Duke Energy Co. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $1.05 (NYSE:DUK)

Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 9th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of 1.045 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, March 17th. This represents a $4.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.95%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th.

Duke Energy has raised its dividend by an average of 2.0% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 20 years. Duke Energy has a dividend payout ratio of 62.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Duke Energy to earn $6.34 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $4.18 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 65.9%.

Duke Energy Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of Duke Energy stock opened at $105.93 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.45. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $111.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $111.62. Duke Energy has a 1 year low of $90.09 and a 1 year high of $121.25. The company has a market capitalization of $81.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.47.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The utilities provider reported $1.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by ($0.11). Duke Energy had a return on equity of 9.34% and a net margin of 14.31%. The company 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 business posted $1.94 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Duke Energy will post 5.95 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on DUK. Scotiabank increased their target price on 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 cut Duke Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $120.00 to $126.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Mizuho raised shares of Duke Energy from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $116.00 to $121.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Duke Energy from $102.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Duke Energy has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $122.23.

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.