Peco parent Exelon says quarterly profit down 54 pct.
Exelon, parent company of Philadelphia's Peco, said quarterly profit declined 54 percent as wholesale electricity prices fell and operating costs increased.
Exelon Corp., parent company of Philadelphia's Peco, said quarterly profit declined 54 percent as wholesale electricity prices fell and operating costs increased.
Second-quarter net income fell to $286 million, or 33 cents a share, from $620 million, or 93 cents, a year earlier, Chicago-based Exelon said in a statement Wednesday.
Excluding merger costs, gains from hedging, and other onetime items, per-share profit was 2 cents less than the 63-cent average of 14 analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Sales rose 32 percent to $5.95 billion as operating expenses increased 51 percent.
Exelon's utilities deliver electricity and natural gas to more than 6.6 million customers in Illinois, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Its acquisition of Constellation Energy Group Inc., completed in March, added retail customers in 38 states and the District of Columbia.
Exelon is "pleased with the results of our merger integration to date and are confident of realizing the value investors expect from the Exelon-Constellation merger," chief executive officer Christopher Crane said in the statement. The company reaffirmed its 2012 earnings forecast of $2.55 to $2.85 a share.
The benchmark power price in PJM Interconnection L.L.C., the largest U.S. wholesale market, fell 27 percent to a second-quarter average of $41.51 a megawatt-hour.
Net income for Exelon's generation unit fell 63 percent to $166 million from a year earlier. The company's average margin for electric sales was $26.15 a megawatt-hour in the second quarter, down 37 percent from $41.59 a year earlier.
Excluding the effects of weather, power deliveries fell 1.3 percent at the company's Commonwealth Edison utility in Illinois and 2.7 percent for Peco from the same period a year earlier.
Exelon's operating expenses increased to $5.23 billion as fuel and power costs rose $890 million during the quarter.
The company owns 34,650 megawatts of power generation capacity, enough electricity to light 27.7 million typical homes, according to U.S. Energy Department estimates.
Exelon shares fell 2.2 percent to close Wednesday at $38.25 on the New York Stock Exchange.