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Duke Energy (DUK) to Post Q4 Earnings: What's in the Cards?

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Duke Energy Corporation (DUK - Free Report) is slated to report fourth-quarter and full-year 2023 results on Feb 8, before the opening bell.

In the last reported quarter, the company delivered an earnings surprise of 1.04%. However, Duke Energy has a trailing four-quarter average negative earnings surprise of 2.09%.

Factors to Note

Strong customer growth and favorable rate hikes witnessed in the recent past are likely to have contributed to Duke Energy’s fourth-quarter revenues.

Duke Energy Corporation Price and EPS Surprise

Duke Energy Corporation Price and EPS Surprise

Duke Energy Corporation price-eps-surprise | Duke Energy Corporation Quote

However, the majority of DUK’s service territories witnessed a cooler-than-normal weather pattern, accompanied by severe weather impacts in the to-be-reported quarter. Tropical storms and tornadoes brought in flash floods and hail, causing widespread outages. Such outages are likely to have adversely impacted the company’s revenues to some extent.

From the cost perspective, operation and maintenance costs to restore damages caused by the weather conditions might have had an adverse impact on DUK’s fourth-quarter earnings. However, the company’s cost mitigation efforts to address rising interest rate headwinds are expected to have benefited its bottom-line performance in the fourth quarter.

Q4 Expectations

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fourth-quarter revenues is pegged at $7.53 billion, indicating an increase of 2.4% from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fourth-quarter earnings is pegged at $1.54 per share, suggesting a 38.7% improvement from the prior-year quarter’s tally.

What the Zacks Model Unveils

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. However, that is not the case here.

Earnings ESP: The company’s Earnings ESP is -0.52%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: DUK currently 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 that have the right combination of elements to come up with an earnings beat this reporting cycle.

IDACORP (IDA - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +2.52% and a Zacks Rank #2 at present. The company delivered a four-quarter average earnings surprise of 13.25%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for IDA’s fourth-quarter sales is pegged at $429.84 million, indicating growth of 1.6% from that recorded in the prior-year quarter. The consensus mark for earnings is pegged at 60 cents per share, implying a decline of 27.7% from the year-ago quarter.

The Southern Company (SO - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +2.95% and a Zacks Rank #2 at present. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fourth-quarter earnings is pinned at 59 cents per share, indicating a 126.9% increase year over year.

The Southern Company delivered a four-quarter average earnings surprise of 8.49%. The consensus mark for SO’s fourth-quarter sales is pegged at $7.74 billion, indicating growth of 9.8% from that recorded in the prior-year quarter.

NiSource (NI - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +1.92% and a Zacks Rank #2 at present. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fourth-quarter earnings is pegged at 52 cents per share, implying a 4% increase from that reported in the prior-year quarter.

The consensus mark for NI’s sales stands at $1.59 billion. The company delivered a four-quarter average earnings surprise of 5.59%.

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

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