Barclays Issues Positive Forecast for WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) Stock Price

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) had its price target lifted by stock analysts at Barclays from $105.00 to $110.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Barclays‘s price objective points to a potential upside of 0.26% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on the company. Wall Street Zen lowered WEC Energy Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 1st. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised shares of WEC Energy Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Citigroup started coverage on shares of WEC Energy Group in a report on Friday, October 3rd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $131.00 price objective on the stock. TD Cowen began coverage on shares of WEC Energy Group in a report on Thursday, October 16th. They set a “hold” rating and a $125.00 target price for the company. Finally, BTIG Research raised WEC Energy Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $120.64.

WEC Energy Group Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of NYSE WEC traded up $0.20 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $109.72. 879,273 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,869,703. WEC Energy Group has a 12-month low of $96.37 and a 12-month high of $118.18. The firm has a market cap of $35.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.75, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.58. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $107.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $109.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.33 and a current ratio of 0.50.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.02. WEC Energy Group had a return on equity of 12.60% and a net margin of 17.75%.The business had revenue of $2.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.86 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.82 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. WEC Energy Group has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.170-5.270 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that WEC Energy Group will post 5.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in WEC Energy Group by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 39,945,761 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,162,348,000 after acquiring an additional 816,243 shares during the period. Freestone Grove Partners LP increased its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 30,697.3% in the third quarter. Freestone Grove Partners LP now owns 620,565 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $71,111,000 after purchasing an additional 618,550 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 purchasing an additional 592,028 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in shares of WEC Energy Group by 160.6% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 943,962 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $98,361,000 after buying an additional 581,748 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rakuten Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in WEC Energy Group in the 3rd quarter worth $57,028,000. Institutional investors own 77.20% of the company’s stock.

About WEC Energy Group

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.