Confluence Investment Management LLC Acquires 3,377 Shares of WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC)

Confluence Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) by 1.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 226,660 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,377 shares during the quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC’s holdings in WEC Energy Group were worth $20,001,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec bought a new stake in shares of WEC Energy Group in the 4th quarter valued at $132,755,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 563.3% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,320,077 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $131,757,000 after buying an additional 1,121,075 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its position in WEC Energy Group by 16,625.5% in the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,010,552 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $94,749,000 after buying an additional 1,004,510 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in WEC Energy Group by 10.8% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,038,533 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $566,172,000 after buying an additional 590,838 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in WEC Energy Group by 8.4% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 6,276,059 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $594,908,000 after acquiring an additional 487,972 shares in the last quarter. 75.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WEC has been the subject of several research reports. KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of WEC Energy Group from $103.00 to $102.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 19th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of WEC Energy Group in a research report on Friday, August 18th. They set a “sell” rating for the company. Mizuho reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $98.00 price target on shares of WEC Energy Group in a research report on Friday, June 30th. Barclays started coverage on WEC Energy Group in a research note on Wednesday, August 23rd. They set an “underweight” rating and a $83.00 price target for the company. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their target price on WEC Energy Group from $98.00 to $91.00 in a report on Friday, June 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $95.83.

WEC Energy Group Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of WEC stock opened at $85.71 on Thursday. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a 52-week low of $80.82 and a 52-week high of $105.43. The business’s fifty day moving average is $87.29 and its 200 day moving average is $90.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.60. The company has a market capitalization of $27.04 billion, a PE ratio of 19.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 0.41.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $1.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.05 billion. WEC Energy Group had a return on equity of 11.48% and a net margin of 14.57%. The company’s revenue was down 14.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.91 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

WEC Energy Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 14th were paid a dividend of $0.78 per share. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 11th. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 72.73%.

About WEC Energy Group

WEC Energy Group, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides regulated natural gas and electricity, and renewable and nonregulated renewable energy services in the United States. The company operates through six segments: Wisconsin, Illinois, Other States, Electric Transmission, Non-Utility Energy Infrastructure, and Corporate and Other.