Feb 18 (Reuters) - Electric utility Entergy ETR.N beat fourth-quarter profit estimates on Tuesday, benefiting from lower operating expenses and higher electricity demand.
Shares of the company rose 1.7% in premarket trading.
Power consumption is set to reach record highs in 2024, the U.S. Energy Information Administration $(EIA)$ had said in December. Utilities are benefiting from rising electricity usage, including from energy-guzzling data centers needed to scale Big Tech's artificial intelligence $(AI)$ technologies.
In December, Entergy Louisiana said it plans to invest in electricity generation and transmission to support the region and Meta Platform's META.O $10 billion data center in Richland Parish.
Entergy's operating expenses for the fourth quarter ended December 31 came in at $2.07 billion, compared with $2.47 billion a year ago.
For the quarter, Entergy's total retail sales were at 29,497 gigawatt hours (GWh), higher than 27,320 GWh a year ago.
The company posted a quarterly adjusted profit of 66 cents per share, above analysts' average estimate of 64 cents per share, according to data compiled by LSEG.
The New Orleans, Louisiana-based Entergy provides electricity to nearly 3 million customers across Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
It forecast its full-year 2025 profit between $3.75 per share and $3.95 per share. Analysts had estimated a profit of $3.91 per share.
(Reporting by Pooja Menon in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)
((Pooja.Menon@thomsonreuters.com;))
免责声明：投资有风险，本文并非投资建议，以上内容不应被视为任何金融产品的购买或出售要约、建议或邀请，作者或其他用户的任何相关讨论、评论或帖子也不应被视为此类内容。本文仅供一般参考，不考虑您的个人投资目标、财务状况或需求。TTM对信息的准确性和完整性不承担任何责任或保证，投资者应自行研究并在投资前寻求专业建议。