Empirical Finance LLC Sells 328 Shares of Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

Empirical Finance LLC lowered its position in shares of Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) by 1.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 26,162 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 328 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Duke Energy were worth $2,819,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 442,302 shares during the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC grew its position in shares of Duke Energy by 11,471.4% in the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 6,777,973 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $781,500,000 after buying an additional 6,719,398 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank increased its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 0.3% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 2,290,641 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $264,111,000 after buying an additional 6,500 shares during the period. Groupama Asset Managment purchased a new stake in Duke Energy in the third quarter worth $2,537,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in 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 valued at $201,832,000 after acquiring an additional 1,138,979 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on DUK shares. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $119.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Duke Energy from $113.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Duke Energy from $122.00 to $118.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. KeyCorp downgraded Duke Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Mizuho upgraded shares of Duke Energy from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $116.00 to $121.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $122.08.

Duke Energy Stock Performance

Shares of DUK opened at $115.01 on Friday. Duke Energy Co. has a 12 month low of $90.09 and a 12 month high of $121.25. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $109.73 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $112.72. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55. The company has a market cap of $88.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.50.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The utilities provider reported $1.62 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $8.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.06 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.94 EPS. Duke Energy’s revenue was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Duke Energy Co. will post 5.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Duke Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of $1.045 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $4.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.63%. Duke Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.