Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) Shares Sold by Capital Investment Advisors LLC

Capital Investment Advisors LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) by 3.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 57,319 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 2,096 shares during the period. Capital Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Duke Energy were worth $6,609,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of DUK. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Duke Energy by 65.7% during the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,052,969 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $205,769,000 after acquiring an additional 813,744 shares during the period. Wulff Hansen & CO. lifted its position in shares of Duke Energy by 9,923.0% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 769,265 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $77,103,000 after acquiring an additional 761,590 shares during the period. BROOKFIELD Corp ON acquired a new stake in shares of Duke Energy during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $36,278,000. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in shares of Duke Energy by 3.2% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 11,493,340 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,111,521,000 after acquiring an additional 352,320 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Duke Energy by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 70,675,702 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,835,047,000 after acquiring an additional 324,289 shares during the period. 65.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Duke Energy Stock Performance

NYSE DUK opened at $120.76 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $93.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.34, a P/E/G ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 0.46. Duke Energy Co. has a 1-year low of $85.79 and a 1-year high of $120.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.53. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $115.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $106.67.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $7.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.84 billion. Duke Energy had a return on equity of 9.71% and a net margin of 14.29%. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.91 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Duke Energy Co. will post 5.97 EPS for the current year.

Duke Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be given a dividend of $1.045 per share. This represents a $4.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. Duke Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 105.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Louis E. Renjel sold 540 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.64, for a total transaction of $61,365.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,884 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,259,617.76. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on DUK. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Duke Energy from $114.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Mizuho raised Duke Energy from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $116.00 to $121.00 in a research note on Tuesday. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Duke Energy from $121.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Duke Energy from $111.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Duke Energy from $104.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $121.85.

About Duke Energy

Duke Energy Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy company in the United States. It operates through two segments: Electric Utilities and Infrastructure (EU&I), and Gas Utilities and Infrastructure (GU&I). The EU&I segment generates, transmits, distributes, and sells electricity in the Carolinas, Florida, and the Midwest.