Pinnacle West (PNW) To Post Q2 Earnings: What's In Store?

Pinnacle West Capital Corporation (NYSE:PNW) is scheduled to release second-quarter 2019 results on Aug 8, before the opening bell. In the last reported quarter, the company reported a negative earnings surprise of 20%.

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

Factors at Play

Business expansion and related job growth continue to support commercial as well as economic development in the Metro Phoenix area. Pinnacle West anticipates that Metro Phoenix housing market will expand faster than the national average with higher number of housing permits. We expect these factors to make a positive impact in the to-be-reported quarter’s results.

Moreover, the company strives to become a lean principal organization on the back of increasing customer growth and disciplined cost management. This is expected to boost Pinnacle West’s second-quarter results.

However, a planned refueling and maintenance outage initiated on April 6 for Palo Verde Unit 1 is likely to affect the upcoming quarterly results.

Q2 Expectation

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter earnings is pegged at $1.43 per share, which indicates a decline of 3.38% on a year-over-year basis.

Earnings Whisper

Our proven model does not show that Pinnacle West is likely to beat estimatesin the second quarter as it does not have the right combination of two key ingredients. A stock needs to have a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Earnings ESP: The company has an Earnings ESP of -0.64%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: Pinnacle West currently carries a Zacks Rank #3.

Stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) or 5 (Strong Sell) are best avoided, especially if they have a negative Earnings ESP.

Stocks to Consider

Here are some players from the Utilities sector that have the right combination of elements to beat estimates this time around.

Black Hills Corporation (NYSE:BKH) has an Earnings ESP of +0.75% and a Zacks Rank #3. The company is scheduled to report second-quarter 2019 results on Aug 5.

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) has an Earnings ESP of +1.18% and a Zacks Rank #3. The company is set to release second-quarter 2019 results on Aug 6.

Recent Release

Southern Company (NYSE:SO) delivered second-quarter 2019 earnings per share (excluding certain one-time items) of 80 cents, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 72 cents. The bottom line was flat on a year-over-year basis.

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