Eversource's Q2 2026 GAAP EPS fell to $0.14 from $0.96 on a $164M offshore wind charge and a $111M loss on the Aquarion water sale; recurring EPS of $0.87 fell 9% on FERC's transmission ROE cut and higher interest, with 2026 guidance of $4.57–$4.72 reaffirmed.
Revenue
$2.9B
+2.3% YoY
Net income
$54M
-84.8% YoY
Diluted EPS
$0.14
-85.4% YoY
Operating margin
18.6%
Two charges wiped out most of the quarter's profit; the underlying business earned $0.87 a share
Eversource, the utility that delivers electricity and natural gas to more than 4 million customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, reported GAAP net income of $53.7 million, or $0.14 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2026, down from $352.7 million, or $0.96, a year earlier. (GAAP is the standard accounting rulebook; its figures include every one-off item.)
Almost all of that drop came from two items that have nothing to do with delivering power this quarter:
Offshore wind: $164.0 million after tax ($194 million pre-tax), or $0.43 per share. Eversource sold its stakes in the South Fork Wind and Revolution Wind projects to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) in 2024, but the sale contract left it on the hook for part of any construction cost overruns. In the quarter it received revised Revolution Wind cost projections that "included quantifiable cost increases," and raised its estimated liability accordingly.
Loss on selling Aquarion, its water utility: $111.4 million, or $0.30 per share. This is a non-cash accounting loss: the price received was below the business's book value, which included $662.4 million of goodwill (the premium Eversource originally paid over the value of Aquarion's assets).
Strip those out and Eversource reports non-GAAP "recurring" earnings of $329.1 million, or $0.87 per share, still 9.4% below last year's $0.96. The main reasons for that smaller drop are a lower allowed profit rate on transmission (explained below), weaker gas and water results, and about 8 million more shares outstanding (376.998 million diluted vs. 368.917 million), which spreads profit more thinly. Revenue rose 2.3% to $2,903.2 million, but most utility revenue is a pass-through of energy and program costs to customers, so revenue growth says little about profit here.
Key figures
Metric
Q2 2026
Q2 2025
YoY Change
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Net income attributable to common shareholders (GAAP)
$53.7M
$352.7M
-84.8%
Diluted EPS (GAAP)
$0.14
$0.96
-85.4%
Recurring earnings (non-GAAP)
$329.1M
$352.7M
-6.7%
Recurring EPS (non-GAAP)
$0.87
$0.96
-9.4%
Interest expense
$355.5M
$293.2M
+21.2%
Allowed base return on equity, New England transmission
9.57%
10.57%
-1.0 pt
Source: Form 10-Q condensed consolidated statement of income and MD&A. Operating margin is operating income divided by revenue — the share of revenue left after running the business, before interest and tax. It includes the $111.4M Aquarion loss, which is booked as an operating expense; without it, operating income would be about $652.2M, a 22.5% margin. The $194M offshore wind charge sits below operating income. Q2 2025 had no adjusting items, so its GAAP and recurring figures are the same.
First half of 2026
Metric
H1 2026
H1 2025
YoY Change
Operating revenues
$7,407.6M
$6,956.4M
+6.5%
Net income attributable to common shareholders (GAAP)
$660.5M
$903.5M
-26.9%
Diluted EPS (GAAP)
$1.75
$2.45
-28.6%
Recurring EPS (non-GAAP)
$2.60
$2.45
+6.1%
Operating cash flow
$2.41B
$2.10B
+14.8%
The first half also carries a third charge: $43.9 million after tax ($0.12 per share) for refunds ordered by federal regulators on transmission profits (see below). The first half looks better than the second quarter on a recurring basis mainly because gas utilities earn most of their profit in the winter heating months, and new gas rates took effect on November 1, 2025.
Segment results
Eversource reports profit by business line. The figures below are net income attributable to common shareholders for each segment, as given in the 10-Q; transmission and water exclude the one-off charges.
Segment (Q2)
Q2 2026
Q2 2025
Change
H1 2026
H1 2025
Electric transmission (ex-FERC refund charge)
$183.7M
$208.0M
-$24.3M
$408.0M
$407.5M
Electric distribution
$170.4M
$161.5M
+$8.9M
$373.1M
$350.0M
Natural gas distribution
$29.7M
$35.3M
-$5.6M
$325.1M
$253.7M
Water distribution (ex-sale charge)
$11.6M
$14.4M
-$2.8M
$17.9M
$17.9M
Parent and other (ex-offshore wind charge)
-$66.3M
-$66.5M
+$0.2M
-$144.3M
-$125.6M
Recurring total
$329.1M
$352.7M
-$23.6M
$979.8M
$903.5M
Transmission (the high-voltage lines that move power across the region) fell 11.7%. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which sets transmission rates, issued Opinion No. 594 on March 19, 2026, cutting the base return on equity it lets New England transmission owners earn from 10.57% to 9.57%. Return on equity (ROE) is the profit rate regulators allow a utility to earn on the shareholder money invested in its network, so a one-point cut directly lowers earnings. The 10-Q says the cut lowers annual after-tax earnings by about $70 million (based on 2025 rate base), partly offset by about $5 million from a higher cap on incentive returns. Higher interest costs also weighed; continued investment in the network (a bigger "rate base," the asset value regulators let the company earn on) partly offset both. Transmission revenue still grew $12.3 million.
Electric distribution (local poles, wires and meters) rose 5.5%, "due primarily to higher revenues from base distribution rate increases at NSTAR Electric effective January 1, 2026 and at PSNH effective August 1, 2025," plus capital-tracking revenue in Connecticut and for NSTAR Electric's smart-meter program, partly offset by higher interest, depreciation and property taxes.
Natural gas fell $5.6 million in the quarter "due primarily to the absence of a benefit in 2025 from previously expensed costs allowed for recovery" — last year's Q2 included a one-time catch-up — plus higher depreciation and property taxes. Over the half-year the segment was up $71.4 million (+28%) on rate increases at Yankee Gas, NSTAR Gas and EGMA effective November 1, 2025.
Water dipped on higher operating and depreciation costs, and now leaves the company entirely (the sale closed June 30).
Parent and other losses were flat in the quarter but up $18.7 million in the half, driven by "higher interest expense and a higher effective income tax rate."
Why the tax bill looks odd
Income tax expense was $79.9 million on pre-tax income of $135.4 million, an effective rate of about 59%. The 10-Q attributes the quarter's tax changes largely to "an increase in items that impact our tax rate as a result of regulatory treatment (flow-through items) and permanent differences ($48.0 million)." A charge that is not tax-deductible, such as writing off goodwill, reduces pre-tax income without reducing tax, which inflates the rate. Read GAAP EPS this quarter as a function of the charges, not of the business.
Offshore wind: the exit keeps costing money
Eversource left offshore wind in 2024, but the exposure has not fully gone away. It pays GIP for cost overruns on Revolution Wind and to protect GIP's agreed rate of return. In the first half of 2026 it paid GIP $233.0 million, and after the new $194 million charge the remaining liability stood at $409.2 million at June 30 (vs. $448.2 million at December 31, 2025), all classed as current, meaning payments are expected within a year.
The 10-Q is explicit that this may not be the end: "there could be additional losses and increases to the offshore wind contingent liability, which could be material." The named risks are further construction overruns or delays and Revolution Wind qualifying for less than the 40% federal investment tax credit assumed in the sale price. Eversource could get money back if the projects run cheaper or more reliably in their first four years of operation.
Aquarion sale closed
The sale of Aquarion to the Aquarion Water Authority, a newly created Connecticut public water authority, was approved by the Connecticut regulator (PURA) on March 25, 2026 and closed on June 30, 2026. The total price was about $2.4 billion, including about $650 million of debt that was repaid at closing or transferred to the buyer ($612.4 million was repaid). The net cash of about $1.7 billion was sitting on the balance sheet at quarter-end (cash of $1.82 billion vs. $135.4 million at December 31) and is earmarked to pay down Eversource parent-company debt. As conditions of approval, Eversource put $10 million into a rate stabilization fund for Aquarion customers and returned $5.8 million of escrowed revenue; transaction costs were $29 million.
The trade-off is lost earnings: Aquarion contributed $17.9 million of recurring profit in the first half, and 2026 guidance already assumes nothing from it in the second half.
Connecticut: relations improving, a big rate request filed
Connecticut has been the company's most difficult regulatory relationship. Two decisions around the quarter point to some thaw, though the biggest test is still ahead:
Storm costs mostly approved. On July 29, 2026, after the quarter ended, PURA approved $869.4 million of the $974.2 million in 2018–2023 storm costs that its Connecticut utility CL&P had requested, and postponed review of another $63.3 million. It did not allow the $397 million of carrying costs (financing costs on the unrecovered balance) CL&P sought for the period before the decision; carrying costs accrue only from the decision date. Of the approved amount, $667.9 million is to be considered for securitization, meaning it would be refinanced through low-cost bonds repaid by a dedicated charge on customer bills. CL&P "is currently evaluating the impact of costs not allowed for recovery" and will record the impact in the third quarter, so expect another adjustment in Q3.
First CL&P rate case since 2017. Filed July 14, 2026, it seeks about $451 million a year in added revenue (about $727 million including storm costs), a 10.25% ROE on a 53.86% equity share of capital, and a four-year performance-based plan running from July 2027 to June 2031. A decision is expected by June 29, 2027. The outcome of this case matters more for Eversource's earnings trajectory than any single quarter's results.
Still contested: Connecticut agencies filed a FERC complaint on June 11, 2026 seeking to remove CL&P's 0.5-point ROE bonus for belonging to the regional grid operator; CL&P has countersued in federal court. PURA also rescinded the prior smart-meter cost-recovery framework on July 1, and CL&P now puts the smart-meter program at $1.3 billion.
Elsewhere, New Hampshire regulators approved $23.6 million of added PSNH revenue effective August 1, 2026, and NSTAR Gas has requested a $19.8 million inflation-based increase for November 1, 2026.
FERC transmission ruling: a large range of possible refunds
Beyond the prospective ROE cut, FERC ordered refunds. Eversource has booked $62.0 million pre-tax, the low end of a range it puts at $62.0 million to $968.4 million. The high end would apply only if FERC's refunds reaching back to 2014 stand, which Eversource says are not probable because they exceed the 15-month limit in the Federal Power Act. The New England transmission owners have appealed to the D.C. Circuit and separately asked FERC for an 11.39% ROE going forward; FERC suspended that request until November 30, 2026, subject to refund, while it holds a hearing (reply briefs due September 28, 2026).
Capital plan, financing and balance-sheet repair
Spending: capital expenditures were $1.97 billion in the first half (vs. $2.15 billion). The earnings presentation (8-K Exhibit 99.3) shows a $26.5 billion five-year plan for 2026–2030, now excluding Aquarion: $5.07 billion in 2026, rising to $5.54 billion in 2030, with possible additions of about $1 billion for Connecticut smart meters and about $700 million as Eversource's share of the Maine–New Hampshire transmission line that the regional grid operator ISO-NE preliminarily selected on July 22, 2026 (in service 2032).
Debt: long-term debt was $26.61 billion plus $2.50 billion due within a year; short-term borrowings fell to $393.7 million from $1.53 billion at year-end. The company issued $2.40 billion of long-term debt in the half, including $1.5 billion of parent junior subordinated notes at 6.10% and 6.35%. These are "hybrid" bonds that rating agencies treat as partly equity. Interest expense rose $62.2 million (21.2%) in the quarter. About half of the increase came from interest accrued on regulatory balances, including the FERC refund liability.
Equity: only $20.2 million of new shares were sold in Q2 under the $1.2 billion at-the-market program (issuing shares gradually at market prices). The presentation projects $0.8–1.1 billion of common equity over 2026–2030.
Credit: Moody's moved Eversource parent and NSTAR Electric's outlook from negative to stable on July 6, 2026, citing the Aquarion closing and the Connecticut storm-cost approval. The presentation shows funds from operations to debt, a key rating-agency test of cash generation versus borrowing, at 14.3% (S&P) and 15.7% (Moody's) as of March 2026, against downgrade thresholds of 12% and 13%.
Dividend: $0.7875 per share quarterly; $592.2 million of dividends in the first half.
Takeaway: The GAAP collapse to $0.14 is two write-offs from past strategy (offshore wind and the water sale), not a failure in the core utility. The recurring decline to $0.87 comes from real, lasting pressure: FERC's transmission ROE cut costs about $70 million a year after tax, and interest costs are up 21%. The balance-sheet repair is largely done, with $1.7 billion of Aquarion cash, $1.5 billion of hybrid bonds and a stable Moody's outlook. The remaining swing factors are regulatory: the Revolution Wind liability, the FERC refund range and the CL&P rate case.
Outlook
Management reaffirmed 2026 recurring EPS guidance of $4.57–$4.72, which already includes the lower transmission ROE and no Aquarion earnings after June. With $2.60 earned in the first half, the midpoint ($4.65) implies about $2.05 in the second half, versus a first half that benefited from winter gas earnings. The company also reaffirmed 5–7% annual EPS growth through 2030 from a $4.65 base, "towards the upper half" by 2028.
My read: the guidance looks achievable, but the growth target depends on the Connecticut rate case outcome in mid-2027 and on FERC's ruling on the proposed 11.39% transmission ROE. Neither is in management's control. Two items could lower GAAP results in the third quarter: the portion of storm costs PURA disallowed, and any further increase in the Revolution Wind cost estimate. GAAP EPS will likely stay volatile until Revolution Wind is finished.
Source: Eversource Energy combined Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 (filed August 3, 2026). Recurring (non-GAAP) figures, the 2026–2030 capital plan and FFO-to-debt data are from Eversource's July 30, 2026 earnings release and presentation (Form 8-K, Exhibits 99.1 and 99.3).