Duke Energy (DUK) Stock Up Ahead of Earnings Results

Duke Energy (DUK) will release its 2015 third quarter earnings results before the market open on Thursday.
By Amanda Schiavo ,

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Duke Energy (DUK) - Get Report will release its 2015 third quarter earnings results before the market open on Thursday.

Shares of Duke Energy are rising by 0.14% to $72.29 in mid-morning trading on Wednesday.

Analysts are expecting the energy company to report a year over year rise in both earnings per share and revenue for the most recent third quarter.

The company has been forecast to post earnings of $1.51 per share on revenue of $6.87 billion for the three month period ending in September.

Duke Energy's adjusted earnings came in at $1.40 per share on $6.4 billion in revenue for the 2014 third quarter.

Duke Energy is a Charlotte, NC-based electric and utilities company operating in three business segments: Regulated Utilities, International Energy and Commercial Power.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates DUKE ENERGY CORP as a Buy with a ratings score of B. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

We rate DUKE ENERGY CORP (DUK) a BUY. This is driven by a number of strengths, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its good cash flow from operations and expanding profit margins. We feel its strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had lackluster performance in the stock itself.

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

  • Net operating cash flow has increased to $1,439.00 million or 15.48% when compared to the same quarter last year. The firm also exceeded the industry average cash flow growth rate of -14.09%.
  • 36.82% is the gross profit margin for DUKE ENERGY CORP which we consider to be strong. Regardless of DUK's high profit margin, it has managed to decrease from the same period last year. Despite the mixed results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of 9.71% trails the industry average.
  • DUKE ENERGY CORP's earnings per share declined by 14.7% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has suffered a declining pattern of earnings per share over the past year. However, we anticipate this trend reversing over the coming year. During the past fiscal year, DUKE ENERGY CORP reported lower earnings of $3.46 versus $3.63 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($4.63 versus $3.46).
  • DUK, with its decline in revenue, slightly underperformed the industry average of 0.5%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 2.1%. Weakness in the company's revenue seems to have hurt the bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.
  • The debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04 is relatively high when compared with the industry average, suggesting a need for better debt level management. Along with this, the company manages to maintain a quick ratio of 0.29, which clearly demonstrates the inability to cover short-term cash needs.
  • You can view the full analysis from the report here: DUK
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