Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) to Issue $1.05 Quarterly Dividend

Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 9th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of 1.045 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, March 17th. This represents a $4.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.86%.

Duke Energy has increased its dividend by an average of 2.0% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 20 consecutive years. Duke Energy has a payout ratio of 62.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Duke Energy to earn $6.34 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $4.18 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 65.9%.

Duke Energy Stock Performance

Shares of DUK stock traded up $1.49 on Thursday, hitting $108.30. The company had a trading volume of 3,209,280 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,107,656. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $111.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $111.62. Duke Energy has a twelve month low of $90.09 and a twelve month high of $121.25. The firm has a market cap of $83.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The utilities provider reported $1.62 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by ($0.11). Duke Energy had a return on equity of 9.34% and a net margin of 14.31%. The company had revenue of $8.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.06 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.94 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Duke Energy will post 5.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on DUK. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Duke Energy in a report on Thursday, September 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $138.00 price objective for the company. KeyCorp lowered Duke Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Duke Energy from $120.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Scotiabank upped their price objective 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. Finally, Mizuho upgraded 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 report on Tuesday, October 15th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $122.23.

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.