Duke Energy Corporation (DUK) – What Are Investment Firms Saying About This Stock?

Shares of Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE:DUK) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seventeen ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and nine have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $132.73.

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on DUK. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Duke Energy in a report on Friday, July 31st. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Duke Energy from $132.00 to $124.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 9th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and set a $121.00 price target on shares of Duke Energy in a report on Monday, October 12th. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of Duke Energy from $139.00 to $128.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 13th. Finally, BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Duke Energy in a report on Thursday, July 23rd.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in shares of Duke Energy in the second quarter valued at $605,680,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in Duke Energy by 5,254.4% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,735,816 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $358,227,000 after buying an additional 2,684,721 shares during the last quarter. Cullen Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Duke Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at about $244,731,000. Great Lakes Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Duke Energy during the second quarter valued at about $100,586,000. Finally, VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new stake in shares of Duke Energy during the second quarter valued at about $88,657,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.31% of the company’s stock.

Duke Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DUK opened at $121.33 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $118.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $123.58. Duke Energy has a 1-year low of $112.40 and a 1-year high of $134.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The company has a market cap of $94.60 billion, a PE ratio of 18.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.36.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 3rd. The utilities provider reported $1.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.30 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $7.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.66 billion. Duke Energy had a net margin of 15.78% and a return on equity of 9.78%. Duke Energy’s revenue was up 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.25 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Duke Energy will post 6.72 EPS for the current year.

Duke Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 13th will be paid a dividend of $1.0850 per share. This represents a $4.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 13th. Duke Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 65.17%.

Duke Energy Company Profile

Duke Energy Corporation is an energy holding company that provides regulated electric and natural gas utility services in the United States. Its electric utilities generate, transmit, distribute and sell electricity to residential, commercial, industrial and other customers. The company’s generation portfolio includes nuclear, natural gas, coal, hydroelectric and renewable energy resources.

Duke Energy serves customers primarily in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky.