Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) Short Interest Update

Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) saw a significant decline in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 8,300,000 shares, a decline of 8.7% from the December 15th total of 9,090,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 3,300,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.5 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

DUK has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Duke Energy from $122.00 to $118.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. KeyCorp lowered shares of Duke Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $102.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $113.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Mizuho raised shares of Duke Energy from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $116.00 to $121.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $122.23.

Duke Energy Stock Performance

DUK stock opened at $109.34 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $84.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.10, a PEG ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.49. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $110.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $111.81. Duke Energy has a one year low of $90.09 and a one year high of $121.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.70.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The utilities provider reported $1.62 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.73 by ($0.11). The firm had revenue of $8.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.06 billion. Duke Energy had a net margin of 14.31% and a return on equity of 9.34%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.94 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Duke Energy will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Duke Energy Dividend Announcement

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 given a $1.045 dividend. This represents a $4.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.82%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. Duke Energy’s payout ratio is currently 76.84%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Duke Energy

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of DUK. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Duke Energy by 15.2% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,816,758 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $182,101,000 after purchasing an additional 240,136 shares during the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its holdings in Duke Energy by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 155,300 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $15,566,000 after buying an additional 4,087 shares during the period. Ieq Capital LLC increased its holdings in Duke Energy by 8.3% in the 2nd quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 48,588 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,870,000 after buying an additional 3,713 shares during the period. Trust Investment Advisors increased its holdings in Duke Energy by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Trust Investment Advisors now owns 13,024 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,305,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. increased its holdings in Duke Energy by 8.6% in the 2nd quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 35,368 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,545,000 after buying an additional 2,814 shares during the period. 65.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.