Sapient Capital LLC Cuts Stock Position in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK)

Sapient Capital LLC lessened its stake in Duke Energy Co. (NYSE:DUK) by 6.0% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 6,493 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 411 shares during the period. Sapient Capital LLC’s holdings in Duke Energy were worth $628,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of DUK. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Duke Energy by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 23,010,030 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,030,865,000 after acquiring an additional 1,002,157 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Duke Energy by 9,164.0% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 979,294 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $95,031,000 after purchasing an additional 968,723 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Duke Energy by 11.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,515,388 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $799,599,000 after purchasing an additional 842,458 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in Duke Energy by 242.3% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,044,174 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $101,348,000 after acquiring an additional 739,112 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC raised its holdings in Duke Energy by 11.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,205,441 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $635,952,000 after acquiring an additional 715,069 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 65.31% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Duke Energy

In other news, EVP Louis E. Renjel sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.57, for a total value of $277,710.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 14,213 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,315,697.41. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Duke Energy Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE DUK traded down $0.47 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $98.26. 2,488,660 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,968,449. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $95.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of $93.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $75.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.68, a PEG ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.46. 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 Co. has a twelve month low of $83.06 and a twelve month high of $100.13.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $1.51 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.53 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $7.21 billion during 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%. The business’s revenue was down 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.11 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Duke Energy Co. will post 5.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on DUK. Bank of America raised their price objective on Duke Energy from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Duke Energy from $101.00 to $99.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Duke Energy from $103.00 to $100.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 9th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on Duke Energy from $106.00 to $107.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price target on Duke Energy from $101.00 to $94.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $100.62.

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.