Entergy misses quarterly profit estimates as operating costs weigh (updated)

Entergy

29/07/2026 17:35

Adds shares in paragraph 1 and details from post-earnings call in bullets 3 and 5
By Pranav  Mathur
July 29 (Reuters) - U.S. electric utility Entergy ETR.N on Wednesday narrowly missed Wall Street estimates for second-quarter profit, weighed down by elevated operation and maintenance costs, sending its shares down nearly 2% in afternoon trading.
Rising power consumption from large industrial users and emerging high-load customers have lifted demand for electricity, but higher operating expenses, financing costs and capital requirements are weighing on margins and near-term profit growth for utilities.
Regulators approved rate updates for Entergy Arkansas and Entergy Texas, while Entergy Louisiana and Entergy New Orleans filed annual formula rate plans and extension requests.
Utilities have been seeking to raise customer power bills to fund infrastructure upgrades, as the country's electrical grids face growing demand from industry electrification and data-center expansions.
On its post-earnings call, the company said it expects $7 billion in customer bill benefits for agreements signed till date. 
Entergy's operating expenses rose 7.3% year-on-year in the second quarter to $2.67 billion.
The company said it expects an increase of about 5 to 10 cents in third-quarter operating and maintenance expenses year-on-year.
Entergy's debt levels grew 13.8% to $34.7 billion as of June 30.
However, the company said its weather-adjusted retail sales rose 5.7%, buoyed by higher industrial usage.
The New Orleans-based utility's industrial sales for the quarter grew 9.8% to 17,164 gigawatt hours.
For the quarter ended June 30, Entergy posted an adjusted profit of $1.03 per share, compared with analysts' estimates of $1.04, according to data compiled by LSEG.

 (Reporting by Pranav  Mathur in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
 ((Pranav.Mathur@thomsonreuters.com;))