Haverford Trust Co Makes New Investment in WEC Energy Group, Inc. $WEC

Haverford Trust Co acquired a new position in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 5,792 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $676,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in WEC Energy Group by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 41,099,951 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,334,401,000 after buying an additional 819,627 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in WEC Energy Group by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,838,003 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $928,653,000 after buying an additional 88,557 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in WEC Energy Group by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,336,861 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $562,826,000 after acquiring an additional 52,467 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in WEC Energy Group by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,641,145 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $383,995,000 after acquiring an additional 48,903 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of WEC Energy Group by 175.0% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,357,608 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $354,093,000 after acquiring an additional 2,136,542 shares in the last quarter. 77.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on WEC. Weiss Ratings lowered WEC Energy Group from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Wall Street Zen downgraded WEC Energy Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Sunday, May 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on WEC Energy Group from $120.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Mizuho set a $124.00 price target on WEC Energy Group in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $121.91.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Ulice Payne, Jr. sold 980 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.58, for a total transaction of $103,468.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 19,588 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,068,101.04. This represents a 4.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

WEC Energy Group Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WEC opened at $106.33 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $34.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.47. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a 52-week low of $102.95 and a 52-week 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 firm’s fifty day moving average is $112.86 and its two-hundred day moving average is $113.71.

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

WEC Energy Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Investors of record on Friday, August 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.9525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 14th. This represents a $3.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.