Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC Sells 873 Shares of Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC lowered its stake in shares of Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) by 47.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 974 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 873 shares during the period. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC’s holdings in Duke Energy were worth $104,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Duke Energy by 15.2% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,816,758 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $182,101,000 after purchasing an additional 240,136 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its stake in Duke Energy by 2.7% during the second 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 in the last quarter. 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 valued at $4,870,000 after buying an additional 3,713 shares during the period. Trust Investment Advisors raised its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Trust Investment Advisors now owns 13,024 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,305,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. boosted its position in shares of Duke Energy by 8.6% during the 2nd quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 35,368 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,545,000 after acquiring an additional 2,814 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 65.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley dropped 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. Scotiabank raised their target price on Duke Energy from $113.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Mizuho upgraded Duke Energy from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $116.00 to $121.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. KeyCorp cut Duke Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $102.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently 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. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $110.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $111.81. Duke Energy Co. 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 current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $84.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.49.

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

Duke Energy Announces Dividend

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

Duke Energy 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.