Most U.S. electric and diversified utility equities finished the third quarter in positive territory as the impact of tax reform passed in December 2017 continued to be felt.
Major power-specific indexes hit peaks in September, a month during which Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina and California passed a law limiting utilities' potential financial exposure to wildfires.
The S&P 500 Utilities Index increased 1.5% during the quarter, while the SNL Energy Index remained above the break-even level for most of the quarter, ending Sept. 28 up 0.5%, according to an analysis by S&P Global Market Intelligence. The Dow Jones Utility and the S&P 500 Electric Utilities Sub Ind Index gained 1.3% during the period.
Major power and utility benchmark indexes are up on the year as of the end of the third quarter, despite a mid-September decline. The SNL Energy Index increased 0.8% since the start of the year, the S&P 500 Electric Utilities Sub Ind Index grew 0.6%, and the Dow Jones Utility index added 0.4%.
Top-performing stocks
PG&E Corp. was the top-performing utility stock during the third quarter, with shares up 8.1% to $46.01 at close Sept. 28, compared with $42.56 at the end of the second quarter.
A strong second-quarter earnings report and a substantial increase in quarterly dividend helped boost IDACORP Inc. shares during the third quarter, which finished up by 7.6% at $99.23 per share.
Edison International saw its shares advance 7% to $67.68 during the third quarter.
Other top performers include Portland General Electric Co., UGI Corp., DTE Energy Co. and Eversource Energy. AES Corp. shares climbed 4.4% during the third quarter, despite second-quarter results that missed Wall Street estimates. Ameren Corp. saw a 3.9% increase in share value to close at $63.22, while Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. stock rose 3.8% to finish at $35.59.
Bottom-performing stocks
MDU Resources Group Inc. was the group's biggest loser for the third quarter; its share price dropped 10.4% between June 29 and Sept. 28 to finish at $25.69. During the quarter, MDU acquired ready-mix concrete producer Molalla Redi-Mix and Rock Products Inc. and in July reported second-quarter results that came up short of the S&P Capital IQ normalized consensus EPS estimate of 26 cents. Also during the quarter, MDU filed a settlement with the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission staff to refund $591,424 to electric customers and $1.3 million to gas customers and filed with the Montana Public Service Commission for an electric rate inrease of $11.9 million, or 18.9%.
Avangrid Inc. shares were down 9.4% to close the third quarter at $47.93, and the company has plans to divest certain renewable energy projects in developing stages to generate cash to mitigate lower-than-expected second quarter earnings.
Southern Co. saw a 5.9% drop in its share price to finish at $43.60. During the quarter, utility subsidiary Georgia Power Co. and its partners decided to proceed with the Vogtle nuclear expansion project.
Other utilities on the list of bottom-performing stocks included NiSource Inc., Black Hills Corp., Avista Corp., El Paso Electric Co., ALLETE Inc., Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. and Consolidated Edison Inc.