Duke Energy (DUK) closed the most recent trading day at $117.06, moving -1.52% from the previous trading session. The stock's change was less than the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.48%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.02%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.94%.
Coming into today, shares of the electric utility had gained 1.83% in the past month. In that same time, the Utilities sector gained 1.16%, while the S&P 500 gained 5.13%.
Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Duke Energy in its upcoming release. In that report, analysts expect Duke Energy to post earnings of $1.29 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 9.32%. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $7.38 billion, indicating a 2.9% upward movement from the same quarter last year.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $6.32 per share and a revenue of $31.82 billion, demonstrating changes of +7.12% and +4.81%, respectively, from the preceding year.
Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for Duke Energy. These latest adjustments often mirror the shifting dynamics of short-term business patterns. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.
Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed a 0.04% decrease. Duke Energy currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Digging into valuation, Duke Energy currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 18.8. This expresses a premium compared to the average Forward P/E of 18.19 of its industry.
Investors should also note that DUK has a PEG ratio of 2.97 right now. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. As the market closed yesterday, the Utility - Electric Power industry was having an average PEG ratio of 2.57.
The Utility - Electric Power industry is part of the Utilities sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 78, which puts it in the top 32% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Keep in mind to rely on Zacks.com to watch all these stock-impacting metrics, and more, in the succeeding trading sessions.
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Duke Energy Corporation (DUK): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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