CenterPoint raises 2026 guidance to $1.90, targets $2.09 in 2027
Key Facts
CenterPoint Energy raised the low end of its adjusted diluted earnings-per-share guidance for 2026 to $1.90 and set a range of $1.90 to $1.92, according to its results statement issued on October 27. The company said the midpoint reflects growth of about 9% compared with its results in 2025. At the same time, the company began issuing guidance for 2027, setting a range of $2.07 to $2.09 per share. The midpoint of that range implies growth of about 9% above updated 2026 guidance. The new guidance puts the earnings trajectory for the next two years at the center of the results announcement, with the company linking growth to a larger investment plan and rising electricity demand.
Adjusted diluted earnings per share were $0.53 in the third quarter of 2026, compared with $0.50 in the same period of 2025. On a GAAP basis, the company reported net income of $331 million, or $0.50 per diluted share. Analysts had expected earnings of $0.49 per share ahead of the results, with forecast annual earnings growth of 9.7%. They also expected revenue of $2.12 billion, with forecast annual growth of 6.5%. The company’s available statement did not confirm actual revenue, so $2.12 billion remains a pre-results estimate.
The company said business growth and cost recovery through rates added $0.09 per share to the year-over-year change in quarterly results. Weather and usage contributed $0.03 per share. By contrast, higher financing costs reduced results by $0.04 per share, reflecting the issuance of new debt and equity dilution, according to the company’s details. “Other items” had a negative effect of $0.05 per share. The company said these items were mainly affected by the absence of a one-time tax benefit realized in the prior year, while operating and maintenance expenses were stable year over year.
CenterPoint expanded its 10-year investment plan to $70.7 billion from $66.7 billion previously and moved $1.5 billion of investments into the 2026–2030 period. It said the plan responds to accelerating customer demand in the greater Houston area, with at least $10 billion in additional capital investment opportunities through 2035. The company expects the investments to support compound annual growth of more than 14% in its rate base through 2030. It also estimated that regional growth could deliver nearly $5 billion in savings to residential and commercial customers in Texas over the next decade. The company operates across Indiana, Minnesota and Texas, serving nearly 7 million metered customers, and had about $49.5 billion in assets as of September 30, 2026.
Data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas provide a picture of the scale of projects seeking to connect to the grid, not demand that has already entered service. The total proposed large-load projects tracked by the council reached about 232,500 megawatts as of January 21, 2026. Only 8,786 megawatts of large-load demand had been approved for operation by the report date, while actual consumption remained far below approved load levels. On the earnings call, the chief executive said the company had included about 14 gigawatts of customer demand in the council’s “Batch Zero” process. Management expected 10 gigawatts of base load and about 2 gigawatts of load under study to remain, while expecting to deliver at least 14 gigawatts by the end of 2030.
The chief financial officer said the company had invested $4.1 billion through the end of the third quarter and expects 2026 capital spending to come in slightly below its $6.8 billion target because of project timing. He said the company expects to recover the impact of the delays in the first quarter of 2027. Management said deployment of additional and accelerated capital would begin in 2027, and that deploying $4.5 billion of it by the end of 2030 would support rate-base growth of more than 14% through that year. It added that most of the new investments are expected to be recovered through existing capital-tracking mechanisms for electricity transmission and distribution. The company is scheduled to provide its next update on the electric transmission study in the first half of 2027 and aims to submit its next system resilience plan by the end of that year.
The company extended its outlook for adjusted diluted earnings-per-share growth at the midpoint of the upper half of its annual range of 7% to 9% through 2030. It said its guidance is based on assumptions including customer and usage growth under normal weather, recovery of invested capital, taxes, financing and interest rates, as well as regulatory and judicial actions. It said the guidance and growth rate could change if actual conditions differ from those assumptions. In premarket trading on October 27, the stock rose 1.67% to $41.89, compared with a previous close of $41.20. The company scheduled its third-quarter results call for the same day at 7:00 a.m. Central time, with a recording to be available on its website for at least one year.