Entergy (NYSE: ETR) said Wednesday that it delivered “another strong quarter” over the summer, despite the electricity grid damage wrought by Hurricane Ida when it made landfall along Louisiana’s Gulf Coast in August.
The company reported third-quarter earnings of $531 million ($2.63/share), compared with $521 million ($2.59/share) a year earlier. That beat an Investing.com’s poll of analysts who had expected earnings of $2.40/share.
Ida was the second most destructive storm to hit Louisiana, after only Katrina in 2005, and inflicted an estimated $2.1 billion to $2.5 billion in damages to Entergy facilities. The company said that resulted in a $75 million to $80 million loss in non-fuel revenue.
Entergy CEO Leo Denault | Entergy
CEO Leo Denault said during a conference call with financial analysts that Entergy had invested about $10 billion over the last five years to strengthen its system. He said the newer infrastructure performed well “under the most challenging situations.”
“The wind damage was almost exclusively to aging structures built prior to the new standards,” Denault said. “The increasing severity of storms is compelling us to take a fresh look at how we can make our system more resilient.”
Entergy’s restoration force of employees, contractors and mutual assistance crews from 41 states numbered about 27,000, its largest ever, Denault said. Customer outages reached 1 million at their peak, he said, but were less than half that in little more than a week.
“We’re committed to minimizing the effect of Ida on customer bills,” he said.
The New Orleans-based company plans to securitize its Ida costs, even as costs from 2008 hurricanes Ike and Gustav are about to roll off.
Entergy narrowed its 2021 adjusted EPS guidance range to $5.90 to $6.10 and said it is on track for EPS growth of 5 to 7% through 2024.
The company’s shares were trading at $103.36 following the market’s close, a 44-cent drop from the previous close.
