Xcel Energy Tops Q3 EPS Estimates, Narrows 2026 Guidance and Unveils $70B Capital Plan

XEL beat third-quarter expectations. Ongoing and GAAP EPS were both $1.52, compared with $1.24 ongoing and $0.88 GAAP a year earlier, and above the $1.37 Wall Street estimate cited by Investing.com. The company credited electric infrastructure recovery, equity-method earnings and warm weather, partly offset by higher financing costs, in its October 29 release.

Guidance moved up at the bottom end rather than across the board. Xcel narrowed 2026 ongoing EPS guidance to $4.10 to $4.16 from $4.04 to $4.16, and initiated 2027 guidance of $4.48 to $4.62. Simply Wall St's recap still cited the older range, so the company release is the figure to use.

The bigger news is the capital plan. Xcel laid out a $70 billion base plan for 2027 to 2031, which management said extends its roughly 11% annualized rate base growth into 2031, with rate base rising from $68 billion at the end of 2026 to $112 billion. The plan includes about $8 billion of equity and equity content, and the company had 79.4 million shares unsettled on forward sale agreements at quarter end. Data centers are a major driver, with about 4 GW contracted and a pipeline above 20 GW.

What to watch: how regulators treat the larger spending program, the pace of equity issuance needed to fund it, and wildfire exposure, where Xcel's slides show about $475 million of estimated Smokehouse Creek losses against $525 million of insurance.