First Horizon Advisors Inc. Increases Stock Position in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) by 6.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 44,365 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,622 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Duke Energy were worth $5,115,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Pitcairn Co. increased its stake in Duke Energy by 5.8% in the first quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 6,927 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $670,000 after purchasing an additional 377 shares during the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC increased its position in Duke Energy by 1.5% during the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 35,883 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,471,000 after purchasing an additional 513 shares during the last quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new position in Duke Energy during the first quarter worth approximately $36,000. CreativeOne Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Duke Energy by 29.2% in the 1st quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 9,392 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $908,000 after purchasing an additional 2,120 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Duke Energy by 12.5% during the 1st quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 24,678 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,387,000 after buying an additional 2,740 shares during the last quarter. 65.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on DUK. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Duke Energy from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Duke Energy from $102.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $135.00 target price on shares of Duke Energy in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Duke Energy from $111.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered shares of Duke Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Duke Energy currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $121.85.

Duke Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE DUK opened at $113.78 on Thursday. Duke Energy Co. has a 12-month low of $88.73 and a 12-month high of $121.25. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55. The company has a market cap of $87.89 billion, a PE ratio of 20.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 0.47. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $115.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $109.56.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The utilities provider reported $1.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.73 by ($0.11). The business had revenue of $8.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.06 billion. Duke Energy had a return on equity of 9.34% and a net margin of 14.31%. The company’s revenue for the quarter 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. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Duke Energy Co. will post 5.97 EPS for the current year.

Duke Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be given a $1.045 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $4.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.67%. Duke Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.