Wexford Capital LP Purchases New Holdings in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

Wexford Capital LP purchased a new stake in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 62,370 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,720,000. Duke Energy makes up about 1.1% of Wexford Capital LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Duke Energy during the 4th quarter valued at $163,819,000. Capital Wealth Planning LLC boosted its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 116.5% during the 4th quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC now owns 2,065,344 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $222,520,000 after buying an additional 1,111,581 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 72,885,939 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,852,731,000 after buying an additional 779,054 shares during the period. Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 14.8% during the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 4,838,705 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $521,322,000 after buying an additional 625,008 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi raised its holdings in shares of Duke Energy by 29.2% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 2,488,849 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $269,368,000 after purchasing an additional 561,784 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on DUK shares. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Duke Energy from $111.00 to $123.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Duke Energy from $130.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $128.00 to $123.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $123.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Duke Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $126.00.

Duke Energy Price Performance

Shares of Duke Energy stock opened at $116.27 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a current ratio of 0.67. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $119.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $114.54. Duke Energy Co. has a twelve month low of $99.21 and a twelve month high of $125.27. The firm has a market cap of $90.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.39.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The utilities provider reported $1.76 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.59 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $8.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.70 billion. Duke Energy had a net margin of 14.90% and a return on equity of 9.50%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.44 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Duke Energy Co. will post 6.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Duke Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $1.045 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $4.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.60%. Duke Energy’s payout ratio is 69.32%.

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.