Hilltop Holdings Inc. Purchases New Stake in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC)

Hilltop Holdings Inc. purchased a new stake in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 13,681 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,316,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV boosted its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 5.2% in the third quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 2,248 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $216,000 after buying an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT boosted its position in WEC Energy Group by 2.0% during the second quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 6,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $474,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. boosted its position in WEC Energy Group by 58.1% during the second quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. now owns 321 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. Drake & Associates LLC boosted its position in WEC Energy Group by 2.0% during the third quarter. Drake & Associates LLC now owns 6,216 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $598,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Park National Corp OH boosted its position in WEC Energy Group by 3.4% during the third quarter. Park National Corp OH now owns 3,964 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $381,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. 77.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WEC has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded WEC Energy Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on WEC Energy Group from $97.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday. Bank of America boosted their target price on WEC Energy Group from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on WEC Energy Group from $103.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on WEC Energy Group in a report on Thursday, September 19th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $102.00 price target for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $95.45.

WEC Energy Group Stock Performance

WEC Energy Group stock opened at $98.21 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.01, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.46. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $97.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $89.68. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a 52 week low of $75.13 and a 52 week high of $102.79. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.93 billion. WEC Energy Group had a return on equity of 11.72% and a net margin of 15.14%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.00 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 4.87 earnings per share for the current year.

WEC Energy Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th were paid a $0.835 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $3.34 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.40%. WEC Energy Group’s payout ratio is currently 81.66%.

Insider Activity at WEC Energy Group

In other WEC Energy Group news, CEO Scott J. Lauber sold 6,720 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.89, for a total transaction of $677,980.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 45,709 shares in the company, valued at $4,611,581.01. This represents a 12.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Gale E. Klappa sold 1,805 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.40, for a total value of $179,417.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 273,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,160,851.20. This represents a 0.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 48,794 shares of company stock worth $4,866,579. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.