DUK
BMO sees a little extra juice
BMO Capital just nudged Duke Energy’s price target up to $143 from $136 and kept the stock at Outperform. Not exactly fireworks, but in utility-land, a higher target is basically the equivalent of someone saying your beige sedan might actually have a turbo.
Why the bulls are squinting at the numbers
The firm thinks Duke has more upside than the market is giving it credit for, especially around:
- continued large load onboarding
- regulatory updates in North Carolina and at the IURC
- room for earnings growth into 2028 if data-center demand stays sticky
BMO’s view is that Duke’s forecasts only assume the minimum 75% data-center take. Translation: if those power-hungry tenants keep showing up, there may be more earnings upside hiding in the crawlspace.
Earnings on deck
The next checkpoint is Duke’s first-quarter 2026 earnings on May 5. BMO thinks the update could be pretty quiet, which is very on-brand for utilities, but the market will still be laser-focused on any hint of regulatory progress or demand growth.
BMO also pointed out its first-quarter 2025 EPS estimate of $1.88 is above current FactSet and Bloomberg medians of $1.81 and $1.83. So while Duke may not be the flashiest name in your portfolio, the street clearly thinks there’s still some upside buried in the wires.
Big picture: Duke’s story is less “meme stock” and more “slow-burn compounding machine,” and BMO just turned the thermostat up a notch.