Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC Buys 860 Shares of Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) by 8.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 11,100 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 860 shares during the period. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC’s holdings in Duke Energy were worth $1,077,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Duke Energy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $214,000. Valley Brook Capital Group Inc. purchased a new position in Duke Energy during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $214,000. Channing Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Duke Energy in the 4th quarter worth about $1,333,000. National Bank of Canada FI raised its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 351,469 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $34,505,000 after acquiring an additional 19,613 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FourThought Financial Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Duke Energy by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. FourThought Financial Partners LLC now owns 20,322 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,972,000 after buying an additional 191 shares during the period. 65.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Duke Energy news, EVP Louis E. Renjel sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.57, for a total value of $277,710.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 14,213 shares in the company, valued at $1,315,697.41. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Duke Energy Stock Down 0.2 %

DUK stock traded down $0.16 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $102.10. 73,294 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,997,344. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $95.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $94.37. Duke Energy Co. has a 12 month low of $83.06 and a 12 month high of $102.43. The company has a market capitalization of $78.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a current ratio of 0.74.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $1.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $7.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.31 billion. Duke Energy had a net margin of 9.78% and a return on equity of 8.93%. The business’s revenue was up 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.20 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Duke Energy Co. will post 5.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on DUK. Bank of America upped their target price on Duke Energy from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Duke Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $90.00 to $108.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Duke Energy from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $101.00 to $113.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Duke Energy from $101.00 to $99.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their price objective on Duke Energy from $101.00 to $94.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Duke Energy has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $100.62.

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.