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Duke Energy (DUK) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Duke Energy (DUK - Free Report) closed at $88.46, marking a +1.41% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 2.37% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 2.47%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.07%.

Heading into today, shares of the electric utility had lost 16.67% over the past month, lagging the Utilities sector's loss of 13.72% and the S&P 500's loss of 4.82% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Duke Energy as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be November 4, 2022. On that day, Duke Energy is projected to report earnings of $1.83 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 2.66%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $7.19 billion, up 3.38% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $5.45 per share and revenue of $27.46 billion. These totals would mark changes of +4.01% and +9.4%, respectively, from last year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Duke Energy should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. Duke Energy is currently a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Looking at its valuation, Duke Energy is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 16.01. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 15.84, which means Duke Energy is trading at a premium to the group.

Also, we should mention that DUK has a PEG ratio of 2.68. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. Utility - Electric Power stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.75 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Utility - Electric Power industry is part of the Utilities sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 80, which puts it in the top 32% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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