BOSTON – Energy delivery company NSTAR Inc. (NYSE: NST) saw its third-quarter profit edge up 1.93 percent to $85.82 million, slowing from the year-ago period’s 9.8-percent increase to $84.20 million, the company said last night. Operating revenue rose 10.84 percent to $892.21 million, reversing the 2007 third quarter’s 15.8-percent year-over-year decline, boosted by this summer’s record prices for energy commodities.
Earnings per diluted share increased to 80 cents in the quarter ended Sept. 30 from 79 cents a year ago. (READ MORE) Increases in revenue from electric distribution and transmission and decreases in expenses from operations and maintenance were “nearly offset” by increases in depreciation and property taxes, higher interest costs and a decline in earnings from non-utility operations, NSTAR said.
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“We remain on track for another positive year, both operationally and financially,” Thomas J. May, the company’s chairman, president and CEO, said in an after-hours report. “Our service-quality measures remain at high levels, and we continue to focus on controlling our spending across the company. In addition, NSTAR’s strong credit ratings and sufficient level of liquidity are both positive factors in dealing with today’s volatile credit markets.”
Highlights of the period, May noted, included the filing of “a plan to expand our energy-efficiency programs to help our customers save on their energy costs as the winter heating season approaches.” The August proposal – the company’s first official response to the Mass. Green Communities Act signed into law on July 2 – would boost funding to help residential customers upgrade to Energy Star-rated setback thermostats or high-efficiency heating systems and make available more no-interest loans for home weatherization. (READ MORE)
“Also, I am very excited to report that interest in our NSTAR Green program is strong. This program” – announced last year (READ MORE) and launched in January – “offers our customers a new option to support the growth and development of wind energy in the region,” May said. “Greater reliance on renewable resources will diversify the region’s electricity generation mix, help to attain environmental goals and supports the renewable-energy goals here in Massachusetts.”
On Aug. 19, NSTAR announced plans to pare its electric rates for large businesses by more than 21 percent, starting Oct. 1. (READ MORE) The rate cut was spurred by falling prices for the oil and natural gas used to generate most electricity in New England, the company said.
And on Sept. 25, the company’s 478th consecutive quarterly dividend – of 35 cents per common share, a 7.69-percent increase from the year-ago 32.5 cents – was declared by the NSTAR board of directors. That same day, the board of wholly-owned subsidiary NSTAR Electric Co. declared dividends, unchanged from a year ago, of $1.0625 per share on its 4.25-percent series of cumulative preferred stock and $1.1950 per share on its 4.78-percent series. Both sets of dividends were payable Nov. 1 to shareholders of record on Oct. 10.
For the nine months ended Sept. 30, the company posted net income of $195.42 million, a 7.31-percent increase from the year-ago $182.12 million, on operating revenue that edged up 0.68 percent to $2.53 billion. Earnings per diluted share rose to $1.83 from the year-ago $1.70, an increase of 7.6 percent.
Going forward, “NSTAR now expects to report earnings for the year in the upper half of its $2.16 per share to $2.26 per share earnings range,” the company said. Its updated forecast credited “management’s continued cost-control efforts across the company and lower-than-expected interest costs, primarily driven by the company’s strong credit ratings.”
NSTAR Inc. (NYSE: NST) is an investor-owned natural gas and electric utility with assets of $7.7 billion and annual revenue of about $3.3 billion that serves 1.4 million customers in New Bedford, Dartmouth, Fairhaven and other portions of eastern and central Massachusetts. Additional information is available at www.nstar.com.
