Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV Has $1.76 Million Holdings in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its position in shares of Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 16,300 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 128 shares during the period. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV’s holdings in Duke Energy were worth $1,756,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Duke Energy in the second quarter worth $2,586,000. LPL Financial LLC grew its position in Duke Energy by 3.6% during the second quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 1,625,990 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $162,973,000 after buying an additional 56,629 shares in the last quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Duke Energy during the second quarter valued at about $377,000. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. lifted its position in shares of Duke Energy by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 34,694 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,477,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares during the period. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Duke Energy by 797.0% during the 2nd quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 129,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,983,000 after purchasing an additional 115,088 shares in the last quarter. 65.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on DUK. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Duke Energy from $122.00 to $118.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Mizuho upgraded Duke Energy from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $116.00 to $121.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $113.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $120.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Duke Energy from $102.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $122.23.

Duke Energy Price Performance

Duke Energy stock opened at $108.30 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $111.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $111.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55. The stock has a market cap of $83.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.49. Duke Energy Co. has a 12-month low of $90.09 and a 12-month high of $121.25.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The utilities provider reported $1.62 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.73 by ($0.11). Duke Energy had a return on equity of 9.34% and a net margin of 14.31%. The business had revenue of $8.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.06 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.94 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Duke Energy Co. will post 5.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Duke Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of $1.045 per share. This represents a $4.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.86%. Duke Energy’s payout ratio is 76.84%.

Duke Energy 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.