Exelon Beats by a Penny

Exelon Corporation (EXC - Analyst Report) reported third-quarter earnings per share (EPS) of 96 cents per diluted share, a penny above the Zacks Consensus Estimate. However, it fell short of the year-ago figure of $1.07 per diluted share. 
 
On a year-over-year basis, the fall in EPS was primarily due to lower energy gross margins, higher generation costs, cool summer, and higher depreciation and amortization expense. 

On the revenue front, operating revenue fell to $4.3 billion from $5.2 billion. Its nuclear plants achieved a 94.7% capacity factor for the reported quarter compared with 97.2% in the year-ago quarter. Output from the nuclear fleet fell to 35,684 gigawatt-hours (GWh) from 36,451 GWh in the year-ago quarter. Output fell due to a higher number of refueling outage days which rose to 36 days from 17 in the year-ago quarter. Non-refueling outage days also rose to 21 days from 8 in the year-ago quarter. In the reported quarter, fossil fleet commercial availability also fell to 87% from 95.1% in the year-ago quarter, primarily reflecting the impact of extended maintenance outages in 2009. 

Exelon narrowed its guidance range for 2009 operating earnings to $4.00 – $4.10 per share from the earlier guidance range of $4.00 – $4.30 per share. This is in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $4.10 per share for fiscal 2009. We maintain our market Neutral recommendation on the shares.

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