Money Concepts Capital Corp Raises Stock Position in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

Money Concepts Capital Corp lifted its holdings in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 48,406 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 584 shares during the quarter. Money Concepts Capital Corp’s holdings in Duke Energy were worth $5,215,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Duke Energy by 2.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 17,488,176 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,016,846,000 after purchasing an additional 442,302 shares during the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC increased its stake in Duke Energy by 11,471.4% in the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 6,777,973 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $781,500,000 after acquiring an additional 6,719,398 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank raised its holdings in shares of Duke Energy by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 2,290,641 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $264,111,000 after acquiring an additional 6,500 shares in the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment bought a new position in shares of Duke Energy during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $2,537,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Duke Energy by 155.1% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,873,321 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $201,832,000 after purchasing an additional 1,138,979 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DUK has been the subject of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Duke Energy from $119.00 to $124.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. KeyCorp lowered Duke Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Duke Energy from $122.00 to $118.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Scotiabank increased their price target on Duke Energy from $113.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Mizuho raised shares of Duke Energy from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $116.00 to $121.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $122.08.

Duke Energy Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE DUK opened at $112.46 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $109.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $112.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $86.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.67, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.50. Duke Energy Co. has a 52-week low of $90.09 and a 52-week high of $121.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.70.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The utilities provider reported $1.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by ($0.11). Duke Energy had a return on equity of 9.34% and a net margin of 14.31%. The firm had revenue of $8.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.06 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.94 EPS. Duke Energy’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Duke Energy Co. will post 5.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Duke Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a $1.045 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $4.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.72%. Duke Energy’s payout ratio is presently 76.84%.

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.