Research Alert: CFRA Maintains Sell Opinion On Shares Of Wec Energy Group Inc.

02:05 PM EST, 02/05/2021 (MT Newswires) -- CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows:

We lower our 12-month target price to $81 from $88, reflecting 20.2x our 2021 EPS estimate, in line with WEC's historical forward average. We raise our 2021 EPS estimate to $4.01 from $4.00 and start our 2022 estimate at $4.28. WEC closes out 2020 with Q4 EPS of $0.90 vs. $0.77, beating the S&P Capital IQ Consensus Estimate by $0.17 -- driven by large commercial & industrial (C&I) sales trending in a positive direction, capital investments, rate adjustments at WEC's Wisconsin Utilities, ROE improvement at American transmission company, and production tax credits in the infrastructure business. We anticipate weather-normalized electric sales will decrease approximately 1.5% relative to 2019 (pre Covid-19), a 1.4% increase over 2020, as large C&I sales continue to improve during the vaccine roll-out, partly offset by declining residential sales and small C&I sales. We forecast weather-normalized natural gas deliveries will decline 2.4% relative to 2019, flat with 2020.