Latitude Advisors LLC Cuts Stake in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

Latitude Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) by 4.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,994 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 204 shares during the period. Latitude Advisors LLC’s holdings in Duke Energy were worth $388,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Scissortail Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Duke Energy during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,884,000. Tyche Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Duke Energy in the fourth quarter worth approximately $469,000. Allen Capital Group LLC lifted its holdings in Duke Energy by 6.3% during the fourth quarter. Allen Capital Group LLC now owns 5,471 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $531,000 after purchasing an additional 323 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its holdings in Duke Energy by 49.9% during the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 205,066 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $19,900,000 after purchasing an additional 68,259 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Alliance lifted its holdings in Duke Energy by 26.9% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Alliance now owns 20,866 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,025,000 after purchasing an additional 4,424 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on DUK. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Duke Energy from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $101.00 to $113.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Duke Energy from $101.00 to $99.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Duke Energy from $99.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Duke Energy from $106.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Duke Energy from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Duke Energy presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $101.17.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 14,213 shares in the company, valued at $1,315,697.41. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Duke Energy Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of DUK stock traded down $1.26 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $92.87. 2,655,575 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,341,925. The business’s fifty day moving average is $94.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $93.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $71.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.46. Duke Energy Co. has a 12-month low of $83.06 and a 12-month high of $100.39.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $1.51 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.53 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $7.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.24 billion. Duke Energy had a net margin of 9.78% and a return on equity of 8.93%. Duke Energy’s revenue was down 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.11 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Duke Energy Co. will post 5.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.