Duke Energy (DUK)
Forward P/E is 18.39x against a peer median of 20.03x, a ratio of 0.92x — inside the 0.90–1.15 fairly priced band, near its cheap edge — with trailing P/E 18.73x and PEG 2.82. Latest-quarter revenue grew 9.5% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), above the cluster median, but the PEG of 2.82 is well above the ~1.2 needed for the undervalued move, so the label stays fairly priced. Delivered demand check: the electric utilities group's median growth was 8.0% year over year — demand rising, and this company is growing slightly faster than that pace.
What would change this label: Move to UNDERVALUED if the forward P/E compresses to about 18.0x or below (0.90x the peer median) at unchanged estimates while revenue growth stays at or above the cluster median of 8.0% year over year and the PEG falls to about 1.2 or below. Move to OVERVALUED if the forward P/E rises above about 23.0x (1.15x the peer median) without a matching rise in growth, or if revenue growth falls below 4% year over year while the multiple stays above 20x.
Duke Energy generates and sells electricity to homes and businesses. Its shares cost a little less than similar power companies, and its sales are growing a little faster than theirs. Even so, expected profit growth is slow, so the price looks fair rather than a clear bargain.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window Duke Energy returned +57.56% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for Duke Energy: -26.0% (2022-04-20 to 2023-10-02). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E is 18.39x against a peer median of 20.03x, a ratio of 0.92x — inside the 0.90–1.15 fairly priced band, near its cheap edge — with trailing P/E 18.73x and PEG 2.82. Latest-quarter revenue grew 9.5% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), above the cluster median, but the PEG of 2.82 is well above the ~1.2 needed for the undervalued move, so the label stays fairly priced. Delivered demand check: the electric utilities group's median growth was 8.0% year over year — demand rising, and this company is growing slightly faster than that pace. The company’s forward P/E is 18.4× against a peer median of 20.0×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the electric utilities group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 8.0% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising. This company's 9.5% growth is slightly above that group pace. Latest-quarter sales growth was +9.5% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duke Energy (DUK) | $124.81 | 18.4× | 18.7× |
| CEG | $257.92 | 20.9× | 25.0× |
| SO | $92.67 | 20.0× | 22.3× |
| AEP | $130.03 | 19.2× | 22.5× |
| ETR | $108.45 | 22.9× | 27.8× |
| VST | $143.40 | 14.2× | 24.4× |
| Peer median | 20.0× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
This company does not report a gross-profit line in its SEC facts (normal for banks, payment networks and some health insurers), so profit is shown as net income instead — gross margin is marked UNVERIFIED-absent rather than estimated.
Free cash flow = cash from operations minus spending on plant and equipment, both from the company’s SEC cash-flow statement. Gaps are quarters where that spending line is not separately tagged in the filings — shown as gaps, never estimated.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Mar 2026 2026-03-31 | $9.0B | — | $1.6B | 1.97 | $-2.6B |
| Q/E Dec 2025 2025-12-31 | $7.8B | — | $1.2B | — | $-485M |
| Q/E Sep 2025 2025-09-30 | $8.4B | — | $1.4B | 1.81 | $179M |
| Q/E Jun 2025 2025-06-30 | $7.4B | — | $984M | 1.25 | $-417M |
| Q/E Mar 2025 2025-03-31 | $8.2B | — | $1.4B | 1.76 | $-971M |
| Q/E Dec 2024 2024-12-31 | $7.2B | — | $1.2B | — | $288M |
| Q/E Sep 2024 2024-09-30 | $8.1B | — | $1.3B | 1.60 | $537M |
| Q/E Jun 2024 2024-06-30 | $7.2B | — | $900M | 1.13 | $-43M |
| Q/E Mar 2024 2024-03-31 | $7.5B | — | $1.1B | 1.44 | $-734M |
| Q/E Dec 2023 2023-12-31 | $7.1B | — | $1.0B | 1.27 | $-725M |
| Q/E Sep 2023 2023-09-30 | $8.0B | — | $1.3B | 1.59 | $479M |
| Q/E Jun 2023 2023-06-30 | $6.5B | — | $-220M | -0.32 | $-817M |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 23-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | Duke Energy CORP |
| Chief executive | Harry Sideris (source: https://investors.duke-energy.com/news/news-details/2025/Duke-Energy-Board-of-Directors-Appoints-Harry-Sideris-as-President-and-Chief-Executive-Officer-Effective-April-1-Succeeds-Lynn-Good-Who-Retires-as-Chair-and-CEO/default.aspx) |
| Sector | Utilities — Electric Utilities — generates and sells electricity to homes and businesses |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $124.81 |
| Market value (market cap) | $97.3B — share price times shares outstanding of 779,596,217 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding (latest)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $32.5B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $5.1B |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | $-3.3B |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Mar 2026 (of 23 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | +57.56% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -26.0% (2022-04-20 to 2023-10-02) |
What we could not verify
- Gross profit / gross margin: not tagged as a standalone line in this company's EDGAR company facts (common for banks, payment networks and some healthcare payers) — shown as UNVERIFIED-absent; the page charts revenue and net income instead.
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Own-history P/E range not yet compiled for this company in the Phase 1 batch run; the label rests on peer-median, growth and PEG evidence.
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0001326160.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001326160.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/DUK/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.