Checking your portfolio and wondering what's the price of Duke Energy stock right now? As of the market close on January 15, 2026, Duke Energy (DUK) is trading at $118.92. It’s been a bit of a green day for the utility giant, with the price ticking up about 0.20% from the previous close. Honestly, if you've been watching the utility sector lately, you know it's been a wild ride with interest rate jitters and the massive push toward "clean" energy.
Duke isn't just some boring power company anymore. It's a massive machine serving over 8 million people across six states.
Why Everyone is Asking About the Duke Energy Price Today
The stock has been hovering in a 52-week range between $105.90 and $130.03. We are currently sitting much closer to the top of that range than the bottom. For a "widows and orphans" stock—the kind people buy just to sleep at night—that’s a decent bit of volatility.
Most people looking up the price today are likely hunting for that sweet dividend. Duke just declared a quarterly cash dividend of $1.065 per share. If you want in on that, you've gotta own the shares before the ex-dividend date on February 13, 2026. At the current price, that works out to an annual yield of roughly 3.58%.
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The Real Numbers Behind the Ticker
- Price-to-Earnings (P/E) Ratio: 18.70.
- Earnings Per Share (EPS): $6.36 (Trailing twelve months).
- Market Cap: A whopping $92.46 billion.
- Dividend Yield: 3.58%.
It’s not exactly "cheap" by historical standards. Some analysts, like those at Goldman Sachs, are pretty bullish, recently hiking their price target to $141.00. On the flip side, Jefferies just trimmed their target down to $126.00, citing "affordability challenges" for customers. Basically, when people can't pay their power bills, Duke’s bottom line feels the pinch.
What’s Actually Moving the Needle?
You can't just look at a chart and understand what's the price of Duke Energy stock without looking at the grid. Duke is currently knee-deep in a massive $4 billion capital expenditure plan in Florida alone. They're trying to modernize the grid and build out battery storage.
Ever heard of the "AI power shift"? It sounds like a sci-fi movie, but it's real. Data centers are popping up everywhere to handle AI workloads, and they eat electricity like crazy. Duke is betting big on nuclear power—specifically at their Belews Creek site—to meet this demand. If they pull it off, the stock could see a massive re-rating.
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The Bear Case: Why It Might Slip
It’s not all sunshine and solar panels. Duke is currently paying out compensation to customers after a localized equipment error caused some damage. Plus, reliability issues in places like New Hanover County and Southern Indiana have left a sour taste in some regulators' mouths.
Then there’s the debt. Utilities are notorious for carrying huge debt loads to fund all those power plants. With a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, Duke isn't exactly lean. If interest rates stay higher for longer, the cost of servicing that debt eats into the money they’d normally send to you as dividends.
Smart Moves for DUK Investors
If you’re staring at that $118.92 price tag and wondering if you should click "buy," here is the expert take.
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- Watch the February 10th Earnings: Duke is scheduled to report Q4 2025 and full-year results then. This will be the first big "truth moment" of the year. If they miss their EPS targets, expect that $118 price to test the $110 support level quickly.
- The Dividend Play: If you’re a long-term income seeker, the price fluctuations matter less than the yield. Duke has paid a dividend for 100 straight years. That kind of consistency is hard to find.
- The Fair Value Gap: Simply Wall St’s DCF models suggest the stock might actually be overvalued compared to its cash flows, while analyst "narrative" targets suggest it's undervalued. It's a tug-of-war between the math and the potential.
The stock is currently trading at a slight premium to its 200-day moving average ($121.37). For many technical traders, this means it's in a consolidation phase. It’s waiting for a catalyst. Whether that catalyst is a nuclear energy breakthrough or a regulatory slap on the wrist remains to be seen.
Actionable Insight: If you already own DUK, holding through the February dividend seems like the logical play. If you're looking to start a position, you might want to wait for the February 10th earnings call to see if the leadership transition (with Abby Motsinger taking over as CFO/Controller in March) provides more clarity on the 2026 growth outlook.