Savant Capital LLC Buys 794 Shares of WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC)

Savant Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) by 3.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 22,789 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 794 shares during the period. Savant Capital LLC’s holdings in WEC Energy Group were worth $2,143,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Annex Advisory Services LLC raised its position in shares of WEC Energy Group by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 110,644 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $10,405,000 after purchasing an additional 6,785 shares during the period. Matrix Trust Co acquired a new position in WEC Energy Group in the 4th quarter valued at $1,538,000. DRW Securities LLC bought a new position in WEC Energy Group in the 3rd quarter worth $1,392,000. Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in WEC Energy Group by 51.0% during the 3rd quarter. Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC now owns 29,978 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,883,000 after acquiring an additional 10,126 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gateway Investment Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in WEC Energy Group by 20.9% during the fourth quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 453,945 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $42,689,000 after acquiring an additional 78,580 shares during the period. 77.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Gale E. Klappa sold 1,805 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.40, for a total value of $179,417.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 273,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,160,851.20. This trade represents a 0.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott J. Lauber sold 6,720 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.89, for a total value of $677,980.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 45,709 shares in the company, valued at $4,611,581.01. This trade represents a 12.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 48,794 shares of company stock worth $4,866,579 in the last quarter. 0.34% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on WEC. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on WEC Energy Group from $103.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on WEC Energy Group from $108.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on WEC Energy Group from $112.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of WEC Energy Group from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of WEC Energy Group from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $90.00 to $98.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $101.88.

WEC Energy Group Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WEC opened at $102.47 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.22, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.49. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a one year low of $75.13 and a one year high of $102.79. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $96.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $95.55. The company has a current ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The utilities provider reported $1.43 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $2.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. WEC Energy Group had a return on equity of 12.39% and a net margin of 17.75%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.10 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 5.23 EPS for the current year.

WEC Energy Group Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $0.835 dividend. This represents a $3.34 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. WEC Energy Group’s payout ratio is 69.15%.

WEC Energy Group 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.