Entergy Sees 3Q Profit Below Analysts' Estimates

   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; [e-mail]