Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC Takes Position in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 5,795 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $580,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Duke Energy by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 11,141,020 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,081,125,000 after acquiring an additional 509,039 shares during the last quarter. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC purchased a new position in shares of Duke Energy during the 4th quarter valued at $41,874,000. Morningstar Investment Services LLC increased its holdings in Duke Energy by 96.1% in the 4th quarter. Morningstar Investment Services LLC now owns 789,612 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $76,529,000 after acquiring an additional 387,038 shares during the last quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON bought a new stake in Duke Energy in the 1st quarter valued at about $36,278,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Duke Energy by 0.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 70,675,702 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,835,047,000 after purchasing an additional 324,289 shares during the period. 65.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DUK has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Duke Energy from $114.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Duke Energy from $104.00 to $113.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $135.00 price objective on shares of Duke Energy in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $108.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Duke Energy from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $114.23.

Duke Energy Stock Performance

Duke Energy stock opened at $117.70 on Tuesday. Duke Energy Co. has a fifty-two week low of $83.06 and a fifty-two week high of $118.31. The stock has a market cap of $90.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.57, a PEG ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.47. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $111.54 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $103.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a current ratio of 0.81.

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

Duke Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th were given a dividend of $1.045 per share. This represents a $4.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.55%. This is an increase from Duke Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. Duke Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 105.03%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 shares were sold at an average price of $113.64, for a total value of $61,365.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,884 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,259,617.76. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

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.