Smith Thornton Advisors LLC Has $676,000 Stock Holdings in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

Smith Thornton Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) by 86.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,863 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,714 shares during the quarter. Smith Thornton Advisors LLC’s holdings in Duke Energy were worth $676,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC boosted its position in 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 in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Duke Energy by 13,829.1% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,125,607 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $129,782,000 after acquiring an additional 1,117,526 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its position in Duke Energy by 65.7% during the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,052,969 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $205,769,000 after acquiring an additional 813,744 shares during the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its holdings in Duke Energy by 9,923.0% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 769,265 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $77,103,000 after purchasing an additional 761,590 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BROOKFIELD Corp ON acquired a new stake in shares of Duke Energy in the first quarter valued at $36,278,000. 65.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on DUK. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Duke Energy in a report on Thursday, September 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $138.00 price objective on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Duke Energy from $114.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $120.00 to $126.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Duke Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $121.85.

Duke Energy Stock Performance

DUK opened at $111.08 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a current ratio of 0.81. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $115.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $108.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $85.78 billion, a PE ratio of 20.46, a PEG ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.47. Duke Energy Co. has a 52-week low of $86.61 and a 52-week high of $121.25.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $1.18 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.16. Duke Energy had a return on equity of 9.71% and a net margin of 14.29%. The company had revenue of $7.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.84 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.91 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Duke Energy Co. will post 5.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Duke Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be given a $1.045 dividend. This represents a $4.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.76%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. Duke Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 76.98%.

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.