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What's in the Cards for Sempra (SRE) This Earnings Season?

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Sempra Energy (SRE - Free Report) is slated to report second-quarter 2023 results on Aug 3 before the opening bell.

In the last reported quarter, the company reported an earnings surprise of 5.80%. Sempra Energy has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 9.68%, on average.  

Factors to Note

In the second quarter, some parts of Sempra Energy’s service territories witnessed warmer-than-normal temperatures. Such weather patterns are likely to have boosted the electricity demand for cooling purposes among the company’s customers in the summer. This is expected to have boosted revenues in the soon-to-be-reported quarter.

Meanwhile, strong demand growth at Oncor and increased retail transmission interconnection requests are likely to have benefited Sempra’s second-quarter revenue performance.

However, some parts of its service territories experienced extreme weather conditions like tornados accompanied by gusty winds, which might have dampened the smooth flow of electricity among SRE customers. This is likely to have negatively impacted the company’s overall second-quarter revenues.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter revenues is pegged at $3.64 billion. This indicates a 2.6% increase from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure.

From the cost perspective, tornados might have caused infrastructural damage for Sempra Energy, thereby increasing the company’s operation and maintenance expenses to repair the damage. This might have hurt SRE’s second-quarter bottom line. Also, higher depreciation and interest expenses may have dented second-quarter earnings results.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter earnings is pegged at $1.72 per share. This calls for a 13.1% decline from the prior-year reported figure.

Zacks Investment Research
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What the Zacks Model Unveils

Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for Sempra Energy this time. 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, which is not the case here.

Earnings ESP: The company’s Earnings ESP is 0.00%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: SRE carries a Zacks Rank #3. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Stocks to Consider

Here are three utility players you may want to consider as these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this season:

ALLETE, Inc. (ALE - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +2.56% and a Zacks Rank #3. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its second-quarter sales, pegged at $378.5 million, implies growth of 1.5% from the prior-year quarter’s tally.

ALE has a four-quarter negative earnings surprise of 10.64%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ALLETE’s second-quarter earnings is pegged at 78 cents per share.

Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated (PEG - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +0.66% and a Zacks Rank #2. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its second-quarter earnings is pegged at 61 cents per share.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for PEG’s second-quarter sales is pegged at $2.03 billion. This suggests a 2.4% decline from the prior-year reported figure.

TransAlta Corporation (TAC - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +217.65% and a Zacks Rank #3. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for TransAlta’s second-quarter earnings is pegged at 6 cents per share.

The company delivered an earnings surprise of 179.31% in the last reported quarter. TAC’s four-quarter average negative earnings surprise stands at 84.53%.

Stay on top of upcoming earnings announcements with the Zacks Earnings Calendar.

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