Verity & Verity LLC Invests $616,000 in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

Verity & Verity LLC purchased a new stake in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 5,716 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $616,000.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC raised its position in Duke Energy by 11,471.4% in the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 6,777,973 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $781,500,000 after purchasing an additional 6,719,398 shares during the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment bought a new position in shares of Duke Energy in the third quarter valued at about $2,537,000. Zimmer Partners LP acquired a new position in Duke Energy during the 3rd quarter worth about $166,263,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Duke Energy by 155.1% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,873,321 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $201,832,000 after acquiring an additional 1,138,979 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 13,829.1% in the third 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 during the last quarter. 65.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Duke Energy from $113.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. KeyCorp downgraded Duke Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Mizuho upgraded Duke Energy from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $116.00 to $121.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $102.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Duke Energy from $122.00 to $118.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $122.23.

Duke Energy Price Performance

DUK opened at $109.34 on Friday. Duke Energy Co. has a 12 month low of $90.09 and a 12 month high of $121.25. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55. The stock has a market cap of $84.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $110.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $111.81.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The utilities provider reported $1.62 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 14.31% and a return on equity of 9.34%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.94 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Duke Energy Co. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Duke Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $1.045 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $4.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.82%. Duke Energy’s payout ratio is 76.84%.

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.