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MARKETS LIVE BLOG:

STOCKS TRADE HIGHER; DISNEY SINKS AFTER EARNINGS

Disney's surprise streaming entertainment profit offset by weaker TV business

What's in Store for Consolidated Edison (ED) Q4 Earnings?

Zacks Equity Research

Consolidated Edison Inc ED is set to report fourth-quarter and full-year 2018 results on Feb 21, before market opens.

In the last reported quarter, the company witnessed a positive earnings surprise of 5.41%. The bottom line outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the trailing four quarters, the average beat being 4.50%.

Let’s see how things are shaping up prior to this announcement.

Why a Likely Positive Earnings Surprise

Our proven model shows a likely earnings beat for Consolidated Edison this quarter. That is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. This is the case here as you will see below.

Earnings ESP: Consolidated Edison has an Earnings ESP of +0.44%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: Consolidated Edison currently carries a Zacks Rank #2, which when combined with a positive ESP makes us confident of probable
earnings beat. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Note that we caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell-rated) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Consolidated Edison Inc Price and EPS Surprise

Consolidated Edison Inc Price and EPS Surprise | Consolidated Edison Inc Quote

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Factors Under Consideration

In the middle of the fourth quarter, the company’s service territories witnessed storms and heavy rain that led to flooding. This most probably have caused a few outages, leading to disruption in smooth power supply across the company’s service territories. Therefore, temperature is likely to hurt Consolidated Edison's revenues in the to-be-reported quarter.

In line with this, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Consolidated Edison's fourth-quarter sales pegged at $2.80 billion reflects a year-over-year decline of 5.4%.

During the quarter, Consolidated Edison's subsidiary completed its previously announced acquisition of Sempra Energy’s SRE subsidiary for $1.6 billion, which owns 980 megawatts (MW) AC of operating renewable electric production projects. Such heavy investments, although are earnings accretive over the long run, tend to push up the acquirer’s expenses.

Moreover, construction expenditures incurred by the company for its Utilities have also been on the rise, lately. Together, these factors might weigh on the company’s bottom-line results in the to-be-reported quarter.

In line with this, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Consolidated Edison's fourth-quarter earnings pegged at 76 cents reflects an annual decline of 5%.

Utility Stocks With Favorable Combination

The Southern Company SO is expected to release fourth-quarter results on Feb 20. It has an Earnings ESP of +22.29% and a Zacks Rank #2.

Pinnacle West Capital Corporation PNW is expected to release fourth-quarter results on Feb 22. It has an Earnings ESP of +4.17% and a Zacks
Rank #2.

Zacks' Top 10 Stocks for 2019

In addition to the stocks discussed above, wouldn't you like to know about our 10 finest buy-and-holds for the year?

From more than 4,000 companies covered by the Zacks Rank, these 10 were picked by a process that consistently beats the market. Even during 2018 while the market dropped -5.2%, our Top 10s were up well into double-digits. And during bullish 2012 – 2017, they soared far above the market's +126.3%, reaching +181.9%.

This year, the portfolio features a player that thrives on volatility, an AI comer, and a dynamic tech company that helps doctors deliver better patient outcomes at lower costs.

See Stocks Today >>


Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
 
Pinnacle West Capital Corporation (PNW) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Southern Company (The) (SO) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Consolidated Edison Inc (ED) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Sempra Energy (SRE) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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