Grant GrossMendelsohn LLC Has $331,000 Position in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

Grant GrossMendelsohn LLC trimmed its position in shares of Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) by 14.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 3,069 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 503 shares during the quarter. Grant GrossMendelsohn LLC’s holdings in Duke Energy were worth $331,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Goodman Advisory Group LLC bought a new position in Duke Energy in the second quarter worth $2,888,000. CCM Investment Advisers LLC boosted its position in shares of Duke Energy by 24.3% during the 4th quarter. CCM Investment Advisers LLC now owns 83,610 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,008,000 after acquiring an additional 16,356 shares in the last quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. increased its stake in Duke Energy by 59.2% in the third quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. now owns 23,388 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,697,000 after acquiring an additional 8,699 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 86.5% in the 4th quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 148,703 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,021,000 after purchasing an additional 68,977 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 65.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

DUK has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Mizuho upgraded Duke Energy from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $116.00 to $121.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $102.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Duke Energy from $113.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. KeyCorp downgraded Duke Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Duke Energy from $122.00 to $118.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $122.23.

Duke Energy Price Performance

DUK opened at $109.34 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $110.55 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $111.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $84.47 billion, a PE ratio of 20.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.49. 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 released its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The utilities provider reported $1.62 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.73 by ($0.11). The company had revenue of $8.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.06 billion. Duke Energy had a net margin of 14.31% and a return on equity of 9.34%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.94 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Duke Energy Co. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Duke Energy Dividend Announcement

The company 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 dividend of $1.045 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $4.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.82%. Duke Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 76.84%.

Duke Energy Company Profile

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.