DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Entergy Corp. (ETR) projected third-quarter earnings below
analysts' expectations as profit will fall modestly from prior-year
levels on a prior-year income tax cut.
Partially offsetting that will be increased profit at its
nuclear operations, which Entergy has been working toward spinning
off, and its non-nuclear wholesale operations. Entergy is the
second-largest nuclear-power generator in the U.S. behind Exelon
Corp. (EXC) and delivers electricity to some 2.7 million people in
the lower Mississippi River Valley and Texas.
The company is the first among the nation's biggest electricity
providers to give insight into the summer's results - generally
seen as the most important for the sector. The industry has been
battling falling demand amid the recession, and the summer's
relative coolness in many parts of the country likely hastened
declines.
At Entergy, it expects operating earnings of about $2.39 a
share. The mean estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters
was $2.55 a share.
Entergy said the utility, parent and other operations will see
lower profit amid a prior-year income-tax cut but higher revenue
because hurricanes cut 2008 demand.
Shares of the company, which reiterated the 2009 earnings
forecast it cut in July, closed Wednesday at $78.82 and were
inactive premarket Thursday. The stock is down 5.2% this year.
-By Kevin Kingsbury; Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2354;
kevin.kingsbury@dowjones.com