CHARLOTTE – Duke Energy (DUK) on Thursday reported a fourth-quarter loss of $531 million, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier. But CEO Lynn Good still touted the company’s performance.

“We delivered a strong fourth quarter, closing out a successful year during which we met our financial goals, made progress on our growth strategy, and advanced our clean energy transformation to benefit customers,” she said in a statement. “Our path forward is clear and underpinned by the strength of our regulated businesses, a disciplined approach to cost management and a robust $65 billion capital plan.
We’re well positioned to earn solidly within our 5% to 7% growth rate through 2027.

“As we continue to navigate our energy transition, we’ll do so responsibly – protecting affordability and reliability for our customers and delivering consistent value to our communities and shareholders,” she added.

The Charlotte-based company said it had a loss of 71 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were $1.11 per share.

Hurting the financials were losses from “discontinued operations,” the company said.

“Discontinued operations primarily includes the estimated impairment on the sale of the Commercial Renewables business along with results from Duke Energy’s Commercial Renewables business. In November 2022, the company announced it had initiated a sale process of the Commercial Renewables business, which is expected to close later in 2023,” Duke said.

“For the fourth quarter of 2022, Duke Energy’s GAAP reported Loss From Discontinued Operations, net of tax, includes an estimated impairment loss on the sale of the Commercial Renewables business and other transaction costs of approximately $1.3 billion.”

The overall results still exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of six analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.06 per share.

The electric utility posted revenue of $7.35 billion in the period, also surpassing Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $6.61 billion.

For the year, the company reported profit of $2.56 billion, or $3.33 per share. Revenue was reported as $28.77 billion.