Dominion Resources at Risk from Rising Rates

In the wake of unexpectedly strong economic reports, increasingly confident investors are executing a “flight from safety,” which is bad news for utility stocks. Case in point: Electric utility Dominion Resources, Inc. (NYSE:D) on Friday reported fourth-quarter fiscal 2014 operating results that missed the mark by a wide margin. The company reported earnings of $243 million and earnings per share of 42 cents, a drop from $431 million and EPS of 74 cents for the same period a year ago.

Wall Street had expected EPS of 83 cents. That said, excluding items, operating earnings for the fourth quarter reached 84 cents per share, a year-over-year gain of 5% compared with 80 cents per share during the same year-ago quarter. Dominion’s fourth-quarter revenue came in at $2.9 billion compared with $3.2 billion in the same year-ago quarter. Analysts’ consensus estimate had called for revenue of $3.1 billion. Dominion management gave first-quarter guidance for operating earnings in the range of 85 cents to $1 per share, below analysts’ expectations of $1.03 per share.

Source: InvestorPlace

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