Wesbanco Bank Inc. Sells 1,977 Shares of Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

Wesbanco Bank Inc. lowered its stake in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) by 3.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 60,608 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,977 shares during the quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc.’s holdings in Duke Energy were worth $6,530,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 442,302 shares during the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC increased its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 6,719,398 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank increased its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 0.3% in 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 acquired a new position in shares of Duke Energy in the third quarter valued at approximately $2,537,000. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 65.7% in the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,052,969 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $205,769,000 after buying an additional 813,744 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 65.31% of the company’s stock.

Duke Energy Price Performance

Duke Energy stock opened at $108.86 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $84.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.01, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.49. Duke Energy Co. has a 52-week low of $90.09 and a 52-week high of $121.25. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $110.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $112.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.70.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last posted its quarterly 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). The business had revenue of $8.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.06 billion. Duke Energy had a return on equity of 9.34% and a net margin of 14.31%. Duke Energy’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.94 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Duke Energy Co. will post 5.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Duke Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $1.045 dividend. This represents a $4.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Duke Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 76.84%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on DUK. Mizuho raised Duke Energy from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $116.00 to $121.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Barclays upped their price objective on Duke Energy from $102.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective 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 shares of Duke Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $113.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Duke Energy currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $122.23.

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.