Dahlman Rose Gives Color, Updates Estimates On Entergy Corp. Following Earnings

Entergy Corporation

reported 4Q10 adjusted EPS of $1.30/share after pre-reporting $1.29 on January 24. The $1.30/share represents a $0.45 decline versus $1.75 reported in the year-ago period. Utility segment earnings declined to $0.63/share from $0.72 in the year ago period due to higher operations and maintenance expense on plant outage and compensation and benefit cost increases. Unregulated earnings decreased to $0.87/share from $1.10 due mainly to lower power prices and lower volumes resulting from increased planned and unplanned nuclear outage days. Entergy continues to focus on reliosensing its 605MW Vermont Yankee nuclear plant before the March 2012 expiration of its current license. It is seeking the actual license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, supplemental approval from the VT state legislature via the Public Service Board, and is currently negotiating for new PPAs with state utilities. Management expects to have clarity by mid2011, the most challenging of which is approval by the state legislature. Note the company also continues to pursue a sale of the entire facility, originally announced on Nov.4 of last year. Dahlman Rose has a Hold rating on ETR ETR is trading higher at $71.55