Hoey Investments Inc. Buys New Shares in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC)

Hoey Investments Inc. purchased a new position in shares of WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 450 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $42,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 134.2% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,047,753 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,038,931,000 after acquiring an additional 6,329,574 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in WEC Energy Group by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,952,851 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $762,453,000 after purchasing an additional 105,580 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in WEC Energy Group by 17.0% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,806,360 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $462,276,000 after purchasing an additional 699,177 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,863,782 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $363,350,000 after buying an additional 87,711 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of WEC Energy Group by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,261,706 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $212,691,000 after buying an additional 46,609 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on WEC shares. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on 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. StockNews.com cut shares of WEC Energy Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Scotiabank raised their price target 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. Barclays upgraded shares of WEC Energy Group from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $89.00 to $93.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Bank of America upgraded WEC Energy Group from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $90.00 to $98.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $101.88.

WEC Energy Group Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of WEC Energy Group stock opened at $109.14 on Tuesday. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $77.47 and a twelve month high of $110.19. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $103.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $99.04. The company has a current ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.47 billion, a PE ratio of 22.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.45.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The utilities provider reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.49 by ($0.06). WEC Energy Group had a net margin of 17.75% and a return on equity of 12.39%. The firm had revenue of $2.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.10 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 5.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Ulice Payne, Jr. sold 1,150 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $104.17, for a total value of $119,795.50. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,286,635.67. This trade represents a 4.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Gale E. Klappa sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.62, for a total transaction of $2,715,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 274,955 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,865,612.10. This represents a 8.33 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.