Market Update (NYSE:DUK): Two Duke Energy solar facilities get green light from N.C. regulators

[PR Newswire] – CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 16, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Duke Energy today received regulatory approval from the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) to construct solar facilities in Davie and Union counties. … Read more on this. Duke Energy Corporation (DUK) , with a current market cap of $55.45B, opened at $80.58. During the trading session, DUK traded between $80.16 to $80.86 and has traded between $65.50 and $81.39 over the past 12 months. DUK shares are currently priced at 17.60x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively inexpensive compared to the industry’s 24.16x earnings multiple for the same period. And for dividend hunters, the company pays shareholders $3.30 per share annually in dividends, yielding 4.09%. Consensus earnings for the current quarter by the 10 sell-side analysts covering the stock is an estimate of $0.98 per share, which would be $0.03 better than the year-ago quarter and a $0.02 sequential decrease. What we find to be interesting is that the full-year EPS estimate of $4.59 is a $0.05 improvement when compared to the previous year’s annual results. The quarterly earnings estimate is predicated on a consensus revenue forecast of $5.71 Billion. If reported, that would be a 2.15% increase over the year-ago quarter. Recently, JP Morgan downgraded DUK from Overweight to Neutral (Feb 19, 2016). Previously, Wells Fargo downgraded DUK from Outperform to Market Perform. The average price target for DUK shares is $80.18, which is 0.50% below where the stock opened this morning. See more in (NYSE:DUK) Similar Articles: Company Update: Duke Energy Corp (NYSE:DUK) – Duke Energy Renewables acquires six North Carolina solar projects from Community Energy Company Update: Duke Energy Corp (NYSE:DUK) – Duke Energy Renewables acquires 20-MW Longboat Solar Project in California from EDF Renewable Energy Stock Update: Duke Energy Corp (NYSE:DUK) – North Carolina solar was hot in 2015; Duke Energy led the charge