Brookstone Capital Management Has $11.61 Million Stock Position in WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC)

Brookstone Capital Management lowered its position in shares of WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 123,471 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,014 shares during the quarter. Brookstone Capital Management’s holdings in WEC Energy Group were worth $11,611,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of WEC. Mizuho Securities USA LLC boosted its position in WEC Energy Group by 106,685.0% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 26,000,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,500,680,000 after acquiring an additional 25,975,652 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in WEC Energy Group by 17,270.5% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,718,179 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $453,794,000 after acquiring an additional 4,691,017 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in WEC Energy Group by 102.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,776,071 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $362,971,000 after acquiring an additional 1,912,223 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted 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 acquiring an additional 699,177 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its position in WEC Energy Group by 57.7% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 1,900,238 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $182,765,000 after acquiring an additional 695,317 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on WEC shares. Bank of America upgraded WEC Energy Group from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $90.00 to $98.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays upgraded 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 note on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded WEC Energy Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on WEC Energy Group from $103.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on WEC Energy Group in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. They set a “hold” rating and a $102.00 price objective on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $98.40.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other 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 transaction of $677,980.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 45,709 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,611,581.01. This represents a 12.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Gale E. Klappa sold 40,269 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 273,248 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,204,570.88. This trade represents a 12.84 % 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 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

WEC Energy Group Stock Up 0.5 %

WEC opened at $93.85 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37. The stock has a market cap of $29.69 billion, a PE ratio of 22.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.48. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $96.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $92.72. WEC Energy Group, Inc. has a 1-year low of $75.13 and a 1-year high of $102.79.

WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.93 billion. WEC Energy Group had a return on equity of 11.72% and a net margin of 15.14%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.00 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that WEC Energy Group, Inc. will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

WEC Energy Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $0.8925 per share. This is a boost from WEC Energy Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.84. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $3.57 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.80%. WEC Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 87.29%.

WEC Energy Group 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.