Entergy Share Price Jumps with Solid Quarter

Oct 31, 2018

Entergy reported third-quarter earnings of $536 million ($2.92/share), as compared to $398 million ($2.21/share) a year ago.

By Tom Kleckner

Entergy reported third-quarter earnings of $536 million ($2.92/share), as compared to $398 million ($2.21/share) a year ago. The New Orleans-based company’s results exceeded analysts’ expectations by 33.2%, with adjusted earnings of $3.77/share, a 94-cent overperformance.

Investors rewarded Entergy by boosting its share price more than $2 following the company’s earnings announcement Wednesday. The company’s stock opened at $82.11, peaked at $84.84 during the day and closed at $83.95.

Entergy’s New Orleans headquarters | *Wikimedia Commons*

Company executives updated its year-end consolidated operational earnings guidance, from $6.25 to 6.85/share to $6.75 to 7.25/share.

Entergy warned that costs related to the sale or closure of its merchant nuclear plants could cut into as-reported EPS by $2.95/share this year.

CEO Leo Denault told financial analysts during a conference call that the company continues to move away from nuclear power by devoting a “large portion” of its capital expenditures to building large- to medium-sized combined cycle gas turbines. Entergy in August announced a $314 million purchase of GenOn Energy’s Choctaw Generating Station in Mississippi, an 810-MW gas-fired unit.

Denault said he is “hopeful” Vermont Yankee’s sale to NorthStar Decommissioning Holdings will be approved by Vermont regulators by year-end. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved the transfer of the nuclear plant’s license to NorthStar.