The stock price of energy major Duke Energy Corporation,has decreased ahead of results. The company provides its services through three business segments - U.S. Franchised Electric and Gas, Commercial Power and International Energy. The company reported strong full year financial results.

The company reported adjusted diluted earnings per share of $1.22. Full-year reported diluted EPS was $0.83 for 2009, compared to $1.07 in same period last year. Fourth quarter adjusted diluted EPS was 28 cents as compared to 27 cents for fourth quarter last year. Reported diluted EPS was unchanged for both the fourth quarter 2009 and the fourth quarter 2008.

The company was able to achieve these strong results by its cost cutting efforts as the company reduced its operational and maintenance cost by $150 million in the year 2009. Industrial sales volumes, however, adversely affected earnings during 2009 as it declined by approximately 14 percent year-over-year, on a weather-normalized basis.

Overall, the company performed well in the current economic environment.  Despite year-over-year declines in retail sales volumes, the company exceeded its employee incentive target by controlling costs and managing operations exceptionally well. Moreover, the second half of the year 2009 showed a good signs of stabilization. Duke Energy International (DEI) is also performing consistently.