AES Corp (AES) To Post Q3 Earnings: Is A Beat In Store?

The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) is set to release third-quarter 2018 results on Nov 6, before the opening bell.

In the last reported quarter, the company witnessed a negative earnings surprise of 10.71%. However, it surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the trailing four quarters, the average beat being 4.61%.

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

The AES Corporation Price and EPS Surprise

Why a Likely Positive Surprise

Our proven model conclusively shows that AES Corp. is likely to beat on earnings this reporting season. Notably, a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a favorable Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. Impressively, the company has all these attributes as mentioned below:

Earnings ESP: AES Corp. has an Earnings ESP of +1.43%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: AES Corp. currently carries a Zacks Rank #2, which along with a positive ESP indicates a possible earnings surprise.

We caution against Sell-rated stocks (#4 or 5) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Factors at Play

Lower corporate tax rate arising from the latest U.S. tax reform along with the favorable impact of deferred tax remeasurement, is expected to benefit AES Corp.’s third-quarter results.

During the second quarter, AES Corp. completed the sale of its entire interest in Masinloc, Philippines and Eletropaulo, Brazil unit for $1.2 billion. The company expects to use the proceeds from these sale-outs in lowering its outstanding debts. We expect the favorable effect of this debt reduction to get reflected in the company’s third-quarter results in the form of lower interest expenses as well as lower operating cost, which in turn, is likely to boost its bottom line.

In August 2018, the company inaugurated AES Colon, a combined cycle power plant with a capacity of 381-megawatt (MW), and its first liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal in Central America. The regasification terminal must have started operation by Sep 1, 2018 per management’s expectation. This might further drive the company’s performance in the quarter to be reported.

For the third quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings of 29 cents projects a rise of 20.8% while the same for revenues of $3.56 billion shows a 2% dip on a year-over-year basis.

Stocks That Warrant a Look

Here are a few stocks in the Utility – Electric Power space that you may want to consider as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to beat on earnings in the upcoming releases:

PNM Resources, Inc. (NYSE:PNM) has an Earnings ESP of +1.21% and a Zacks Rank of 2. It is expected to report third-quarter 2018 earnings on Nov 6. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) has an Earnings ESP of +0.37% and a Zacks Rank of 1. It is expected to report third-quarter 2018 earnings on Nov 7.

Atlantica Yield PLC (NASDAQ:AY) has an Earnings ESP of +42.22% and is a Zacks #3 Ranked stock. The company is anticipated to report third-quarter 2018 earnings on Nov 5.

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