Heartland Advisors Inc. Purchases Shares of 108,279 WEC Energy Group, Inc. $WEC

Heartland Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 108,279 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $12,644,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in WEC Energy Group by 16.9% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 16,698 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,820,000 after buying an additional 2,417 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP boosted its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 41.3% during the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 26,839 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,925,000 after acquiring an additional 7,841 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 7.3% during the 2nd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 44,286 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,616,000 after acquiring an additional 3,006 shares in the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd grew its position 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 acquiring an additional 275,786 shares during the period. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of WEC Energy Group by 8.8% during the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 58,364 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,082,000 after acquiring an additional 4,730 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WEC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Truist Financial cut their price target on WEC Energy Group from $122.00 to $114.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. Mizuho set a $124.00 price objective on WEC Energy Group in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on WEC Energy Group from $120.00 to $117.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH lowered WEC Energy Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $110.50 target price on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of WEC Energy Group from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, WEC Energy Group has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $121.91.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Ulice Payne, Jr. sold 980 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.58, for a total transaction of $103,468.40. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 19,588 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,068,101.04. The trade was a 4.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

WEC Energy Group Stock Down 2.0%

Shares of WEC opened at $106.33 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $112.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $113.71. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a one year low of $102.95 and a one year high of $119.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $34.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.61, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.47.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The utilities provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.11. WEC Energy Group had a return on equity of 12.90% and a net margin of 16.69%.The company had revenue of $2.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.76 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. WEC Energy Group has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.510-5.610 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 5.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

WEC Energy Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 14th will be paid a $0.9525 dividend. This represents a $3.81 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 14th. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 73.84%.

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.