Entergy Corporation (ETR) — Q2 2026 Earnings Preview

Report date: Wednesday, July 29, 2026, before market open | Call: 10:00 a.m. CT

Setup

Entergy reports second-quarter 2026 results tomorrow morning, with CEO Drew Marsh and CFO Kimberly Fontan hosting the call. The stock enters the print up roughly 20% year-to-date (from ~$93.86 on Jan 2 to ~$112.35 on Jul 28) after a strong spring rally tied to the Meta data-center deal and June Investor Day, though shares have pulled back modestly over the past week (from ~$115.95 on Jul 24 to ~$112.35) alongside broader market volatility in tech/semis. This is one of the more anticipated prints in the utility group given Entergy's outsized growth profile and the market's focus on hyperscale/data-center demand durability.

Consensus: Estimates have drifted down into the print — Zacks consensus sits around $0.96/share (implying an ~8.6% y/y decline), other trackers show $0.95–$1.05, and KeyCorp recently cut its Q2 estimate to $0.95 from $1.10. Entergy delivered a negative earnings surprise of 3.37% in the last reported quarter, and analysts' model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for ETR this time, with an Earnings ESP of -3.82% and a Zacks Rank #3. Full-year 2026 consensus is around $4.40, within management's affirmed $4.25–$4.45 guidance range.

Importantly, management flagged the y/y EPS pressure on the Q1 call itself: looking ahead to the second quarter, Entergy expects other O&M to be approximately $0.15 higher than the same quarter last year, reflecting higher vegetation spending and the timing of nuclear maintenance. That's a known, guided headwind — not a signal of deteriorating fundamentals — and investors should weight it accordingly against consensus.

What happened last quarter (context)

Q1 2026 set an upbeat tone. Entergy reported first quarter 2026 earnings of 83 cents per share on an as-reported basis and 86 cents per share on an adjusted basis, versus first quarter 2025 earnings of 82 cents per share. Management framed it as a "productive" quarter: 2026 guidance remained on track, and the company was increasing its already strong adjusted EPS outlook driven by 8.5% retail sales growth, with the quarter's strong financial results supported by the Fair Share Plus pledge and execution of several electric service agreements including one with Meta. Industrial sales growth was very strong at 15% in the quarter, well above the 10% full-year guide, with new and expansion projects continuing to ramp.

The core thesis heading into Q2: the Meta deal and capital plan step-up

The single biggest incremental driver since Q1 is the new Meta hyperscale agreement in Louisiana, which reshaped the capital and earnings outlook:

The Fair Share value from the Meta agreement is expected to be $2 billion, and Entergy Louisiana filed with the Louisiana Public Service Commission for assets tied to the new data center — including 7 new combined-cycle units, transmission infrastructure and battery storage.
Entergy is requesting approval for more than $15 billion in capital related to the deal, with about $14 billion falling inside the 4-year plan window, and the commission's Lightning Initiative process is expected to support a decision at the December meeting.
The customer-centric 4-year capital plan grew to $57 billion — $14 billion higher than the prior quarter — driven mainly by the new CCCTs and battery storage, with 2028–2029 adjusted EPS growth of 12% previewed and similar growth expected into 2030.
Management explicitly said there's more to come: what wasn't included in the Q1 update was the renewables under the Meta agreement as well as some of the nuclear pieces, so there is more opportunity both in the current period and beyond.

This was then extended materially at the June 9 Investor Day, where Entergy rolled its outlook forward through 2030 and gave a decade-long growth view:

Retail sales growth guidance moved to 9% (from roughly 4.5% two years ago), underscored by 16% industrial growth, with total sales expected to increase over 50% and driving a similarly sized increase in resource needs.
The 5-year capital plan roughly doubled to $67 billion versus two years ago, translating into roughly $97 billion of rate base by 2030 — more than double current levels and the highest rate-base growth rate in the industry.
Adjusted EPS growth is now guided at greater than 8% annually through 2030, with the underlying year-over-year growth rate in the double digits, and management reiterated confidence in greater than 8% growth in the base case through at least 2035.
Even after the Meta deal, the company still sees a pipeline of 7–12 gigawatts of data-center demand not yet in the plan, plus 3–5 gigawatts of other industrial demand, and management discussed a scenario for serving an incremental 15–20 GW of large-load growth beyond the base case — none of which is currently embedded in guidance.

Balance sheet/financing: The equity associated with the 4-year plan is $6.6 billion, at the low end of the 10%–15% target range of total capital, with about 30% of the 4-year equity need already contracted via forward sales and $4.7 billion left to source, not expected to be needed until late 2027 through 2029. Credit metrics remain solid: the plan reflects FFO to debt at or above 15% on a Moody's basis throughout the period. Since Q1, Entergy has continued to execute on this — the company settled equity forwards to raise $672 million in June, consistent with its proactive, staged equity-funding approach.

Key things to watch on tomorrow's call

Q2 sales trends — does the 15% industrial growth pace from Q1 continue, or normalize toward the 10% full-year guide? Weather was warmer than normal across the Gulf Coast footprint this summer, which likely boosted cooling-driven demand and top line, though management has cautioned it's still early in the year to raise guidance off volume strength.
O&M timing — confirm the guided $0.15 y/y headwind from vegetation management and nuclear refueling outage timing materialized as expected; watch for any incremental storm/vegetation costs given an active summer storm season (note: broader grid stress and wholesale price spikes hit the Midwest/SPP footprint in late July amid extreme heat, a reminder of sector-wide reliability/weather risk, though this was outside Entergy's core four-state territory).
Regulatory dockets — updates on the Louisiana Lightning Initiative review timeline (decision expected by December), Entergy Arkansas's base rate case, Entergy Mississippi's formula rate plan, and progress toward the October 5 Mississippi storm (Winter Storm Fern) securitization filing.
Additional capital/ESA disclosure — any incremental electric service agreements beyond Meta (management noted over 1,000 MW of non-data-center ESAs signed year-to-date as of Q1) and updates on the renewables RFP pipeline (4,500+ MW in negotiation, roughly two-thirds owned).
Guidance reaffirmation — confirmation of full-year 2026 adjusted EPS guidance of $4.25–$4.45 and any early commentary on where within the range results may trend given the strong industrial ramp.
New nuclear / CCS progress — any update on the Mitsubishi carbon-capture MOU or nuclear technology decisions (AP1000 vs. SMR) tied to the Meta agreement, which remain long-dated optionality rather than near-term earnings drivers.

Risks/considerations

Valuation: Some sell-side and quant models flag ETR as trading at a premium (one screen suggested a 40%+ premium to intrinsic value estimates), reflecting the market having already priced in much of the data-center growth optionality — raising the bar for the print to be a positive catalyst versus "as expected."
Execution risk: The capital plan has roughly doubled in two years; delivering ~$13 billion/year of capex on schedule while managing 24 GW+ of secured generation, 1,000+ miles of new transmission, and multiple large EPC partners is a meaningful execution lift, even though management highlighted strong track records and standardized "design one, build many" methods to mitigate schedule/cost risk.
Concentration in a few large counterparties: While minimum-bill/take-or-pay structures with hyperscalers protect downside, the growth algorithm is increasingly levered to a small number of very large customers (Meta, AWS) — contract structure and credit-support terms matter more than in a traditional utility model.
Financing needs still ahead: Although near-term equity needs are pre-funded, roughly $4.7 billion of equity and $3 billion of hybrid instruments are still to be sourced from 2027–2029, leaving some sensitivity to capital-markets conditions and interest rates.
Insider selling: Recent Form 4 filings show routine (10b5-1 plan) insider sales, including by the COO and an OpCo president — not unusual but worth noting amid the stock's strong run.

Bottom line

Entergy heads into Q2 earnings with an unusually clear, well-telegraphed growth narrative — arguably the strongest sales and rate-base growth outlook in the utility sector, anchored by the Meta hyperscale agreement, an 8%+ EPS CAGR guided out to at least 2035, and a disciplined, low-equity-intensity financing plan. The Q2 print itself is likely to look "soft" on a headline y/y basis due to guided O&M timing (nuclear maintenance, vegetation), so the real focus for investors should be retail/industrial sales trends, regulatory milestones (especially the Louisiana Lightning Initiative timeline), and any incremental commentary on the 7–12 GW data-center pipeline or additional capital-plan upside — not the reported EPS beat/miss against a consensus that has already been trimmed to account for known headwinds.