ES

The headline EPS growth (+100.9% to $4.56) overstates the business: 2024 was crushed by an offshore-wind exit loss ($524M / $1.47) and an Aquarion sale loss ($298M / $0.83), while 2025 carried only a $75M ($0.20) residual wind charge. Management's own non-GAAP bridge tells the real story — $4.76 in 2025 vs $4.57 in 2024, roughly 4% underlying growth. So this is not a doubling; it's a clean-up. What matters is that the money-losing offshore-wind adventure that wrecked 2023 (net income of -$435M) and 2024 is now essentially behind them, leaving a straightforward electric/gas/water rate-base utility across CL&P, NSTAR, PSNH and the gas/water subs. Management guides 2026 to $4.80–$4.95 and a 5–7% long-term EPS CAGR through 2030 off the $4.76 base.

The operating engine is healthy for a regulated name: revenue $13.5B (+13.8%), operating margin 22.1%, ROE 10.5%, and — critically — operating cash flow that nearly doubled to $4.11B, almost exactly covering the $4.16B capex program. That heavy, rising rate base is what funds the growth: regulated utilities earn on invested capital, so $4B+ annual capex is the growth flywheel, not a red flag. The $1.09B dividend (+9.1%) against a $27.1B cap is roughly a 4% yield, so a 4% yield plus 5–7% earnings growth frames a low-double-digit total-return path if execution holds.