Duke Energy (DUK) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

In the latest trading session, Duke Energy (DUK) closed at $81.29, marking a -1.81% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.74%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.43%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.67%.

Heading into today, shares of the electric utility had gained 4.2% over the past month, outpacing the Utilities sector's gain of 3.61% and lagging the S&P 500's gain of 5.51% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from DUK as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be August 10, 2020. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.04, down 7.14% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $5.75 billion, down 2.03% from the year-ago period.

DUK's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $5.05 per share and revenue of $24.85 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -0.2% and -0.9%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for DUK. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.4% lower. DUK currently has a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that DUK has a Forward P/E ratio of 16.39 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 18.26, which means DUK is trading at a discount to the group.

It is also worth noting that DUK currently has a PEG ratio of 3.78. 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 3.62 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 164, which puts it in the bottom 36% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.

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