Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) Declares Dividend Increase – $1.05 Per Share

Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, July 15th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be given a dividend of 1.045 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, September 16th. This represents a $4.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.98%. This is an increase from Duke Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03.

Duke Energy has raised its dividend payment by an average of 2.1% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 19 years. Duke Energy has a payout ratio of 64.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Duke Energy to earn $6.34 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $4.10 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 64.7%.

Duke Energy Stock Down 0.4 %

DUK traded down $0.37 during trading on Monday, hitting $105.02. The company had a trading volume of 1,209,115 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,903,041. The company has a market cap of $81.05 billion, a PE ratio of 26.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.45. The business has a 50-day moving average of $101.87 and a 200-day moving average of $97.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.50. Duke Energy has a 1-year low of $83.06 and a 1-year high of $105.90.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $7.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.31 billion. Duke Energy had a net margin of 10.78% and a return on equity of 9.25%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.20 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Duke Energy will post 5.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Lynn J. Good sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.30, for a total value of $1,549,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 437,464 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,190,031.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Duke Energy news, EVP Julia S. Janson sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.79, for a total transaction of $1,027,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 68,657 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,057,253.03. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Lynn J. Good sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.30, for a total value of $1,549,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 437,464 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,190,031.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 26,695 shares of company stock worth $2,750,815 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on DUK. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $103.00 to $98.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 24th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $99.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of Duke Energy from $101.00 to $94.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 22nd. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Duke Energy from $110.00 to $109.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Duke Energy from $107.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 20th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $102.42.

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.