Exelon first-quarter profit falls on warmer-than-normal weather

Bloomberg News

Exelon Corp., the largest U.S. power company, said first-quarter profit fell as warmer-than-normal weather reduced demand for electricity.

Net income dropped to $200 million, or 28 cents a share, from $668 million, or $1.01, a year earlier, Chicago-based Exelon said in a statement on Business Wire today. Excluding merger-related expenses and other one-time items, per-share profit was 6 cents more than the 79-cent average of 13 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Chicago had its warmest March with an average temperature of 53.5 degrees Fahrenheit (11.9 Celsius), eclipsing the previous record of 48.6 degrees set in 1910, according to the National Weather Service.

An increase in Exelon’s customer base will help to blunt the effect of weather-related declines in wholesale market revenue, said Travis Miller, director of utilities research at Chicago-based Morningstar Inc. Exelon’s acquisition of Constellation Energy Group Inc., completed last month, expands its share of the retail electricity market.

“It will only be a small part of the quarter, but we hope to see some indication that the wholesale-retail strategy is on track,” Miller said in a phone interview before results were announced. He rates Exelon at four stars, the equivalent of a buy.

The earnings were released before regular trading began on U.S. markets. Exelon, which has six buy and 15 hold ratings from analysts, fell 1.2 percent to $38.82 yesterday in New York.