Entergy Second Quarter Earnings Sneak Peek

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component Entergy (NYSE:ETR) will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, July 31, 2012. Entergy is an energy company involved in electric power production and retail electric distribution operations.

Entergy Earnings Preview Cheat Sheet

Wall St. Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is for profit of $1.61 per share, a decline of 8.5% from the company’s actual earnings for the year-ago quarter. During the past three months, the average estimate has moved up from $1.36. Between one and three months ago, the average estimate was unchanged. It has risen during the last month. Analysts are projecting profit to rise by 30.2% compared to last year’s $5.32.

Past Earnings Performance: The company is hoping to beat estimates after missing the mark for two straight quarters. Last quarter, it reported net income of 44 cents per share against an estimate of profit of 54 cents per share. The quarter before that, it missed forecasts by 2 cents.

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A Look Back: In the first quarter, the company swung to a loss of $146.7 million (86 cents a share) from a profit of $253.7 million ($1.38) a year earlier, missing analyst expectations. Revenue fell 6.2% to $2.38 billion from $2.54 billion.

Balance Sheet Analysis: The company’s current ratio of assets to liabilities came in at 1.14 last quarter. The current ratio is an indication of a firm’s liquidity and ability to meet creditor demands and generally, for every dollar the company owes in the short term, it has that figure available in assets that can be converted to cash in the short term.

Stock Price Performance: Between May 29, 2012 and July 25, 2012, the stock price had risen $5.96 (9.2%), from $64.85 to $70.81. The stock price saw one of its best stretches over the last year between July 6, 2012 and July 18, 2012, when shares rose for nine straight days, increasing 5.4% (+$3.64) over that span. It saw one of its worst periods between July 26, 2011 and August 4, 2011 when shares fell for eight straight days, dropping 8.7% (-$5.96) over that span.

Key Stats:

On the top line, the company is hoping to use this earnings announcement to snap a string of two-straight quarters of revenue declines. Revenue fell 1.7% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year and dropped again in the first quarter.

Wall St. Revenue Expectations: On average, analysts predict $2.7 billion in revenue this quarter, a decline of 3.6% from the year-ago quarter. Analysts are forecasting total revenue of $11.2 billion for the year, a decline of 0.9% from last year’s revenue of $11.3 billion.

Analyst Ratings: There are mostly holds on the stock with 10 of 13 analysts surveyed giving that rating.

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(Company fundamentals by Xignite Financials. Earnings estimates provided by Zacks)

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