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

Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 9th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of 1.045 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, March 17th. This represents a $4.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.86%.

Duke Energy has raised its dividend payment by an average of 2.0% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 20 consecutive years. Duke Energy has a dividend payout ratio of 62.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Up 1.4 %

Shares of DUK opened at $108.30 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $111.14 and its 200 day moving average is $111.59. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $83.66 billion, a PE ratio of 19.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.49. Duke Energy has a fifty-two week low of $90.09 and a fifty-two week high of $121.25.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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). The company had revenue of $8.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.06 billion. Duke Energy had a net margin of 14.31% and a return on equity of 9.34%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.94 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Duke Energy will post 5.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $113.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays raised their price target on Duke Energy from $102.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Mizuho upgraded Duke Energy from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $116.00 to $121.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Duke Energy from $120.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered shares of Duke Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.