Forensic Analysis · Utilities · as of Aug 11, 2026

Duke Energy Corp (DUK)

A forensic read on Duke Energy Corp built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.

D · Weak — demands caution

Forensic grade

Distress

Financial health

0.8

Distress distance

Clean

Earnings quality

Forensic signals

18.7

P / E (ttm)

9.6%

ROE

$94.5B

Market cap

3.50%

Dividend yield

6.2%

Revenue growth

This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.

Duke Energy Corp earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 0.8, placing it in the Distress zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by shareholder returns.

What the filings flag

FCF ($5.4B)

FY2022

Shareholder returns. Returned $3.2B to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2022, but free cash flow was ($5.4B) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $5.9B — 54% of that. The entire return is coming from debt or cash reserves, not cash the business itself generated — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of.

4.2%

FY2025

Return on invested capital. Return on invested capital is 4.2% in the latest fiscal year and steady — slightly below its ~6% cost of capital — reinvestment is roughly a wash.

+0.3%/yr

FY2022–FY2025

Share count. Diluted share count changed +1% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+0.3%/yr). Roughly flat — the count is neither shrinking nor growing meaningfully. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$32.24B

Revenue Growth YoY+6.2%

Revenue CAGR (3yr)+3.9%

Net Margin15.4%

Free Cash Flow-$1.69B

Return on Equity9.6%

Debt / Equity1.68x

The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Duke Energy Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?

Generate the AI investment read →

No credit card · informational only, not investment advice · see the track record

← Browse all forensic stock analyses

Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Aug 11, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.