EXC - Exelon 1st-qtr earnings jump 73 percent
NEW YORK, April 25 (Reuters) - Exelon Corp. (EXC.N: Quote, Profile , Research), the No. 1 U.S. nuclear power company, posted a 73 percent rise in quarterly profit on Wednesday, boosted by improved margins on its competitive energy sales and higher nuclear power output.
"Strong, better-than-expected," analyst Daniele Seitz said of the results, citing "good demand and very good production" from Exelon power plants." But Seitz, an analyst at Dalhman Rose, who has a buy rating on the company and owns no shares, said Exelon's Illinois utility is still having problems.
Exelon, which canceled a planned takeover of Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (PEG.N: Quote, Profile , Research) last fall because of regulatory problems, said first-quarter net income rose to $691 million, or $1.02 per share, from $400 million, or 59 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding special items, operating earnings were $1.07 per share. Analysts on average had expected the company to earn 99 cents per share in the first quarter, according to Reuters Estimates.
Exelon stock was up 16 cents at $75.15 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
First-quarter sales jumped 25 percent to $4.8 billion at Exelon, which distributes electricity to 5.4 million customers in Illinois and Pennsylvania and natural gas to more than 480,000 customers in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Exelon stood by its earnings outlook for 2007 of $4.10 to $4.40 per share. Excluding special items, it expects to earn $4.00 to $4.30 per share for the full year.
Analysts are expecting the company to post $4.32 per share excluding special items for 2007, according to Reuters Estimates.
The company said its forecast excludes any additional impact from possible legislation and settlement outcomes on electricity rates in Illinois, beyond the $44 million the company recently proposed to spend on rate relief in 2007.
The Illinois House of Representative last month passed a rate freeze extension bill that would roll back and cap electricity rates to 2006 levels for the state's utilities. Last week, the Senate passed a one-year rate freeze bill that excluded Exelon's Commonwealth Edison utility.
Exelon reiterated its position that a rate freeze extension would cost its ComEd unit $1.4 billion annually and would put it on the path to bankruptcy. The company this week also proposed a $64 million relief package for customers hardest hit by the January rate hikes.
The relief program is expected to cost $44 million in 2007 and about $20 million in 2007 and 2008 combined, said Exelon.
Shares of the integrated power company have risen more than 30 percent in the past year, tracking the broader Standard & Poor's utility index gain of about 33 percent.
Increased power demand has helped push the utility index to near its lifetime high, as the sector continues rebounding from the 2001-2002 industry meltdown that resulted from Enron's bankruptcy and western states' electricity debacle.
