WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) Raises Dividend to $0.89 Per Share

WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 5th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th will be given a dividend of 0.8925 per share by the utilities provider on Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $3.57 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is a positive change from WEC Energy Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.84.

WEC Energy Group has raised its dividend payment by an average of 7.2% per year over the last three years. WEC Energy Group has a payout ratio of 63.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Stock Performance

WEC opened at $102.72 on Wednesday. WEC Energy Group has a 52-week low of $75.13 and a 52-week high of $102.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.49 billion, a PE ratio of 21.27, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.60. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $96.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $95.41.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Scott J. Lauber sold 6,720 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.89, for a total value of $677,980.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 45,709 shares in the company, valued at $4,611,581.01. This represents a 12.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Gale E. Klappa sold 40,269 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.56, for a total value of $4,009,181.64. Following the sale, the director now owns 273,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,204,570.88. The trade was a 12.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 48,794 shares of company stock worth $4,866,579 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on WEC. BMO Capital Markets upped 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. Bank of America raised WEC Energy Group from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $90.00 to $98.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Scotiabank upped their target price on 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. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on WEC Energy Group from $112.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, KeyCorp upped their target price on WEC Energy Group from $108.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $101.88.

About WEC Energy Group

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.