Planned Solutions Inc. Purchases Shares of 1,340 Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

Planned Solutions Inc. purchased a new stake in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 1,340 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $130,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Duke Energy by 13.9% during the 4th quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,826 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $274,000 after acquiring an additional 344 shares in the last quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Duke Energy by 28.6% during the 3rd quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC now owns 4,023 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $355,000 after acquiring an additional 894 shares in the last quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC grew its holdings in shares of Duke Energy by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 25,824 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,545,000 after acquiring an additional 1,122 shares in the last quarter. Adviser Investments LLC bought a new stake in Duke Energy in the third quarter worth $304,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Duke Energy by 1.9% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,918,910 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $698,923,000 after purchasing an additional 144,612 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 65.31% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Duke Energy from $101.00 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 12th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $106.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Duke Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $90.00 to $108.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $98.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 29th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of Duke Energy from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $101.00 to $113.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $100.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Louis E. Renjel sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,315,697.41. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.11% of the company’s stock.

Duke Energy Stock Performance

Shares of DUK stock traded up $1.56 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $95.23. 856,051 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,119,470. Duke Energy Co. has a 52 week low of $83.06 and a 52 week high of $100.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a current ratio of 0.74. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $94.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $92.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $73.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.39, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $1.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.53 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $7.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.24 billion. Duke Energy had a return on equity of 8.93% and a net margin of 9.78%. Duke Energy’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.11 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Duke Energy Co. will post 5.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Duke Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 16th were paid a $1.025 dividend. This represents a $4.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.31%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 15th. Duke Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 115.49%.

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.