PNY Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc.

By Austen Hufford 

Duke Energy Corp.'s profit decreased in its latest quarter, hurt by mild weather and winter storm repairs, and results fell short of Wall Street expectations.

The Charlotte, N.C., company operates utilities that serve millions of customers in the South and Midwest, and in October 2015 it struck a $4.9 billion deal to buy Piedmont Natural Gas in a move to beef up its gas assets. Tuesday it said the deal was on track to be closed by the year's end.

Duke's regulated utilities segment, its biggest, saw earnings fall to $695 million from $774 million a year earlier. Higher pricing was offset by milder winter weather in the Carolinas and the Midwest and by significant winter storm costs.

In all for the first quarter, Duke reported a profit of $694 million, or $1.01 a share, down from $864 million, or $1.22 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding discontinued operations, among other items, earnings per share fell to $1.13, a penny below what analysts were expecting.

Duke also reaffirmed its earnings per share guidance for the year.

Last year Duke sold its Midwest generation business to Dynegy Inc. for $2.8 billion. Related to that deal, Duke Energy completed a $1.5 billion accelerated stock buyback program in the latest quarter. The average number of shares outstanding during the quarter decreased 2.7%.

In February the company put its international energy business line up for sale -- an attempt to shed a unit hit by a rout in energy prices. Tuesday, Duke said it began marketing the assets and is signing nondisclosure agreements with interested parties.

In the fourth quarter, however, the international business reported an increase in income, rising to $123 million, up from $36 million in the prior year. The unit was helped by lower tax expenses and hydroelectric driven growth in Brazil.

Shares in the company -- up 0.5% in the last three months -- were inactive premarket, but rose 0.2% to $79.11 in early morning trading.

Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 03, 2016 10:19 ET (14:19 GMT)

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