Apexium Financial LP Increases Stock Holdings in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

Apexium Financial LP increased its holdings in shares of Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) by 4.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,343 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 210 shares during the quarter. Apexium Financial LP’s holdings in Duke Energy were worth $576,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dark Forest Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Duke Energy during the 2nd quarter valued at about $207,000. Creative Planning grew its holdings in shares of Duke Energy by 9.8% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 278,497 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,914,000 after purchasing an additional 24,888 shares during the last quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Duke Energy by 26.8% during the 2nd quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC now owns 5,809 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $582,000 after purchasing an additional 1,226 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Duke Energy by 7.9% in the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 138,290 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $13,861,000 after purchasing an additional 10,106 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its stake in Duke Energy by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 135,637 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $13,595,000 after buying an additional 3,115 shares during the last quarter. 65.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on DUK. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Duke Energy from $122.00 to $118.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Mizuho raised shares of Duke Energy from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $116.00 to $121.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. 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 research note on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays increased their price objective on Duke Energy from $102.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, KeyCorp downgraded Duke Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $122.23.

Duke Energy Trading Up 2.5 %

Shares of Duke Energy stock opened at $112.60 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $110.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $112.36. The firm has a market cap of $86.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.49. Duke Energy Co. has a fifty-two week low of $90.09 and a fifty-two week 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 posted its quarterly earnings data 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). 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 the consensus estimate of $8.06 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.94 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Duke Energy Co. will post 5.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Duke Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $1.045 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $4.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.71%. Duke Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.