WEC ENERGY GROUP, INC. (WEC): what the price requires
The current priced-in claim for WEC ENERGY GROUP, INC. (WEC) is temporarily suppressed because the live engine record is unavailable. The dated report remains a snapshot, not a current market read.
Generated: 2026-07-14 · Exported: 2026-07-16 · Source: https://boothcheck.com/report/WEC
Headline
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Ticker | WEC |
| Company | WEC ENERGY GROUP, INC. |
| Current price | $115.65/sh |
What The Price Requires (Inversion)
The assumption today's price embeds, recovered by inverting the valuation.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Inversion basis | whole-company |
| Operating margin today | 25.9% |
| Multiple paid | 21x operating income |
The price sits below what even a 5%/yr operating-profit decline would warrant; the inversion reports a bound, not a solved growth path.
Solve inputs: computed at a 6.1% cost of capital with 4% terminal growth over a 5-year stage.
Reconcile: at the x-ray's 9.3% required return this reads ~17.7%/yr; the models below use their own rates.
How unusual the bet is: within-range
| Reference | Value |
|---|---|
| vs own history | -2.30σ |
| cohort percentile (of 70 peers) | 51 |
| implied end-window share | 0% |
Valuation X-Ray
Asset, earnings-power and peer-multiple models all land far below the price; ONLY the growth-DCF reaches it. The bet is durable compounding the static frames structurally cannot price (a moat/durability premium).
How the valuation models price the stock relative to the market price. Price/FV above 1.0 means the market pays more than that lens defends (expensive); at or below 1.0 the lens can defend the price.
| Family | Median price/FV | Models | Reads |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asset | 2.05x | 4 | expensive |
| Earnings | 4.59x | 1 | expensive |
| Relative | 1.51x | 3 | expensive |
| Growth | 1.24x | 3 | expensive |
Families that justify the price: Growth Families that call it expensive: Asset, Earnings, Relative
The models below discount at their own flat-beta convention rates (cost of equity 9.3%, WACC 6.3%); the inversion above states its own rate.
Per-Model Detail (n=11)
| Model | Family | FV | Price/FV | Applicable | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DCF Perpetual Growth | Growth | — | — | no | — |
| DCF Exit Multiple | Growth | $115.55 | 1.00x | yes | Exit EV/EBITDA: 13.7x / 15.7x / 17.7x (bear / base = today's held flat / bull), 6yr |
| Relative Valuation | Relative | $76.80 | 1.51x | yes | P/S fallback (negative EPS): Sector P/S 2.5x × TTM revenue — excluded from consensus |
| Simple DDM | Growth | — | — | no | — |
| Two-Stage DDM | Growth | $72.57 | 1.59x | yes | Stage 1: 5% for 5yr, Stage 2: 3.5% perpetual |
| Simple Excess Return | Asset | $53.88 | 2.15x | yes | BV/sh $44.38, ROE (TTM) 11.2%, ke 9.3% |
| Two-Stage Excess Return | Asset | $59.13 | 1.96x | yes | 5yr excess ROE then converge to ke=9.3% |
| Discounted Future Market Cap | Growth | $93.02 | 1.24x | yes | Rev $10.1B, growth 12% (input: historical growth; tapered), Terminal P/S: 3.1x / 3.8x / 4.4x (bear / base = today's held flat / bull, cap 8x) |
| Peter Lynch Fair Value | Relative | $0.00 | — | no | Negative/zero EPS — earnings-based value floored at $0 |
| Margin Trajectory | Growth | — | — | no | — |
| Earnings Power Value | Earnings | $25.21 | 4.59x | yes | Normalized EBIT (5y avg op income, one-time charges added back) $2.06B × (1−6%) / WACC 6.3% → EPV (no growth) |
| Residual Income | Asset | $60.15 | 1.92x | yes | BV $44.38 + 5yr PV of (ROE (TTM) 11.2% − Kₑ 9.3%) × BV; BV grows 7.3%/yr |
| Graham Number | Asset | — | — | no | — |
| EV/EBITDA Relative | Relative | $84.78 | 1.36x | yes | EBITDA $3.79B × sector EV/EBITDA 13.0x |
| FCF Yield | Earnings | $0.01 | 11565.00x | yes | FCF $223.3M / Kₑ 9.3% — zero-growth perpetuity (excluded from median) |
| SBC-Adj FCF Yield | Earnings | — | — | no | — |
| Ben Graham Formula | Earnings | — | — | no | — |
| ROIC-Justified P/B | Asset | $18.09 | 6.39x | yes | BV $44.38 × (ROIC 2.6% / WACC 6.3%) |
| P/Sales Sector | Relative | $76.80 | 1.51x | yes | Revenue $10.08B × sector P/S 2.5x |
| PEG Fair Value | Relative | — | — | no | — |
| Earnings Yield | Earnings | — | — | no | — |
| Funds From Operations Multiple | Relative | — | — | no | — |
| Clinical Phase NPV | Growth | — | — | no | — |
| Merton | Asset | — | — | no | — |
| V5 Mechanical | — | — | — | no | — |
Solvency
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Net debt | $22.4b |
| Net debt / NOPAT (after-tax) | 8.61x |
| Net debt / operating income (pre-tax) | 8.08x |
| Interest coverage | 3.1x |
| Share count CAGR (dilution) | 0.9% |
| Burning cash | no |
Bullet Takeaways
- WEC Energy grows earnings by investing in regulated infrastructure and earning a regulator-set return on it, and it just sized that engine at a record $37.5 billion capital plan for 2026 through 2030, all regulated, aimed at 7 to 8% annual EPS growth.
- The biggest risk is the price relative to a utility's normal range: at $112 no family of valuation method reaches the stock, so the premium rests on data center load growth materializing and regulators continuing to approve full cost recovery.
- What to watch is the Very Large Customer pivot: data center demand is expected to reach roughly 15% of the company's asset base by 2030, the single largest swing factor in whether the capital plan earns the growth it promises.
Bull Case
Valuing a regulated utility is unlike valuing almost any other business, and understanding why is the bull case. A utility does not compete on price or win customers; it invests capital in poles, wires, pipes and generation, and a regulator allows it to earn a set return on that investment through customer rates. Growth, therefore, is not about selling more; it is about how much capital the company can prudently deploy into its rate base and recover. WEC's accounting reflects this directly, deferring costs and revenues as regulatory assets and liabilities for future recovery as its regulators authorize. The lever a utility investor watches is the size of the capital plan, and WEC just pulled it hard: a record $37.5 billion of planned capital spending from 2026 through 2030, entirely allocated to regulated assets.
That plan converts mechanically into earnings growth if it is approved and built. Management targets 7 to 8% annual EPS growth through 2030 on the back of it, which is a strong rate for a utility, where mid-single digits is the norm. The first quarter showed the model working: net income rose to $804.4 million, diluted EPS of $2.45 beat expectations, and the company reaffirmed full-year 2026 guidance of $5.51 to $5.61 per share. The earnings are this predictable precisely because the regulatory framework smooths them; the company recovers prudent costs through rates set by its commissions.
What lifts WEC above an ordinary rate-base grower is the demand that justifies the spending. The Very Large Customer segment, driven by data center developments, is expected to reach roughly 15% of the company's asset base by 2030. Data centers are exactly the kind of large, steady electric load a utility wants: they need power continuously, they site where capacity exists, and they give the regulator a clear public-interest reason to approve the investment to serve them. Large commercial and industrial weather-normal electric deliveries grew 3% in the first quarter excluding a single iron ore mine, evidence the load growth is real and not just a forecast. A capital plan backed by genuine new demand is a far better setup than one that has to manufacture growth from a flat customer base.
Bear Case
The advantage a regulated utility relies on is the regulator's willingness to grant full cost recovery and a fair return, and that advantage is not guaranteed to hold at the pace WEC's plan requires. The company itself flags the risk in its filings: while it expects to recover its costs through regulated rates, there is a risk that it does not, with costs deferred as regulatory assets pending future recovery that may not fully materialize. A $37.5 billion capital plan is also a $37.5 billion request to regulators, and each rate case is a negotiation. If commissions grant lower returns, disallow some spending, or slow the cadence of rate increases to protect customers from bill shock, the 7 to 8% EPS growth thesis erodes at the only place it can be earned. The very size of the plan increases the regulatory and political scrutiny it draws.
The data center growth that powers the bull case carries its own erosion risk. Concentrating 15% of the asset base on a single customer class by 2030 ties a meaningful share of the plan to the capital-spending decisions of a handful of hyperscalers, whose data center siting plans can change, slow, or relocate. If the projected load does not arrive on schedule, the utility has either committed capital ahead of demand or must scale back the plan that justifies the premium. Large-customer load is lumpier and less captive than residential demand, and the structural advantage of a utility, serving a stable, regulated franchise, is partly traded away when growth depends on a few mobile, sophisticated counterparties.
The balance sheet is where the model's leverage becomes the bear's concern. WEC carries roughly $22.4 billion of net debt, nearly ten times trailing operating income, with operating earnings covering interest only about two and a half times. That leverage is normal for a capital-intensive utility and is supported by the regulated cash flows, but a $37.5 billion build means continued heavy borrowing, and in a higher-rate environment the cost of that debt rises even as the authorized return may not. The valuation leaves no room for any of this to go wrong: at $112 the price sits above every family of method, with the earnings-power lens at a small fraction of the price and peer multiples well below it. The market is paying a premium to the typical utility, which means it is betting WEC executes the largest capital plan in its history, gets full recovery on it, and lands the data center load on time. Each of those is plausible; all three together, at this price, is the bet.
Valuation
A utility is worth the rate base it can build and the return its regulators let it earn, so the right way to read WEC's price is against that engine rather than against a single multiple. At $112 the price embeds an assumption that the company executes its record capital plan and earns the 7 to 8% EPS growth that plan is designed to produce, sustained over years. The current operating margin near 23% is steady and regulated; the question the price asks is about growth and recovery, not margin.
No family of method reaches the price, which for a utility is the signal that the market is paying a premium to the sector. The asset-value methods, anchored on book value and the return spread, land below the price, around half of it. Peer multiples and the dividend-based methods land below it too, near two-thirds. The earnings-power lens, capitalizing current profit with no growth, sits at a small fraction of the price, which is expected for a business whose value rests on a long runway of rate-base growth rather than on its present earnings. Even the forward-growth methods fall short. That pattern says the price is a bet on durable, regulator-blessed compounding that the static frames structurally cannot price, the same shape any premium-valued utility shows. The premium is real and it is the thing to weigh: WEC trades above where the value methods land because the market credits the capital plan and the data center demand behind it.
Leverage is the structural feature that defines a utility's risk, and WEC's is consistent with the model: roughly $22.4 billion of net debt, near ten times trailing operating income, with interest covered about two and a half times. That is serviceable on regulated cash flows but leaves the company sensitive to interest rates, since the plan requires continuous borrowing and a higher cost of debt squeezes the spread between borrowing cost and authorized return. The decisive judgment for the value is not any single method's figure. It is whether the regulators grant full recovery on the largest capital program in the company's history and whether the data center load arrives to justify it, because those two together are what turn the premium the price already pays into the growth it assumes.
Catalysts
The first-quarter 2026 report, released in early May, paired an earnings beat with the strategic centerpiece. Net income rose to $804.4 million with diluted EPS of $2.45, ahead of the $2.30 expectation, on revenue of $3.43 billion, and the company reaffirmed full-year 2026 EPS guidance of $5.51 to $5.61. The headline strategic update was the record $37.5 billion capital plan for 2026 through 2030, entirely regulated, supporting a 7 to 8% annual EPS growth target.
The forward catalysts are regulatory and demand-driven. The cadence of rate cases that approve the capital plan, the authorized returns those cases set, and the pace at which the Very Large Customer data center load materializes toward the projected 15% of asset base by 2030 are the events that determine whether the growth target is met. Near-term, the company expects full-year electric sales to grow around 1.5%, with large commercial and industrial deliveries up 3% in the first quarter. Interest rates are the external variable to watch, because a capital program this large depends on continued borrowing, and the dividend, a core part of a utility's total return, is the other thing income-focused holders track each year. Subsequent earnings reports and rate-case outcomes are the events that confirm or challenge the capital-plan thesis.
Peer Cohorts (Per Segment, With Filing Citations)
Utility Operations (reported)
- NEE (NextEra Energy Inc)
- (no filing in the citation store)
- DUK (DUKE ENERGY CORPORATION)
- (no filing in the citation store)
- SO (SOUTHERN CO)
- (no filing in the citation store)
- AEP (AMERICAN ELECTRIC POWER CO INC.)
- (no filing in the citation store)
- D (DOMINION ENERGY, INC)
- (no filing in the citation store)
- EXC (EXELON CORPORATION)
- (no filing in the citation store)
- XEL (XCEL ENERGY INC)
- (no filing in the citation store)
Methodology Note
- Priced-in inversion: the valuation is inverted on the current price to recover the operating-income growth, duration, and steady-state margin the price embeds (ROE for financials, FFO growth for REITs).
- Valuation x-ray: the valuation models, grouped into four families (asset, earnings, relative, growth). Each model is expressed as a price/FV ratio (distance from price), not a point fair-value estimate. The spread across families is the disagreement.
- Solvency: net cash/debt, net-debt-to-NOPAT, interest coverage, and share-count CAGR from EDGAR financials (net debt / FFO and fixed-charge coverage for REITs; regulatory-capital framing for financials).
- Peer cohorts: per-segment comparables with deep-linkable SEC filing citations.
Fundamentals sourced from SEC EDGAR filings. Current price from Databento. The priced-in inversion and valuation x-ray are computed by the boothcheck engine; narrative composed by AI from the structured data.
Sources
Q1 2026 earnings call, May 2026 · FY2025 10-K, accession 0000783325-26-000018 · Q1 2026 earnings release, May 2026