FirstEnergy Corp. on Monday reported $391 million in net income for the third quarter of 2019, after sustaining a $512 million loss in the same three months of 2018.
That was good for $0.73 in earning per share, versus a $1.02 per-share loss a year ago, according to the Akron, Ohio, power company’s earnings release.
The 2018 figures were impaired by the settlement agreement for the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of subsidiaries FirstEnergy Solutions and FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co., the release says. FirstEnergy Solutions is expected to come out of bankruptcy by the end of this year as a separate business.
FirstEnergy’s overall revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was $3 billion.
For the first nine months of 2019, the company pulled in just over $1 billion in net income, a strong step up from $853 million through the first three quarters of 2018. Earnings per share rose to $1.90 from $1.76. Total revenue was $8.4 billion, a slight drop from $8.6 billion last year.
“Our customer-focused, long-term infrastructure investment program drove solid third quarter financial results,” FirstEnergy President and CEO Charles Jones said in the release. “Based on our success with these initiatives and our outlook for the future, we are affirming our projection for 6% to 8% compound annual growth from 2018 through 2021.”
The company tightened its earning guidance for the year to $2.50 to $2.60 per share.
FirstEnergy Corp. subsidiaries plan next year to sell the long-shuttered reactor Unit 2 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania to nuclear services company EnergySolutions for decommissioning.
FirstEnergy Solutions owns two nuclear power plants in Ohio. The Ohio legislature in July passed legislation to provide financial assistance to the sites to prevent their closure. Opponents of the new law failed to obtain enough signatures by the October deadline to schedule a referendum on repeal in November 2020.
