Sargent Investment Group LLC Increases Position in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

Sargent Investment Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) by 115.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 6,966 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,736 shares during the quarter. Sargent Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Duke Energy were worth $739,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position 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 acquiring an additional 442,302 shares in the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC increased its position in shares of Duke Energy by 11,471.4% in the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 6,777,973 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $781,500,000 after acquiring an additional 6,719,398 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank increased its position in shares of Duke Energy by 0.3% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 2,290,641 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $264,111,000 after acquiring an additional 6,500 shares in the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment acquired a new stake in shares of Duke Energy in the third quarter worth $2,537,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Duke Energy by 155.1% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,873,321 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $201,832,000 after acquiring an additional 1,138,979 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on DUK shares. KeyCorp lowered shares of Duke Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Scotiabank raised 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. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Duke Energy from $122.00 to $118.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Duke Energy from $119.00 to $124.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Mizuho raised shares of Duke Energy from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $116.00 to $121.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $122.08.

Duke Energy Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE DUK opened at $112.46 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $110.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $112.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.45. Duke Energy Co. has a 12 month low of $90.09 and a 12 month high of $121.25. The company has a market capitalization of $86.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.50.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last posted its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $8.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.06 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.94 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Duke Energy Co. will post 5.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Duke Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a $1.045 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $4.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.72%. Duke Energy’s 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.