WEC 2026 vs 2024: How the Stock Returns Compare

WEC 2026 vs 2024 shows a stock that gained 16.11% in 2024 but has climbed only 7.51% year-to-date through mid-August 2026, less than half its prior pace.

How Did WEC Perform in 2024 Compared to 2026 So Far?

WEC Energy Group closed out 2024 with a 16.11% gain, but its 2026 year-to-date return sits at just 7.51% through mid-August, according to PortfoliosLab. That gap means the stock is running at less than half its 2024 pace this year.

Utility stocks like WEC often move at a steady clip rather than in sharp swings. Still, a drop from a double-digit yearly gain to a slower first eight months of the year is worth watching for anyone tracking the stock’s year-over-year pattern.

Readers who follow season results, like those checking wec-race-results-2026 coverage, should note this ticker symbol WEC has nothing to do with the World Endurance Championship racing series. It belongs to a Wisconsin-based utility company that just happens to share the same three letters.

What Is WEC’s Stock Price Right Now?

WEC closed at $110.53 on August 14, 2026, a gain of $0.25, or 0.23%, for the trading day, based on figures from MarketBeat. In extended trading, the price slipped to $110.49, down $0.04 from the close.

That small after-hours dip is normal for a low-swing utility stock. Traders watching after-hours moves closely won’t find much drama here — WEC tends to hold its ground rather than jump around.

How Does WEC Stack Up Against the S&P 500?

WEC has trailed the S&P 500, tracked through the SPY ETF, across nearly every measured stretch, based on PortfoliosLab data. In 2024, SPY returned 24.89% while WEC returned 16.11%. So far in 2026, SPY is up 14.45% year-to-date against WEC’s 7.51%.

The gap widens over the long run too. WEC’s 10-year annualized return sits at 9.80%, well below the S&P 500’s 15.38% pace over the same stretch. The two stocks also show a low 0.33 correlation, meaning WEC often moves apart from the broader market’s swings.

Readers comparing performance numbers across different kinds of competition will find a similar season-by-season breakdown in historical-performance-comparison-of-legendary-f1-drivers, where year-by-year data tells a similar story about consistency versus peak years.

What Do Wall Street Analysts Think of WEC Stock?

Eighteen analysts covering WEC give it a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating, according to MarketBeat. That breaks down to 10 Hold ratings, 7 Buy ratings, 1 Strong Buy call, and zero Sell ratings.

No analyst tracked by MarketBeat currently recommends selling WEC. That mix points to steady confidence in the stock’s future without much disagreement about downside risk.

What Price Targets Are Analysts Setting for WEC?

The average 12-month price target for WEC stands at $121.91, according to MarketBeat. Measured against the $110.53 closing price, that target points to roughly 10.29% upside.

Individual targets range from a low of $110.50, barely below the current price, up to a high of $135.00. That range shows analysts don’t fully agree on how far the stock can climb over the next year, even though none of them expect it to fall much further.

Was WEC’s Stock Performance Always This Stable?

No. WEC actually lost 7.00% in 2023 before bouncing back with a 16.11% gain in 2024 and a 15.96% gain in 2025, per PortfoliosLab figures. That swing from a down year to two strong up years shows how much a single utility stock’s yearly return can shift.

Investors who only look at one year’s number risk missing the full pattern behind the stock’s swings. A stock that lost ground in 2023 turned around fast, and 2026’s slower pace so far doesn’t necessarily point to a repeat of 2023’s decline.

Similar year-over-year swings show up across motorsport data too, as tracked in statistical-performance-reviews-motorsport-drivers, where a single off season rarely tells the full story of a driver’s career arc.

What Does AI-Based Scoring Say About WEC as an Investment?

Danelfin’s model gives WEC an AI Score of 7 out of 10, tagging the stock with a “Buy” signal and putting its odds of beating the market over the next three months at 57%. That’s 6 points above the average stock’s baseline of 51%, helped partly by strength in the Multi-Utilities sector factor, per Danelfin.

Machine-driven scoring models like this one work in a similar way to the ranking systems used in driver-rankings-based-on-machine-learning-analysis, where past results feed a model built to guess future outcomes rather than just report history. The same logic behind these scoring systems is broken down further in mathematical-models-for-driver-performance-assessments.

Why Do YTD Numbers for WEC Differ Between Sources?

PortfoliosLab reports WEC’s 2026 year-to-date return at 7.51%, while Danelfin lists a lower figure of 4.82%. The gap comes down to when each source pulled its snapshot and which exact dates it used to measure the gain.

Both numbers agree on the bigger point: WEC’s early 2026 climb is far slower than its 16.11% full-year gain in 2024. Anyone comparing multiple data providers should expect small gaps like this and focus on the shared pattern rather than the exact decimal point.

The same care applies to season stats tracked in season-statistics-for-drivers-and-constructors, where different tracking sites sometimes report slightly different totals for the same driver or team.