Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $122.23.

A number of analysts have commented on DUK shares. Scotiabank lifted 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 upped their price objective on Duke Energy from $102.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Duke Energy in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $138.00 target price for the company. Mizuho upgraded shares of Duke Energy from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $116.00 to $121.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $120.00 to $126.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of DUK. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 2.6% during the 3rd 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 grew its position in 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 valued at $781,500,000 after purchasing an additional 6,719,398 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Duke Energy by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,471,035 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $247,672,000 after buying an additional 40,243 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 0.3% during 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. Finally, Groupama Asset Managment bought a new position in shares of Duke Energy in the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,537,000. 65.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Duke Energy Trading Up 1.4 %

DUK stock opened at $108.30 on Thursday. 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 has a twelve month low of $90.09 and a twelve month high of $121.25. The company has a market cap of $83.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.91, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.49. The business has a fifty day moving average of $111.28 and a 200-day moving average of $111.62.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last released its 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 net margin of 14.31% and a return on equity of 9.34%. The business had revenue of $8.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.06 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.94 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Duke Energy will post 5.95 EPS for the current year.

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.