WEC Energy Group, Inc. (WEC) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.84 on March 1st

WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 5th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of 0.835 per share by the utilities provider on Saturday, March 1st. This represents a $3.34 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th.

WEC Energy Group has raised its dividend by an average of 7.2% per year over the last three years. WEC Energy Group has a dividend payout ratio of 63.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect WEC Energy Group to earn $5.58 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.57 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 64.0%.

WEC Energy Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WEC traded down $0.69 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $102.02. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 157,012 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,116,545. The company has a market cap of $32.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.49. WEC Energy Group has a 12-month low of $75.13 and a 12-month high of $102.79. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $96.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $95.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.60.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The utilities provider reported $1.43 EPS 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 company had revenue of $2.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.10 EPS. WEC Energy Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that WEC Energy Group will post 5.23 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on WEC. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on WEC Energy Group from $112.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Barclays raised shares of WEC Energy Group from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $89.00 to $93.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of WEC Energy Group from $108.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price 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. Finally, StockNews.com cut WEC Energy Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, WEC Energy Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $101.88.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Gale E. Klappa sold 1,805 shares of WEC Energy Group stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.40, for a total value of $179,417.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 273,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,160,851.20. The trade was a 0.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott J. Lauber sold 6,720 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.89, for a total value of $677,980.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 45,709 shares in the company, valued at $4,611,581.01. This trade represents a 12.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 48,794 shares of company stock worth $4,866,579 over the last ninety days. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by 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.