CenterPoint Energy on Wednesday beat both analysts’ expectations and its performance a year ago by reporting second-quarter earnings of $165 million ($0.33/share).
The results exceeded Zacks Investment Research’s projection of 31 cents/share and the second quarter of 2018, when the company lost $75 million ($0.17/share). Last year’s loss included a pre-tax write down of $242 million to reflect the company’s investment in Time Warner, which has since been acquired by AT&T.
“It was a solid second quarter,” CEO Scott Prochazka told analysts during a Wednesday earnings call.
The Houston-based company said its performance was driven by its utility operations and cash contributions from non-utility businesses such as Enable Midstream Partners, a joint venture with OGE Energy and ArcLight Capital Partners. The pipeline company reported $74 million of equity income for the quarter, a $16 million improvement over last year.
Prochazka said CenterPoint no longer intends to sell common units of Midstream, as “much has changed since we first considered the sale.” He said Midstream, which has contributed $1.7 billion in cash distributions to CenterPoint since 2013, “now reports a smaller percentage of our earnings” with the closing of the $6 billion Vectren merger in February.
Vectren contributed $25 million in operating income.
CenterPoint’s stock opened at $28.85/share Wednesday morning but quickly dropped to $27.47. The stock recovered to close at $28.14, down 2.5%.
— Tom Kleckner
