NRG Yield (CWEN) Reports Q2 Loss, Tops Revenue Estimates

NRG Yield (CWEN) came out with a quarterly loss of $0.22 per share versus the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.40. This compares to earnings of $0.61 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items.

This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of -155%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this company created by NRG Energy to acquire and operate natural gas, solar and wind plants would post earnings of $0.02 per share when it actually produced a loss of $0.18, delivering a surprise of -1,000%.

Over the last four quarters, the company has not been able to surpass consensus EPS estimates.

NRG Yield, which belongs to the Zacks Alternative Energy - Other industry, posted revenues of $284 million for the quarter ended June 2019, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 1.79%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $307 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates two times over the last four quarters.

The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call.

NRG Yield shares have added about 2.3% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 13.5%.

What's Next for NRG Yield?

While NRG Yield has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock?

There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately.

Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions.

Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for NRG Yield was favorable. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to outperform the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $0.86 on $372 million in revenues for the coming quarter and $1.51 on $1.07 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year.

Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Alternative Energy - Other is currently in the bottom 33% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.

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