Midland Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires 728 Shares of Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

Midland Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) by 14.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,659 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 728 shares during the quarter. Midland Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Duke Energy were worth $567,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in DUK. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Duke Energy by 18.4% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 10,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,041,000 after buying an additional 1,666 shares during the last quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC lifted its position in Duke Energy by 8.4% in the 4th quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 11,100 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,077,000 after acquiring an additional 860 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its stake in Duke Energy by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 75,530 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,330,000 after purchasing an additional 2,485 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management raised its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 55.1% in the fourth quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 6,187 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $600,000 after purchasing an additional 2,199 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Duke Energy by 11.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,515,388 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $799,599,000 after purchasing an additional 842,458 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on DUK shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Duke Energy from $110.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Duke Energy from $99.00 to $114.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $111.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Duke Energy from $102.00 to $113.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Duke Energy from $114.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Duke Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $113.92.

Insider Transactions at Duke Energy

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 value 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Duke Energy Stock Up 1.6 %

DUK stock opened at $115.82 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $108.52 and its 200-day moving average price is $101.72. The stock has a market cap of $89.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.10, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.45. Duke Energy Co. has a twelve month low of $83.06 and a twelve month high of $116.67. The company has a quick ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56.

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

Duke Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be given a $1.045 dividend. This represents a $4.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.61%. This is an increase from Duke Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 16th. Duke Energy’s payout ratio is presently 105.03%.

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.