Petix & Botte Co Makes New $214,000 Investment in Duke Energy Corporation $DUK

Petix & Botte Co acquired a new position in shares of Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE:DUK) in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 1,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $214,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of DUK. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in shares of Duke Energy by 11.6% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,754 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $728,000 after acquiring an additional 700 shares in the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd bought a new position in shares of Duke Energy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $309,000. Forum Financial Management LP bought a new position in shares of Duke Energy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $222,000. First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Duke Energy by 11.6% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,666,892 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $179,591,000 after acquiring an additional 173,681 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Duke Energy by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,891,730 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $203,815,000 after acquiring an additional 49,150 shares in the last quarter. 65.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Duke Energy from $127.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Duke Energy from $125.00 to $124.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 18th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on Duke Energy from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Duke Energy from $122.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $131.00 price objective (up from $122.00) on shares of Duke Energy in a report on Wednesday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $129.80.

Duke Energy Trading Down 1.6%

NYSE:DUK opened at $122.26 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $95.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.36. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $119.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $118.05. Duke Energy Corporation has a 1 year low of $105.20 and a 1 year high of $127.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.42.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by ($0.04). Duke Energy had a return on equity of 9.85% and a net margin of 15.51%. The business had revenue of $7.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.07 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.18 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Duke Energy Corporation will post 6.33 EPS for the current year.

Duke Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 16th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th will be given a $1.065 dividend. This represents a $4.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. This is a boost from Duke Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.05. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 15th. Duke Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 69.27%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Thomas Preston Jr. Gillespie sold 6,700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.26, for a total value of $832,542.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 46,422 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,768,397.72. This trade represents a 12.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

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.