Storms, hedging trims Duke Energy 3Q by 65 pct

The company posted net income of $215 million, or 17 cents per share, compared with $607 million, or 48 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

Excluding impairment charges and other one-time items, Charlotte, N.C.-based Duke earned 33 cents per share.

Revenue dipped about 5 percent to $3.51 billion from $3.69 billion.

Wall Street had expected earnings of 44 cents per share on $3.92 billion in revenue, according to a Thomson Reuters poll. Analysts typically exclude one-time items.

Shares fell 7.7 percent, or $1.30, to close at $15.62 Wednesday.

Duke, like dozens of other companies that hedge commodity costs, made a number of wrong-way bets in this year's volatile markets.

Falling coal and power prices forced Duke to record a mark-to-market charge of $119 million, or 6 cents per share.

"We are disappointed in the third quarter results, but our strong performance earlier in the year will help mitigate the impact of these results on our year-end performance," Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer James E. Rogers said.

Remnants of Hurricanes Ike and Gustav barreled across the Midwest late in the summer, knocking out power to thousands of Duke's customers. The storms, combined with milder-than-average weather, cut earnings by 8 cents per share, the company said.