Entergy Corporation Q4 FY2025 earnings call

• Financial results: Adjusted EPS of $3.91, in the top half of guidance range, with expectation of greater than 8% adjusted EPS annual growth through 2029.
• Customer initiatives: Entergy's utility ranked in the first quartile for Net Promoter Score for both residential and business customers; Entergy Texas was #1 in business electric service satisfaction for midsized utilities in the South.
• Sales growth: 4% sales growth in 2025, driven by 7% industrial sales growth; anticipates 8% compound annual retail sales growth through 2029, powered by 15% industrial growth.
• Data center projects: Signed approximately 3.5 gigawatts of electric service agreements; notable projects include Hyundai Steel's $5.8 billion investment in Louisiana and new data center announcements in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi; pipeline for data centers remains 7 to 12 gigawatts, and 3 to 5 gigawatts for other industries.
• Capital plan: $43 billion capital plan through 2029; 2025 investment of $8 billion, including work on Orange County Advanced Power Station; 2026 capital plan is $11.6 billion, $3.6 billion higher than 2025.
• Regulatory updates: Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas passed legislation to support economic development and generation/transmission investments; Louisiana's Lightning Initiative to attract new customers; Entergy Louisiana's request to acquire the Cottonwood facility.
• Reliability: Winter Storm Fern impacted the service area, with over 360,000 outages restored; restoration costs expected to be over $560 million and recovered through normal mechanisms; ongoing resilience projects.
• Employee contributions: Employees delivered over $100 million in economic benefits to communities through philanthropy and volunteerism in 2025.

Entergy reported adjusted earnings per share of $3.91 for 2025, which was in the top half of the guidance range. Retail sales grew 4% in 2025, with industrial sales contributing 7% to this growth. The company anticipates an 8% compound annual retail sales growth through 2029, driven by 15% industrial growth. Data centers form a key segment, with a pipeline of 7 to 12 gigawatts, and other industries at 3 to 5 gigawatts.

• Expect greater than 8% adjusted EPS annual growth through 2029.
• Retail sales outlook: 8% compound annual growth through 2029, driven by 15% industrial growth.
• Capital plan: $43 billion capital plan through 2029, with $2 billion increase including the Cottonwood acquisition.
• Credit metrics: Moody's cash flow from operations free working capital to debt >17% and S&P's FFO to debt ~16% in 2025, both well above rating agency thresholds.

• Potential risk of data center customers exiting projects without proper termination payments or minimum bills.
• Regulatory uncertainties that could affect capital plan execution or rate adjustments.
• Weather events like Winter Storm Fern could impact restoration costs and reliability.

Q: Just on the large load ramp, Hut 8 was the most recent announcement. Was Phase 1 of that project already partially in plan and with the formal FID, does that kind of put some upward pressure on rate base growth? Or is Phase 2 the upside?

A: Yes, Hut 8 and similar data centers are included in the probability weighting of industrial growth. The first part of the project doesn't add to the capital plan, but additional growth may require incremental capital.

Q: On the large load protections you have as you kind of put the CapEx into plan. I mean we've seen at least one data center walk away from a project despite having a signed ESA. Just remind us on the level of comfort, the collateral requirements, et cetera.

A: Significant credit requirements include termination fees and minimum bills, with protections backstopped by the parents of the customers.

Q: The first, just a quick clarification. I think you said the CapEx change increase is Cottonwood. Are there other major changes going on? Or is it really just the Cottonwood being rolled in?

A: Largely Cottonwood, with a bit of capital from 2025 rolling into 2026.

Q: Going back to the customer benefits from data centers and the $5 billion in rate base offsets. Could you provide some color on what buckets this covers, whether that's transition required for new load or previously complicated resilience investments?

A: It's contribution to incremental cost, including storm costs securitized, Superpower Mississippi investments, and offsetting future rate changes.

Q: I was wondering what updates should we expect at the Investor Day coming up in June? Is that a natural time when you might expect more data center contracting clarity to come in or capital projects to be approved and added to the plan?

A: Investor Day will provide more color on data centers, a longer outlook, and team insights; timing of large customer contracts is uncertain.

Q: Just with the 8 gigawatts of gas turbine availability, what level of flexibility do you have in the equipment delivery period?

A: Fully expect to utilize ordered turbines on timeline; customers would move them forward if possible, and reimbursement agreements would cover financials if needed.