Investors, analysts, state officials and utility users will be closely watching what officers with Baltimore-based Constellation Energy Group say about the second-quarter earnings report released today. The company reported Thursday that more than 8,000 customers have switched to another utility.
Constellation Energy, parent of Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE), topped the news for several months this year as it began a controversial BGE markup of utility rates charged to residential customers.
The governor, the Maryland General Assembly and the U.S. District Court got involved in the planned rate increase and the resulting lawsuits.
Also mired in the debate is a planned merger between Constellation Energy and FPL, a Florida-based utility firm.
Investment analysts expect Constellation Energy to report earnings of at least 47 cents per share today, according to a survey of Wall Street investment houses by Thomson Financial.
That would be a 28.8 percent drop from the 66 cents per share reported by Constellation Energy in the second quarter of 2005.
Shelby Tucker, an investment analyst with Bank of America Securities, said in a report Thursday that he too expects Constellation to report earnings of about 47 cents per share.
He bases his estimates on expected “lower margins” from BGE that he saidcould be offset “by higher margins from new energy contracts outside Maryland.”
As of July 22, a total of 5,546 BGE customers have switched to other utility companies, said Linda Foy, a BGE spokeswoman.
An additional 3,255 customers are waiting to switch for a total of 8,801 customers who have switched or plan to switch from BGE, Foy said.
“The whole idea of customer choice was to give customers options,” Foy said. “And we encourage that.”
