Rakuten Investment Management Inc. Acquires Shares of 16,186 Duke Energy Corporation $DUK

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE:DUK) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 16,186 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,003,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Duke Energy by 11,417.7% during the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 17,668,789 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,084,917,000 after acquiring an additional 17,515,383 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Duke Energy by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 75,716,783 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,934,580,000 after purchasing an additional 1,154,783 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 448.9% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 826,296 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $102,254,000 after purchasing an additional 675,768 shares in the last quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Duke Energy by 64.4% during the 2nd quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 1,472,321 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $173,734,000 after buying an additional 576,674 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp grew its stake in shares of Duke Energy by 21.1% in the 2nd quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 2,726,823 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $321,765,000 after buying an additional 474,325 shares in the last quarter. 65.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Duke Energy

In other Duke Energy news, EVP Robert Alexander Glenn sold 8,200 shares of Duke Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.80, for a total value of $1,015,160.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 11,367 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,407,234.60. The trade was a 41.91% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.14% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Duke Energy News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Duke Energy this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Duke says it has more than 18,000 workers from 27 states and Canada staged to respond to Winter Storm Fern, signaling strong operational readiness to limit outage duration and reputational damage. PR Newswire release
• Positive Sentiment: Duke Energy Florida is deploying about 500 workers to assist Carolinas restoration efforts, showing proactive mutual-aid deployment that can speed repairs and reduce prolonged outage costs. MSN report
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysis pieces are reframing DUK around analyst target changes and sentiment rather than material operations — watch how consensus targets and EPS forecasts evolve, since market reaction is being driven by these narrative shifts. Yahoo Finance
• Neutral Sentiment: Market coverage notes a recent intraday price dip and elevated volume as investors reposition around storm risk and dividend safety narratives; this is more of a sentiment/flow story than a fundamentals surprise. Zacks
• Negative Sentiment: RBC cut its DUK price target to $140 from $143 and kept a “sector perform” rating — a small downgrade that still implies about ~19% upside but may weigh on near?term sentiment. MarketScreener
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple reports warn of freezing?rain/ice risks and potential multiday outages in Duke’s service areas; prolonged outages raise short?term repair and overtime costs and could spur customer complaints and regulatory scrutiny. MarketBeat / AP coverage
• Negative Sentiment: Local coverage highlights customer complaints about rising bills, a reputational/regulatory headwind that can affect rate cases and public sentiment if the issue escalates. WCPO article

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on DUK. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Duke Energy from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. BTIG Research upgraded shares of Duke Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of Duke Energy in a report on Monday, October 6th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $143.00 price objective for the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Duke Energy in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and issued a $130.00 price target on shares of Duke Energy in a research report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $134.94.

Duke Energy Stock Performance

NYSE:DUK opened at $117.40 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $91.30 billion, a PE ratio of 18.46, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.50. Duke Energy Corporation has a 1 year low of $108.74 and a 1 year high of $130.03. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $118.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $121.38.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $1.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.51 billion. Duke Energy had a net margin of 15.76% and a return on equity of 9.98%. The business’s revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.62 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Duke Energy Corporation will post 6.33 EPS for the current year.

Duke Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Friday, February 13th will be paid a dividend of $1.065 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 13th. This represents a $4.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. Duke Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 66.98%.

Duke Energy Company Profile

Duke Energy Corporation is a U.S.-based electric power holding company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. The company’s core business is the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers. Duke Energy operates a mix of regulated electric utilities and non-regulated energy businesses, providing essential energy infrastructure and services across multiple states.

Its operating activities include owning and operating generation assets across a portfolio that encompasses nuclear, natural gas, coal, hydroelectric and an expanding array of renewable resources, as well as battery storage and grid modernization projects.