Top AI energy trade Constellation Energy beats earnings expectations
The company declined to give full-year 2026 guidance until a call slated for the end of March.
Nuclear power plant operator Constellation Energy reported Q4 earnings Tuesday before the start of trading in New York that edged ahead of analysts’ expectations for profitability, while revenue soared ahead.
The owner of the largest fleet of US nuclear plants reported:
Q4 adjusted earnings per share of $2.30 vs. the $2.25 consensus estimate from Wall Street analysts published by Bloomberg.
Operating revenue of $6.07 billion vs. the $4.90 billion expected by analysts.
The company neglected to give a full-year earnings forecast, noting that guidance would be discussed during Constellation’s “Business and Earnings Outlook” call scheduled for Tuesday, March 31, 2026.
After two smoking years in the stock market — Constellation shares were up 91% in 2024 and 58% in 2025 — driven by seemingly insatiable AI-related power demand, the utility has stumbled out of the blocks to start 2026.
The stock was down roughly 17% for the year at the end of trading on Monday, hurt in part by the growing political backlash against rising consumer energy bills, a trend many blame on demand from AI data centers.
Indeed, Constellation’s biggest one-day drop of the year came on January 16, when the Trump administration announced plans to push hyperscalers to foot a higher part of the cost for data center power, which could translate into lower prices than shareholders had been penciling in for AI-related power.
The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.4265 per share on its common stock.
