Oakworth Capital Inc. Sells 364 Shares of Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

Oakworth Capital Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) by 4.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,099 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 364 shares during the quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc.’s holdings in Duke Energy were worth $873,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in 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 valued at $2,016,846,000 after purchasing an additional 442,302 shares during the period. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC boosted its stake in Duke Energy by 11,471.4% during the 3rd 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 during the period. Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in Duke Energy by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 2,290,641 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $264,111,000 after purchasing an additional 6,500 shares during the period. Groupama Asset Managment bought a new stake in Duke Energy during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $2,537,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in Duke Energy by 155.1% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,873,321 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $201,832,000 after purchasing an additional 1,138,979 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 65.31% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on DUK shares. Mizuho upgraded Duke Energy from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $116.00 to $121.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Duke Energy from $122.00 to $118.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Scotiabank raised their price objective on Duke Energy from $113.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. KeyCorp downgraded Duke Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Duke Energy from $119.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Duke Energy has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $122.08.

Duke Energy Trading Up 1.3 %

DUK stock opened at $113.88 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $109.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $112.66. Duke Energy Co. has a fifty-two week low of $90.09 and a fifty-two week high of $121.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $87.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.50. 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 (NYSE:DUK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The utilities provider reported $1.62 earnings per share 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 period in the prior year, the business earned $1.94 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Duke Energy Co. will post 5.91 EPS 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. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued 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 yield of 3.67%. Duke Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 76.84%.

Duke Energy 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.