Oil & Gas - Energy - Commodities - Resources (OILBRENT)

[Timothy Smith]

$DUK - Duke Energy (DUK -2.1%) is downgraded to Neutral from Overweight with an $81 price target at J.P. Morgan, based on a “disappointing core business outlook" reflected in DUK's Q4 results and guidance, "as growth now appears to need more time to play out than we had anticipated.”

The firm says DUK's revised FY 2016 and longer-term EPS guidance was lower than it expected, despite expectations of major capital deployment over the next three years, zero cost inflation and high customer count growth.

JPM says its base case scenario for DUK now requires internal equity of $700M in 2018-20, excluding the $500M-$750M this year required to maintain credit ratings for the Piedmont Natural Gas deal.