 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $325,188,000 after acquiring an additional 20,435 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 17.4% in the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,623,530 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $304,993,000 after acquiring an additional 536,684 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 9.4% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,236,416 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $303,446,000 after acquiring an additional 277,337 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 3.4% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,505,757 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $250,098,000 after acquiring an additional 83,354 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on WEC. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of WEC Energy Group from $94.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of WEC Energy Group in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $88.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com lowered shares of WEC Energy Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 13th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of WEC Energy Group from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Bank of America reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $78.00 price target (down from $84.00) on shares of WEC Energy Group in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, WEC Energy Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $86.31.

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.