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Duke Energy (DUK) to Report Q3 Earnings: What's in Store?

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Duke Energy Corporation (DUK - Free Report) is set to report third-quarter 2020 results on Nov 5, before the opening bell. In the last-reported quarter, the company delivered an earnings surprise of 3.85%.

Moreover, the bottom line surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters and missed in one, with the average earnings surprise being 1.85%.

Let’s see how things have shaped up prior to this announcement.

Factors to Consider

The majority of Duke Energy’s service territories witnessed warmer-than-normal temperature during the third quarter, which is expected to have favored the utility’s quarterly top-line performance through solid electric sales volume.

In particular, the company started to witness recovery in its commercial and industrial volumes at the onset of the July-September quarter. Notably, its July 2020 weather-normal volumes were up 3% to 4% compared with the company’s COVID-updated forecast. On the other hand, residential volumes were up approximately 6.5% year over year.

Duke Energy Corporation Price and EPS Surprise

However, lower retail electric sales volume might have marred the aforementioned growth of the company’s revenues in the soon-to-be-reported quarter.

Currently, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter revenues is pegged at $6.96 billion, indicating a 0.3% rise from the figure reported in the year-ago quarter.

Duke Energy’s service territories suffered a handful of tropical storms during the third quarter, which might have damaged some of its infrastructure, along with causing power outages. This in turn can be expected to have pushed up the utility provider’s storm restoration expenses, thereby weighing on quarterly bottom line. Expenses related to the COVID-19 pandemic are also projected to have affected its earnings.

However, Duke Energy’s impressive cost mitigation initiative can be expected to have offset these adverse impacts on earnings.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at $1.79 per share, reflecting no change when compared to the year-earlier quarter’s reported figure.

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for Duke Energy this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the chances of an earnings beat. This is not the case here.

Earnings ESP: Duke Energy has 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: The company carries a Zacks Rank #3. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Recent Utility Releases

Entergy (ETR - Free Report) reported third-quarter 2020 adjusted earnings of $2.44 per share, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.42 by 0.8%.

American Electric Power (AEP - Free Report) reported third-quarter 2020 adjusted earnings per share of $1.47, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.46 by 0.7%.

NextEra Energy (NEE - Free Report) reported third-quarter 2020 adjusted earnings of $2.66 per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.65 by 0.4%.

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