South Street Advisors LLC Purchases New Position in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

South Street Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 1,937 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $223,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. KPP Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. KPP Advisory Services LLC now owns 3,556 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $410,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. RIA Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Duke Energy in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $522,000. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 685,675 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $79,059,000 after purchasing an additional 26,172 shares during the last quarter. Northcape Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Northcape Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,818 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,593,000 after purchasing an additional 305 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Marin bought a new stake in shares of Duke Energy in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $209,000. 65.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on DUK shares. Scotiabank increased their price target on Duke Energy from $104.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. KeyCorp downgraded Duke Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Bank of America increased their price target on Duke Energy from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Mizuho upgraded Duke Energy from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $116.00 to $121.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Duke Energy from $111.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Duke Energy currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $121.85.

Duke Energy Price Performance

Shares of Duke Energy stock traded up $2.51 on Friday, hitting $112.17. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,868,001 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,065,508. Duke Energy Co. has a 1 year low of $88.27 and a 1 year high of $121.25. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $115.40 and a 200-day moving average price of $109.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.70. The company has a market capitalization of $86.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.47.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $8.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.06 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.94 earnings per share. Duke Energy’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Duke Energy Co. will post 5.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Duke Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.045 per share. This represents a $4.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. Duke Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 76.84%.

Duke Energy Company 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.