Exelon Beats on EPS as ComEd Rebounds, PECO and PHI Soften
Exelon posted adjusted operating earnings of $0.43 a share in the second quarter, up from $0.39 a year earlier, as gains at ComEd and BGE offset declines at PECO and PHI.
Exelon (EXC), the Chicago-based utility holding company whose subsidiaries deliver electricity and gas across Illinois, Pennsylvania, Maryland and the Washington, D.C. area, reported second-quarter adjusted operating earnings of $0.43 a share, up from $0.39 a year earlier, while GAAP earnings held flat at $0.39.
The headline number masked a reshuffling among Exelon's four regulated utilities. ComEd, the company's largest subsidiary, swung back to growth, with adjusted operating earnings rising to $249 million from $228 million, a reversal from the first quarter's 4.6% YoY decline. BGE posted the sharpest gain, with earnings up 27% to $70 million on newly approved distribution rates, even as higher credit-loss expense ate into the increase. PECO and PHI moved the other way. PECO's adjusted operating earnings fell 4.4% to $130 million, reversing a first-quarter gain, as higher depreciation, interest expense and tax-repair-related income taxes weighed on results. PHI's earnings dropped 12.5% to $126 million as higher depreciation outweighed approved rate increases.
Those crosscurrents left six-month consolidated net income at $1.315 billion, up just $15 million from $1.300 billion a year earlier. ComEd added $29 million and BGE added $38 million to the year-over-year total, but PHI subtracted $59 million and PECO subtracted $5 million, nearly erasing the gains.
At ComEd, the earnings turnaround coincided with a shift in how customers used power rather than how much. Residential electric deliveries fell 8.3% to 6,010 gigawatt-hours, while large commercial and industrial deliveries rose 13.5% to 7,637 gigawatt-hours. Total electric revenue at the subsidiary rose 8.1% to $1.985 billion even though total delivery volumes grew only 1.4%, indicating the revenue gain came mostly from rates rather than usage.
Exelon's four utilities also diverged on regulatory strategy this quarter. BGE filed a Maryland electric distribution rate case in July seeking a $156 million annual increase at a 10.40% return on equity, with a decision expected in the first quarter of 2027. PECO took the opposite path, withdrawing its Pennsylvania electric and gas rate filings in April, citing customer affordability.
A cost-management and severance charge also showed up for the first time this quarter, cutting GAAP net income by $0.04 a share, or $42 million, split across BGE, PHI and PECO. That charge did not appear in the year-earlier reconciliation, marking a new line item in Exelon's cost structure.
Exelon reiterated full-year adjusted operating earnings guidance of $2.81 to $2.91 a share, unchanged from the first-quarter release. The second quarter's per-share gain also marked a sequential slowdown from the first quarter's $0.91, in line with the seasonal pattern typical of transmission-and-distribution utilities, though the underlying year-over-year trend improved from the first quarter's decline to the second quarter's gain.
The company also stepped up its debt financing pace, having completed roughly 86% of its planned 2026 issuance by the end of the second quarter, up from about 43% as of March 31. That acceleration gives Exelon more of its annual funding needs locked in before the back half of the year, even as its subsidiaries pursue divergent paths with regulators in Maryland and Pennsylvania.