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Watch These 4 Utility Stocks for Q2 Earnings: Beat or Miss?
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So far, only a handful of S&P 500 members from the Zacks Utilities sector have reported their second-quarter earnings. Another cohort of major utility stocks, including Public Service Enterprise Group (PEG - Free Report) , CenterPoint Energy (CNP - Free Report) , American Electric Power (AEP - Free Report) and First Energy (FE - Free Report) , is set to reveal quarterly numbers on Jul 30.
Before offering an insight into how these stocks might have performed in the to-be-reported quarter, let’s delve deeper into the factors that influenced the entire utility sector this earnings season.
Factors to Consider
Domestic-focused utility companies emphasize cost management and energy-efficiency programs to reduce their operating, fuel, maintenance and upkeep costs. This enables customers to save on utility bills, which must have been attracting more customers and thereby expanding the sector’s customer base.
Apart from customer additions, favorable rate revision has been creating fresh demand, which might have boosted the top-line performance of utility providers. Moreover, utilities have been investing heftily in infrastructure upgrades to make their grids more resilient against extreme weather conditions, ensuring a smooth flow of electricity to their customers. These enhancements, coupled with efficient cost management, are anticipated to have aided the sector's performance, bolstering its overall financial results.
The weather remained warmer than normal for most of the second quarter across the utilities’ service territories, accompanied with precipitation ranging from below average to above normal. Such a weather condition is expected to have favorably impacted the utilities' top-line performance.
Further, these utilities have been aggressively adding more renewable and clean energy sources to their production portfolios, and cutting down the use of coal and other energy sources that have a high carbon emission rate from their generation portfolios. Many utilities have already pledged to provide 100% electricity from clean sources by 2050. We expect the second-quarter results from these utility companies to reflect such clean energy developments.
However, the fact that utilities need massive funds to upgrade, maintain and expand their infrastructure and operations has made their operations difficult in the current interest rate scenario. Thus, the capital-intensive utilities are likely to have experienced higher borrowing costs, thanks to the high interest rate environment that continued to prevail in the United States during the second quarter. Consequently, higher interest expenses might have hurt the sector’s bottom-line performance to some extent.
Q2 Expectations
Total second-quarter earnings of Utility stocks are expected to improve 9.1% year over year on a rise of 1.1% in revenues.
For more details on quarterly releases, you can go through our latest Earnings Preview.
Utilities' Earnings in Focus
Let's take a look at the following utility companies that are scheduled to post their quarterly report on Jul 30, and find out how things might have shaped up prior to the announcements.
Public Service Enterprise Group holds a four-quarter average earnings surprise of 7.30%. Unfavorable changes in generation and gas supply under the PSEG Power & Other segment might have adversely impacted PEG’s overall top-line performance amid favorable impacts from warmer-than-normal temperature pattern that prevailed in its service territories in the second quarter.
According to the Zacks model, the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.
CenterPoint Energy holds a four-quarter average earnings surprise of 3.13%. Adverse weather patterns, including a few flash floods, affected some parts of CNP’s service territories during the second quarter. This is likely to have resulted in outages for some of its customers, adversely impacting its overall revenues.
Profitable returns from its earlier investments, as well as the company’s initiatives to reduce O&M costs, might have boosted CenterPoint Energy’s overall earnings (read more: CenterPoint Energy to Post Q2 Earnings: What's in Store?).
CNP has an Earnings ESP of -1.27% and a Zacks Rank #3 at present.
American Electric Power has a trailing four-quarter average negative earnings surprise of 1.01%. Higher retail load, solid transmission revenues, increased customer volumes as well as favorable rate hikes in the previous quarters must have aided the company’s second-quarter top-line performance.
First Energy has a trailing four-quarter average negative earnings surprise of 3.20%. During the second quarter of 2024, FE’s subsidiary American Transmission installed nearly 250 new insulators along a 22-mile section of a transmission line. The new equipment is expected to have boosted earnings in the to-be-reported quarter.
In March 2024, a new distribution base rate case became effective in the West Virginia service area. This is likely to have positively impacted the quarterly results (read more: What's in the Cards for FirstEnergy This Earnings Season?).
FE has an Earnings ESP of -0.30% and a Zacks Rank #2 at present.
Image: Bigstock
Watch These 4 Utility Stocks for Q2 Earnings: Beat or Miss?
So far, only a handful of S&P 500 members from the Zacks Utilities sector have reported their second-quarter earnings. Another cohort of major utility stocks, including Public Service Enterprise Group (PEG - Free Report) , CenterPoint Energy (CNP - Free Report) , American Electric Power (AEP - Free Report) and First Energy (FE - Free Report) , is set to reveal quarterly numbers on Jul 30.
Before offering an insight into how these stocks might have performed in the to-be-reported quarter, let’s delve deeper into the factors that influenced the entire utility sector this earnings season.
Factors to Consider
Domestic-focused utility companies emphasize cost management and energy-efficiency programs to reduce their operating, fuel, maintenance and upkeep costs. This enables customers to save on utility bills, which must have been attracting more customers and thereby expanding the sector’s customer base.
Apart from customer additions, favorable rate revision has been creating fresh demand, which might have boosted the top-line performance of utility providers. Moreover, utilities have been investing heftily in infrastructure upgrades to make their grids more resilient against extreme weather conditions, ensuring a smooth flow of electricity to their customers. These enhancements, coupled with efficient cost management, are anticipated to have aided the sector's performance, bolstering its overall financial results.
The weather remained warmer than normal for most of the second quarter across the utilities’ service territories, accompanied with precipitation ranging from below average to above normal. Such a weather condition is expected to have favorably impacted the utilities' top-line performance.
Further, these utilities have been aggressively adding more renewable and clean energy sources to their production portfolios, and cutting down the use of coal and other energy sources that have a high carbon emission rate from their generation portfolios. Many utilities have already pledged to provide 100% electricity from clean sources by 2050. We expect the second-quarter results from these utility companies to reflect such clean energy developments.
However, the fact that utilities need massive funds to upgrade, maintain and expand their infrastructure and operations has made their operations difficult in the current interest rate scenario. Thus, the capital-intensive utilities are likely to have experienced higher borrowing costs, thanks to the high interest rate environment that continued to prevail in the United States during the second quarter. Consequently, higher interest expenses might have hurt the sector’s bottom-line performance to some extent.
Q2 Expectations
Total second-quarter earnings of Utility stocks are expected to improve 9.1% year over year on a rise of 1.1% in revenues.
For more details on quarterly releases, you can go through our latest Earnings Preview.
Utilities' Earnings in Focus
Let's take a look at the following utility companies that are scheduled to post their quarterly report on Jul 30, and find out how things might have shaped up prior to the announcements.
Public Service Enterprise Group holds a four-quarter average earnings surprise of 7.30%. Unfavorable changes in generation and gas supply under the PSEG Power & Other segment might have adversely impacted PEG’s overall top-line performance amid favorable impacts from warmer-than-normal temperature pattern that prevailed in its service territories in the second quarter.
Higher operation and maintenance (O&M) costs related to gas meter inspections are likely to have hurt earnings (read more: PSEG to Report Q2 Earnings: Here's What to Expect).
According to the Zacks model, the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.
PEG has an Earnings ESP of -4.48% and a Zacks Rank #2 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated Price and EPS Surprise
Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated price-eps-surprise | Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated Quote
CenterPoint Energy holds a four-quarter average earnings surprise of 3.13%. Adverse weather patterns, including a few flash floods, affected some parts of CNP’s service territories during the second quarter. This is likely to have resulted in outages for some of its customers, adversely impacting its overall revenues.
Profitable returns from its earlier investments, as well as the company’s initiatives to reduce O&M costs, might have boosted CenterPoint Energy’s overall earnings (read more: CenterPoint Energy to Post Q2 Earnings: What's in Store?).
CNP has an Earnings ESP of -1.27% and a Zacks Rank #3 at present.
CenterPoint Energy, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise
CenterPoint Energy, Inc. price-eps-surprise | CenterPoint Energy, Inc. Quote
American Electric Power has a trailing four-quarter average negative earnings surprise of 1.01%. Higher retail load, solid transmission revenues, increased customer volumes as well as favorable rate hikes in the previous quarters must have aided the company’s second-quarter top-line performance.
Higher interest and depreciation expenses might have adversely impacted the company’s revenues (read more: What's in Store for American Electric in Q2 Earnings?).
AEP has an Earnings ESP of -0.16% and a Zacks Rank #2 at present.
American Electric Power Company, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise
American Electric Power Company, Inc. price-eps-surprise | American Electric Power Company, Inc. Quote
First Energy has a trailing four-quarter average negative earnings surprise of 3.20%. During the second quarter of 2024, FE’s subsidiary American Transmission installed nearly 250 new insulators along a 22-mile section of a transmission line. The new equipment is expected to have boosted earnings in the to-be-reported quarter.
In March 2024, a new distribution base rate case became effective in the West Virginia service area. This is likely to have positively impacted the quarterly results (read more: What's in the Cards for FirstEnergy This Earnings Season?).
FE has an Earnings ESP of -0.30% and a Zacks Rank #2 at present.
FirstEnergy Corporation Price and EPS Surprise
FirstEnergy Corporation price-eps-surprise | FirstEnergy Corporation Quote
Stay on top of upcoming earnings announcements with the Zacks Earnings Calendar.