WEC Energy Group, Inc. $WEC Shares Acquired by Rathbones Group PLC

Rathbones Group PLC boosted its stake in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) by 2.3% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 748,935 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,800 shares during the quarter. Rathbones Group PLC’s holdings in WEC Energy Group were worth $85,820,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of WEC. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in WEC Energy Group by 2.1% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 39,945,761 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,162,348,000 after acquiring an additional 816,243 shares in the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. raised its position in shares of WEC Energy Group by 324.1% during the 2nd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 774,679 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $80,722,000 after acquiring an additional 592,028 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in shares of WEC Energy Group by 160.6% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 943,962 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $98,361,000 after buying an additional 581,748 shares during the last quarter. Rakuten Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in WEC Energy Group in the third quarter worth about $57,028,000. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA acquired a new position in WEC Energy Group during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $40,362,000. 77.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at WEC Energy Group

In related news, CEO Scott J. Lauber sold 8,089 shares of WEC Energy Group stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.70, for a total value of $895,452.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 66,801 shares in the company, valued at $7,394,870.70. This trade represents a 10.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Mary Beth Straka sold 2,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.50, for a total transaction of $325,132.50. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 4,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $543,658.50. This trade represents a 37.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 42,354 shares of company stock valued at $4,855,505 over the last 90 days. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on WEC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of WEC Energy Group from $113.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 15th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and set a $135.00 target price on shares of WEC Energy Group in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of WEC Energy Group in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $127.00 price objective on shares of WEC Energy Group in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on WEC Energy Group from $119.00 to $115.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $120.67.

WEC Energy Group Price Performance

NYSE:WEC opened at $115.91 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a current ratio of 0.59. The company has a 50-day moving average of $110.97 and a 200-day moving average of $110.55. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a 52 week low of $100.61 and a 52 week high of $118.18. The company has a market capitalization of $37.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.00, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.58.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.19 billion. WEC Energy Group had a return on equity of 12.40% and a net margin of 15.90%.The business’s revenue was down 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.43 earnings per share. WEC Energy Group has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.510-5.610 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 5.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.