DTE Energy Company DTEis slated to report first-quarter 2018 results on Apr 25, before the opening bell.
Last quarter, the company delivered a positive earnings surprise of 2.44%. DTE Energy surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the trailing four quarters, with an average beat of 5.32%.
Factors at Play
The company’s service territories mostly witnessed colder-than-normal winters in the first quarter. In particular, Michigan had its wettest cold season on record this year, which indicates higher electricity demand. This in turn is expected to boost DTE Energy’s revenues in the quarter under review.
On the bottom-line front, management expects the recent tax reform to be accretive to DTE Energy’s 2018 earnings by 10 cents. We believe part of this accretion to benefit the company’s first-quarter earnings and will duly get reflected in the form of higher quarterly earnings. In line with this, the consensus estimate for DTE Energy’s earnings of $1.89 per share for the yet-to-be-reported quarter reflects year-over-year growth of 5.6%.
However, higher interest expense is expected to weigh on the company’s first-quarter results.
Earnings Whispers
Our proven model does not show that DTE Energy will beat estimates this quarter. That is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESPand a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. But that is not the case here, as you will see below.
Zacks ESP: DTE Energy has an Earnings ESPof +1. 15%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.
Zacks Rank: DTE Energy carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Note that we caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Strong Sell) while going into an earnings announcement.