Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC Takes $102,000 Position in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC)

Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 1,088 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $102,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Valmark Advisers Inc. raised its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 5.6% during the fourth quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 9,215 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $867,000 after purchasing an additional 485 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in shares of WEC Energy Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $12,616,000. Allworth Financial LP raised its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 534.3% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 35,934 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,506,000 after purchasing an additional 30,269 shares during the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. raised its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 23,622 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,221,000 after purchasing an additional 689 shares during the last quarter. Finally, WASHINGTON TRUST Co grew its position in WEC Energy Group by 131.9% during the fourth quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co now owns 1,637 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $154,000 after buying an additional 931 shares during the period. 77.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, 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 transaction of $677,980.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 45,709 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,611,581.01. This represents a 12.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Gale E. Klappa sold 40,269 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.56, for a total transaction of $4,009,181.64. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 273,248 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,204,570.88. The trade was a 12.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on WEC. Bank of America upgraded shares of WEC Energy Group from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $90.00 to $98.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays upgraded shares of WEC Energy Group from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $89.00 to $93.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of WEC Energy Group from $103.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of WEC Energy Group from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of WEC Energy Group from $108.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $101.88.

WEC Energy Group Stock Performance

WEC opened at $103.01 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $32.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.33, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.49. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a 1-year low of $76.50 and a 1-year high of $104.16. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $97.17 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $96.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 0.60 and a quick ratio of 0.46.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The utilities provider reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by ($0.06). WEC Energy Group had a return on equity of 12.39% and a net margin of 17.75%. The company had revenue of $2.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.10 EPS. WEC Energy Group’s revenue was up 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 5.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

WEC Energy Group Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $0.835 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $3.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.24%. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio is 69.15%.

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.