WEC · Utilities(electric & other services combined) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31
WEC Energy Group, Inc. reported revenue of $9.8 billion in fiscal 2025, after growing 3.1% a year over the previous 9 years. Its operating margin held steady at about 22.9% from 2016, and it earned 6.1% on its invested capital in the latest year. Of the $24.9 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 65.4% went back into the business and 34.1% to dividends; the share count rose 2.2%. On the accounting screens, it passes 5 of 9 Piotroski tests, its Altman Z'' of 0.93 is in the distress zone and its Beneish M-score is below the -1.78 line; 2 of the six cross-checks between its statements fire.
Revenue, fiscal 20259.8B+3.1% a year over 9 years
Operating margin22.9%gross margin 66.7%
Return on invested capital6.1%5.9% on average over 5 years
Free cash flow—
Net debt ÷ EBITDA5.4×net debt 20.0B
Piotroski F-score5/9tests of improvement passed
Is it growing?
Revenue and the operating income it turns into. Growth that does not reach operating income is growth bought with margin.
RevenueOperating income
02.5B5.0B7.5B10.0B
2016Revenue 7.5BOperating income 1.7B
2017Revenue 7.6BOperating income 1.8B
2018Revenue 7.7BOperating income 1.5B
2019Revenue 7.5BOperating income 1.5B
2020Revenue 7.2BOperating income 1.7B
2021Revenue 8.3BOperating income 1.7B
2022Revenue 9.6BOperating income 1.9B
2023Revenue 8.9BOperating income 1.9B
2024Revenue 8.6BOperating income 2.2B
2025Revenue 9.8BOperating income 2.2B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
+0.7%
+6.2%
+3.1%
Operating income
+5.3%
+5.6%
+3.2%
Net income
+3.3%
+5.3%
—
Earnings per share
+2.5%
+4.8%
—
Dividend per share
+6.9%
+7.1%
+6.7%
Shares
+0.8%
+0.5%
+0.2%
Falling shares are buybacks: each remaining share owns more of the company.
Does it earn more than its capital costs?
Margins say how much of each sale is kept; return on invested capital says how much the business earns on the money it needs to operate. Growth only creates value when that return is above the cost of the capital.
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
11.1%
Return on assets
3.0%
Asset turnover
0.19×
Is the profit cash, and where does the cash go?
Net income is an accounting opinion; free cash flow is what was left in the bank after investing. Stock-based pay does not leave the bank — shareholders pay it through dilution — so it is shown taken off as well.
2017Net income 1.2BFree cash flow 119.1MAfter stock-based pay 90.1M
2018Net income 1.1BFree cash flow 28.4MAfter stock-based pay -7.7M
2019Net income 1.1BFree cash flow -183.5MAfter stock-based pay -233.7M
2020Net income 1.2BFree cash flow -678.3MAfter stock-based pay -714.0M
2021Net income 1.3BFree cash flow -340.0MAfter stock-based pay -355.7M
2022Net income 1.4BFree cash flow -636.2MAfter stock-based pay -671.0M
2023Net income 1.3B
2024Net income 1.5B
2025Net income 1.6B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2016–2025
24.9B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 65%16.3B
Acquisitions 2%590.6M
Dividends 34%8.5B
Share buybacks 2%614.4M
More than it generated: funded with cash or new debt -4%-1.1B
Over the same years it paid 316.7M in stock. The share count rose 2.2%. 297.7M of the buybacks went beyond offsetting that dilution.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$-4.00$-2.00$0.00$2.00$4.00$6.00
2016Free cash flow per share $2.15Dividend per share $1.97
2017Earnings per share $3.80Free cash flow per share $0.38Dividend per share $2.07
2018Earnings per share $3.35Free cash flow per share $0.09Dividend per share $2.20
2019Earnings per share $3.58Free cash flow per share $-0.58Dividend per share $2.35
2020Earnings per share $3.80Free cash flow per share $-2.14Dividend per share $2.52
2021Earnings per share $4.11Free cash flow per share $-1.07Dividend per share $2.70
2022Earnings per share $4.46Free cash flow per share $-2.01Dividend per share $2.90
2023Earnings per share $4.22Dividend per share $3.12
2024Earnings per share $4.82Dividend per share $3.34
2025Earnings per share $4.80Dividend per share $3.54
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
314.0M316.0M318.0M320.0M322.0M324.0M
2016Diluted shares 316.9M
2017Diluted shares 317.2M
2018Diluted shares 316.9M
2019Diluted shares 316.7M
2020Diluted shares 316.5M
2021Diluted shares 316.3M
2022Diluted shares 316.1M
2023Diluted shares 315.9M
2024Diluted shares 316.5M
2025Diluted shares 323.8M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
How strong is the balance sheet?
Debt is not bad in itself; debt the business cannot service in a bad year is. Net debt is debt minus cash, and below zero the company holds more cash than it owes.
Net debt
05.0B10.0B15.0B20.0B
2016Net debt 10.0B
2017Net debt 10.2B
2018Net debt 10.3B
2019Net debt 11.8B
2020Net debt 12.4B
2021Net debt 13.5B
2022Net debt 15.4B
2023Net debt 16.6B
2024Net debt 18.9B
2025Net debt 20.0B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
5.4×
Interest coverage
3× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
0.59 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
— collects in 77d
Three classic screens of the accounts
Each asks a different question of the same statements — is it improving, does it look like a company heading for distress, do the accounts resemble ones that were manipulated. None is a verdict; each shows what moves it.
Piotroski F-score
Is the business improving? Nine yes-or-no tests, this year against last.
5of 9 tests passed
✓ProfitableReturn on assets above zeropassed
✓Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zeropassed
✕Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year beforefailed
✓Profit backed by cashOperating cash flow above net income (low accruals)passed
✓Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fellpassed
✕More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year beforefailed
✕No new sharesShare count did not growfailed
✕Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year beforefailed
✓Sells more per assetAsset turnover higher than a year beforepassed
Where it misleads: it measures change, not level. An excellent business that stood still for a year scores low; a poor one recovering from a disaster scores high.
Altman Z''-score
Does the balance sheet look like those of companies that went bankrupt?
0.93distress zone
1.12.6
Working capital ÷ assets -0.04 × 6.56-0.29
Retained earnings ÷ assets 0.16 × 3.26+0.54
Operating income ÷ assets 0.04 × 6.72+0.29
Equity ÷ liabilities 0.38 × 1.05+0.39
Where it misleads: buybacks. A company that returns so much cash that its equity turns small or negative sinks the last two ratios without being anywhere near bankruptcy. Banks and insurers do not fit the model at all.
Beneish M-score
Do the accounts resemble those of companies that manipulated their earnings?
-2.45below the -1.78 line
-1.78
Receivables vs sales 1.08+1.00
Gross margin slipping 1.04+0.55
Soft assets 0.93+0.38
Sales growth 1.14+1.02
Slower depreciation 1.01+0.12
Overheads vs sales 1.00 (not reported, set to 1)-0.17
Profit not in cash -0.04-0.17
Leverage rising 1.01-0.33
Where it misleads: fast growth and acquisitions. Sales growth carries a heavy weight, so a company growing 50% a year scores like a suspect without having done anything. It is a screen from a 1999 study, not an accusation.
Where the statements disagree
Cross-checks between the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow for the latest year, each with the benign reading and the worrying one.
The effective tax rate is 7.1%.
Benign
A favourable geographic mix, or legitimate tax credits.
Worrying
Not sustainable; projecting it forward inflates the valuation.
Net debt is 5.4 times EBITDA.
Benign
A stable sector with predictable cash flows and comfortable maturities.
Worrying
Little room if earnings fall; the maturity schedule is what to check.
What is it worth, under which assumptions?
A company is worth the cash it will generate, brought back to today. This model projects revenue with growth that fades over the years, applies a free cash flow margin, and discounts the result at the cost of capital. Every assumption says where it came from, and all of them can be changed.
The SEC accounts lack the lines needed for revenue, free cash flow or the share count, so there is no DCF for this company.
What it has filed lately
The last twelve months at the SEC, most important first: annual and quarterly reports, events, large holders and insiders.
Accounts from the company's own SEC filings; lines some companies do not report are shown as a dash rather than estimated. The risk-free rate is the 10-year US Treasury yield. A DCF is a way of making assumptions explicit, not a forecast: it states what the company would be worth if the assumptions held. The scores are screens that point where to look, not verdicts. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell.