Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 9,910,000 shares, a drop of 6.7% from the May 31st total of 10,620,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,740,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.6 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Duke Energy

In other news, CEO Lynn J. Good sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.30, for a total value of $1,549,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 437,464 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,190,031.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Lynn J. Good sold 15,000 shares of Duke Energy stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.30, for a total transaction of $1,549,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 437,464 shares in the company, valued at $45,190,031.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director E Marie Mckee sold 1,695 shares of Duke Energy stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.31, for a total value of $173,415.45. Following the transaction, the director now owns 4 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $409.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 26,695 shares of company stock valued at $2,750,815 in the last 90 days. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Duke Energy by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 23,010,030 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,030,865,000 after buying an additional 1,002,157 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 9,164.0% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 979,294 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $95,031,000 after purchasing an additional 968,723 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 4,163.9% in the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 882,552 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $85,352,000 after purchasing an additional 861,854 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Duke Energy by 11.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,515,388 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $799,599,000 after acquiring an additional 842,458 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in Duke Energy by 242.3% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,044,174 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $101,348,000 after acquiring an additional 739,112 shares in the last quarter. 65.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Duke Energy Stock Performance

Shares of Duke Energy stock traded up $0.46 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $99.81. 1,833,312 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,936,197. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $101.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $97.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, a quick ratio of 0.50 and a current ratio of 0.78. Duke Energy has a 12 month low of $83.06 and a 12 month high of $104.87. The company has a market capitalization of $77.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.45.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $1.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.05. Duke Energy had a net margin of 10.78% and a return on equity of 9.25%. The company had revenue of $7.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.31 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.20 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Duke Energy will post 5.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Duke Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were paid a $1.025 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $4.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.11%. Duke Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 103.02%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Duke Energy from $108.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 20th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Duke Energy from $89.00 to $99.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Duke Energy from $107.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 20th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Duke Energy from $101.00 to $94.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Duke Energy from $103.00 to $98.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $102.33.

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.