Dearborn Partners LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in WEC Energy Group, Inc. $WEC

Dearborn Partners LLC cut its stake in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) by 11.2% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 339,058 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 42,867 shares during the period. WEC Energy Group accounts for about 1.8% of Dearborn Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 10th largest position. Dearborn Partners LLC’s holdings in WEC Energy Group were worth $35,757,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 41,099,951 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,334,401,000 after purchasing an additional 819,627 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,838,003 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $928,653,000 after purchasing an additional 88,557 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 3.4% in the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,697,248 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $309,078,000 after purchasing an additional 87,446 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its stake in WEC Energy Group by 9.6% in the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,589,930 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $296,780,000 after acquiring an additional 226,894 shares during the period. Finally, Mairs & Power Inc. lifted its stake in WEC Energy Group by 20.2% in the third quarter. Mairs & Power Inc. now owns 1,793,851 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $205,557,000 after acquiring an additional 301,323 shares during the period. 77.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on WEC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of WEC Energy Group from $125.00 to $120.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of WEC Energy Group from $117.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Argus raised shares of WEC Energy Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $127.00 price objective on shares of WEC Energy Group in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Mizuho set a $124.00 price objective on shares of WEC Energy Group in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $122.13.

WEC Energy Group Stock Performance

WEC stock opened at $112.91 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $36.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.54, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.47. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $113.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $111.62. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a one year low of $102.49 and a one year high of $119.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.68.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The utilities provider reported $2.45 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.30 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $3.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.32 billion. WEC Energy Group had a net margin of 16.25% and a return on equity of 12.72%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.27 earnings per share. WEC Energy Group has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.510-5.610 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 5.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

WEC Energy Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, May 14th were given a $0.9525 dividend. This represents a $3.81 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 14th. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 76.05%.

Insider Activity at WEC Energy Group

In related news, EVP Daniel Krueger sold 4,665 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.96, for a total value of $517,628.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 7,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $815,112.16. This trade represents a 38.84% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.46% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About WEC Energy Group

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.