WEC Energy Q1 Earnings Surpass Estimates, Revenues Rise Y/Y

WEC Energy Group WEC reported first-quarter 2025 earnings of $2.27 per share, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.19 by 3.7%. The bottom line also increased 15.2% from the year-ago quarter’s $1.97. (See the Zacks Earnings Calendar to stay ahead of market-making news.)

WEC’s Revenues

Operating revenues of $3.15 billion surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.82 billion by around 11.9%. The top line also increased 17.5% from $2.68 billion recorded in the year-ago quarter.

Highlights of WEC’s Earnings Release

Electricity consumption by small commercial and industrial customers increased 2.1% in the first quarter. The same for large commercial and industrial customers, excluding the iron ore mine, increased 1.1% year over year.

On a weather-normal basis, retail deliveries of electricity, excluding the iron ore mine, increased 0.7%.

Total electric sales volume for the quarter was 10,628.8 thousand megawatt-hours, up 1.1% year over year.

Total operating expenses were $2.21 billion, up 18.2% from the year-ago level of $1.87 billion. This was due to higher cost of sales and an increase in other operational and maintenance expenses.

Operating income totaled $937.5 million, up 15.2% from $813.4 million recorded in the year-ago quarter.

The company incurred an interest expense of $223 million, up 16.1% from the prior-year level of $192 million.

WEC’s Financial Position

As of March 31, 2025, WEC had cash and cash equivalents of $82.2 million compared with $9.8 million as of Dec. 31, 2024.

As of March 31, 2025, the company had a long-term debt of $16.2 billion compared with $17.2 billion as of Dec. 31, 2024.

Net cash provided by operating activities during the first three months of 2025 was $1.16 billion compared with $0.86 billion in the year-ago period.

WEC’s Guidance

WEC reaffirmed its 2025 earnings projection in the range of $5.17-$5.27 per share. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the metric is pegged at $5.24 per share, higher than the midpoint of the company’s guided range.

WEC Energy expects to invest $28 billion in the 2025-2029 period.

WEC’s Zacks Rank

The company currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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IDA’s long-term (three to five years) earnings growth rate is 8.47%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 earnings is pinned at $5.81 per share, which implies a year-over-year improvement of 5.6%.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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