Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. Purchases 2,769 Shares of Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) by 10.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 29,389 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,769 shares during the period. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Duke Energy were worth $3,166,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 2.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 17,488,176 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,016,846,000 after purchasing an additional 442,302 shares during the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its holdings in Duke Energy by 11,471.4% in the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 6,777,973 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $781,500,000 after buying an additional 6,719,398 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank grew its position in shares of Duke Energy by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 2,290,641 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $264,111,000 after buying an additional 6,500 shares during the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment purchased a new position in shares of Duke Energy during the third quarter valued at approximately $2,537,000. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its holdings in shares of Duke Energy by 65.7% during the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,052,969 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $205,769,000 after acquiring an additional 813,744 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on DUK shares. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Duke Energy from $113.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Mizuho raised shares of Duke Energy from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $116.00 to $121.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Duke Energy in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $138.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Duke Energy from $122.00 to $118.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, KeyCorp lowered Duke Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $122.23.

Duke Energy Stock Up 2.4 %

DUK stock opened at $109.05 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $110.59 and a 200 day moving average of $111.83. The firm has a market cap of $84.24 billion, a PE ratio of 20.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.49. Duke Energy Co. has a twelve month low of $90.09 and a twelve month high of $121.25. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The utilities provider reported $1.62 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.73 by ($0.11). The company had revenue of $8.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.06 billion. Duke Energy had a net margin of 14.31% and a return on equity of 9.34%. Duke Energy’s revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.94 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Duke Energy Co. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Duke Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a $1.045 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $4.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.83%. Duke Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.