Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Increases Holdings in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) by 32.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 24,634 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,977 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Duke Energy were worth $2,469,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Duke Energy by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 11,141,020 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,081,125,000 after buying an additional 509,039 shares in the last quarter. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC purchased a new position in shares of Duke Energy during the fourth quarter worth about $41,874,000. Morningstar Investment Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Duke Energy by 96.1% in the 4th 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 last quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON acquired a new stake in shares of Duke Energy in the 1st quarter valued at about $36,278,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Duke Energy by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 70,675,702 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,835,047,000 after buying an additional 324,289 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.31% of the company’s stock.

Duke Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DUK opened at $117.70 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $111.54 and its 200 day moving average price is $103.31. Duke Energy Co. has a 52 week low of $83.06 and a 52 week high of $118.31. The stock has a market cap of $90.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.57, a PEG ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.47.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $7.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.84 billion. Duke Energy had a net margin of 14.29% and a return on equity of 9.71%. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.91 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Duke Energy Co. will post 5.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Duke Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a dividend of $1.045 per share. This is a boost from Duke Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. This represents a $4.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.55%. Duke Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 105.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Duke Energy

In other 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,884 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,259,617.76. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on DUK shares. Scotiabank increased their price objective on Duke Energy from $104.00 to $113.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Wells Fargo & Company upped 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. KeyCorp boosted their price target on Duke Energy from $117.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Duke Energy from $111.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Duke Energy from $114.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Duke Energy currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $114.23.

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.