Outfitter Financial LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

Outfitter Financial LLC lifted its position in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) by 6.0% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 9,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 535 shares during the period. Outfitter Financial LLC’s holdings in Duke Energy were worth $952,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of DUK. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 4,163.9% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 882,552 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $85,352,000 after purchasing an additional 861,854 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,515,388 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $799,599,000 after purchasing an additional 842,458 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 11,141,020 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,081,125,000 after purchasing an additional 509,039 shares during the period. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC purchased a new position in shares of Duke Energy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,874,000. Finally, Morningstar Investment Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 96.1% in the fourth quarter. Morningstar Investment Services LLC now owns 789,612 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $76,529,000 after purchasing an additional 387,038 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.31% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $110.00 to $122.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $111.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $102.00 to $113.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $114.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $135.00 target price on shares of Duke Energy in a report on Thursday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $113.92.

Insider Activity at Duke Energy

In other Duke Energy news, EVP Louis E. Renjel sold 540 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.64, for a total transaction of $61,365.60. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,884 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,259,617.76. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Duke Energy Stock Performance

Shares of DUK traded up $0.96 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $113.95. 3,022,442 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,948,703. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $107.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $101.26. Duke Energy Co. has a 52-week low of $83.06 and a 52-week high of $116.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $87.94 billion, a PE ratio of 28.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.45.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.16. Duke Energy had a net margin of 10.78% and a return on equity of 9.25%. The firm had revenue of $7.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.84 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.91 EPS. Duke Energy’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Duke Energy Co. will post 5.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Duke Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th will be given a $1.045 dividend. This represents a $4.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.67%. This is a positive change from Duke Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 16th. Duke Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 105.03%.

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.