What's In The Cards For Atlantic Power (AT) In Q4 Earnings?

Atlantic Power Corporation (TSX:AT) is scheduled to release fourth-quarter 2019 earnings on Feb 27. The company has trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 108.04%, on average.

Factors to Consider

Atlantic Power’s fourth-quarter earnings are likely to have benefited from the completion of four biomass plants acquisitions, which are secured with long-term power purchase agreements till 2027. Moreover, the new 10-year energy purchase agreement with BC Hydro. The agreement was effective from Oct 1, 2019, which is likely to have boosted the company’s earnings in the to-be-reported quarter.

Atlantic Power’s focus on lowering debt is expected to have strengthened its balance sheet. However, equipment malfunction started a fire at the plant on Sep 22, 2019. The outage related to this is likely to have had affected the company’s fourth-quarter performance.

Q4 Expectations

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fourth-quarter earnings per share is pegged at 5 cents, which calls for year-over-year decline of 72.2%.

What Our Quantitative Model Predicts

Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for Atlantic Power this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat. But’s that’s is not the case here. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Earnings ESP: The company’s Earnings ESP is 0.00%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: Currently, Atlantic Power carries a Zacks Rank #3.

Stocks to Consider

Investors can consider the following players from the same industry that have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat in the to-be-reported quarter.

NiSource, Inc (NYSE:NI) is set to release fourth-quarter 2019 numbers on Feb 26. It has an Earnings ESP of +2.38% and carries a Zacks Rank #3.

Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated (NYSE:PEG) is scheduled to release fourth-quarter 2019 results on Feb 26. It has an Earnings ESP of +1.21% and a Zacks Rank #3.

The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) is set to release fourth-quarter 2019 numbers on Feb 28. It has an Earnings ESP of +3.82% and carries a Zacks Rank #3.

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