Chesapeake reports higher earnings in 2nd quarter and 1st half

Zacks reported  Chesapeake's earning came in slightly above estimates.

Earnings  for the second quarter of this year  were largely driven by contributions from regulatory initiatives and infrastructure programs, organic growth in the natural gas distribution businesses and pipeline expansion projects driven by natural gas demand and increased compressed natural gas, renewable natural gas  and liquified natural gas  services.

During the first half of 2025, net income was $74.8 million  compared to $64.4 million in the prior-year period. Earnings were slightly higher, if costs of acquiring Florida City Gas are included.

"Our second quarter 2025 results demonstrate yet another outstanding quarter of growth and solid execution by the team. Adjusted Gross Margin increased by 13 percent, which, alongside operational efficiency improvements, resulted in Adjusted EPS up 21 percent relative to the second quarter of 2024. This performance reinforces our ability to operate our regulated and unregulated businesses safely and efficiently to meet the rising demand for natural gas across the communities we serve," said Jeff Householder, the company's CEO.

"We also continued to make significant progress within each of the three pillars of our growth strategy, starting with year-to-date capital deployment of $213 million, which enabled us to raise our full-year 2025 capital expenditure guidance by $50 million to $375  to $425 million. Our regulatory successes included resolution of all three active rate cases as well as FERC issuing a notice to proceed with site preparation work and approving updated rates for the Worcester Resiliency Upgrade project which will drive an additional $3.9 million of margin once the facility is in service. And finally, we made further strides in transforming the business for our next stage of growth as we concluded the Transition Services Agreement for FCG, expanded our debt capacity on multiple fronts and  reached our target equity capitalization of 50 percent," Householder stated.

The Worcester project  will provide critical winter natural  gas service to customers in  Sussex County and adjacent areas of Maryland. A liquified natural gas center will be built in Bishopville, MD and upgrades will be made to pipelines.

The company re-affirmed  its earnings guidance and  capital expenditure guidance range for the five-year period ended 2028 of $1.5 billion to $1.8 billion and has increased its projected guidance range for 2025 to $375 million to $425 million, due to  its investments to date and expected level of spending in the second half of this year.