Heartland Bank & Trust Co Makes New Investment in WEC Energy Group, Inc. $WEC

Heartland Bank & Trust Co acquired a new stake in shares of WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 4,722 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $551,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Godfrey Financial Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of WEC Energy Group during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Torren Management LLC bought a new stake in WEC Energy Group in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in WEC Energy Group in the second quarter worth $27,000. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in WEC Energy Group by 113.9% during the first quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 246 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 131 shares during the period. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. boosted its stake in WEC Energy Group by 972.7% during the first quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 236 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 214 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.20% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Ulice Payne, Jr. sold 980 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.58, for a total transaction of $103,468.40. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 19,588 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,068,101.04. This trade represents a 4.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.46% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on WEC. Truist Financial reduced their target price on shares of WEC Energy Group from $122.00 to $114.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of WEC Energy Group from $120.00 to $117.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. KeyCorp cut their price target on shares of WEC Energy Group from $126.00 to $117.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of WEC Energy Group from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH lowered WEC Energy Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $110.50 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $121.91.

WEC Energy Group Stock Down 2.0%

NYSE:WEC opened at $106.33 on Friday. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $102.95 and a twelve month high of $119.91. The company has a market cap of $34.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.47. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $112.86 and a 200-day simple moving average of $113.71. The company has a current ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The utilities provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $2.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. WEC Energy Group had a net margin of 16.69% and a return on equity of 12.90%. The business’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.76 earnings per share. WEC Energy Group has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.510-5.610 EPS. Analysts anticipate that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 5.59 EPS for the current year.

WEC Energy Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 14th will be paid a $0.9525 dividend. This represents a $3.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 14th. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 73.84%.

WEC Energy Group Profile

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.