bLong Financial LLC Buys Shares of 2,084 Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

bLong Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 2,084 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $225,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 17,488,176 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,016,846,000 after buying an additional 442,302 shares in the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC raised its stake in shares of 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 worth $781,500,000 after buying an additional 6,719,398 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank raised its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 2,290,641 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $264,111,000 after buying an additional 6,500 shares in the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment bought a new stake in shares of Duke Energy in the 3rd quarter worth $2,537,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of 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 worth $201,832,000 after buying an additional 1,138,979 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 65.31% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on DUK shares. KeyCorp downgraded Duke Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Duke Energy from $122.00 to $118.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Duke Energy from $119.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their target price on Duke Energy from $113.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $122.08.

Duke Energy Stock Performance

Shares of DUK stock opened at $111.69 on Friday. Duke Energy Co. has a 1-year low of $90.09 and a 1-year high of $121.25. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55. The company has a market capitalization of $86.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.50. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $109.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $112.96.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $1.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.61 by $0.05. Duke Energy had a return on equity of 9.34% and a net margin of 14.31%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Duke Energy Co. will post 5.91 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, March 17th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $1.045 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $4.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.74%. 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.