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What's in Store for Dominion Energy (D) in Q1 Earnings?

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Dominion Energy (D - Free Report) is scheduled to release first-quarter 2018 earnings before the market opens on Apr 27. In the previous quarter, the utility company delivered a positive earnings surprise of 3.41%.

Let’s find out how things are shaping up for this earnings season.

Factors to Consider

For the first quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for total revenues is pegged at $3,355 million, reflecting a sequential increase of 4.5%. The earnings estimate for the quarter is $1.03, reflecting sequential growth of 13.2%.

Dominion Energy expects its earnings in the first quarter to be between 95 cents and $1.15 per share compared with the year-ago quarter’s figure of 97 cents. The company expects favorable weather conditions, tax reforms, higher merchant generation margins and contribution from Cove Point export to have a positive impact in the quarter.

However, earnings in the first quarter are expected to be adversely impacted by higher financing costs, share dilution and lower investment tax credits from solar investments.
 

Dominion Energy Inc. Price and EPS Surprise
 

Dominion Energy Inc. Price and EPS Surprise | Dominion Energy Inc. Quote

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not show that Dominion Energy is likely to beat earnings this quarter as it does not possess the key components. A stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. However, that is not the case here as you will see below.

Zacks ESP: The Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate are both pegged at $1.03, resulting in an Earnings ESP of 0.00%.
 
You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: Dominion Energy’s Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) when combined with a 0.00% Earnings ESP makes a beat unlikely this quarter.

Note that we caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell-rated) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Stocks to Consider

Here are some companies from the industry that you may want to consider instead, as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter.

CenterPoint Energy Inc. (CNP - Free Report) is expected to release first-quarter 2018 results on May 4. The company has an Earnings ESP of +0.59% and sports a Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

WEC Energy Group Inc. (WEC - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +0.95% and a Zacks Rank #2. The company is expected to release first-quarter 2018 results on May 1.    

Vistra Energy Corp. (VST - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +57.41% and carries a Zacks Rank #2. The company is expected to release first-quarter 2018 results on May 4.

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