Full Transcript: Edison Intl Q1 2026 Earnings Call
On Tuesday, Edison Intl (NYSE: EIX ) discussed first-quarter financial results during its earnings call. The full transcript is provided below. This content is powered by Benzinga APIs. For comprehensive financial data and transcripts, visit https://www.benzinga.com/apis/ . Access the full call at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/7gf56g3z/ Summary Edison Intl reported first quarter 2026 core earnings per share of $1.42, highlighting disciplined execution and operational progress. The company reaffirmed its 2026 core EPS guidance and targets, including a long-term EPS growth of 5 to 7%. Strategic initiatives focus on wildfire mitigation, regulatory engagement, and advanced grid technologies like AI and AMI 2.0. Operational highlights include significant progress in wildfire risk reduction and the deployment of AI for grid inspections and vegetation management. The company plans to execute its capital plan without issuing new equity through 2030. Edison Intl is actively engaging with policymakers on wildfire legislation and affordability issues. CFO Maria Arigati announced her retirement, with Erin Moss set to succeed her. Full Transcript Michelle (Operator) Good afternoon and welcome to the Edison International first quarter 2026 financial teleconference. My name is Michelle and I will be your operator today. When we get to the question and answer session, if you have a question, press star one on your phone. Today's call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Sam Ramraj, the Vice President of Investor Relations. Mr. Ramraj, you may begin your conference. Sam Ramraj (Vice President of Investor Relations) Thank you, Michelle and welcome everyone. Our speakers today are President and Chief Executive Officer Pedro Pizarro and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Maria Arigati. Also on the call are other members of the management team. Materials supporting today's call are available at www.edisoninvestor.com . these include a Form 10Q, prepared remarks from Pedro and Maria and the teleconference presentation. Tomorrow we will distribute our regular business Update presentation. During this call we will make forward looking statements about the outlook for Edison International and its subsidiaries. Actual results could differ materially from current expectations. Important factors that could cause different results are set forth in our Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings. Please read these carefully. The presentation includes certain outlook assumptions as well as reconciliation of the non Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) measures to the nearest Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) measure. During the question and answer session, please limit yourself to one question and one follow up. I will now turn the call over to Pedro. Pedro Pizarro (President and Chief Executive Officer) Thanks a lot and good afternoon everyone. Let me start by acknowledging that last week we announced Maria's retirement plans. So this is our last earnings call that we're partnering on together. I'll come back to this at the end of my remarks because if I start now, I may not make it to my comments. But before moving on, I'd like to welcome Susan Hardwick to our board. She brings over 35 years of leadership experience in the electric and water utilities including as CEO of American Water. With deep strengths in operations, finance and regulatory oversight, we are pleased with our start to the year and the momentum across our business. Edison International's first quarter 2026 core earnings per share was $1.42. Our continued performance reflects disciplined execution, steady operational progress and a clear focus on the priorities that matter most to our customers, communities and capital providers. Importantly, we are reaffirming our 2026 core EPS guidance and other financial targets, including our 5 to 7% core EPS growth Over the long term. Our targets are supported by strong visibility into the capital plan, Southern California Edison (SCE)'s regulatory outlook and a sustained focus on safety and risk management. Today I will focus on three areas. First, our continued work to make communities safer and more resilient, including wildfire mitigation and rebuilding efforts. Second, key legislative developments and finally our confidence in the financial outlook, which Maria will expand on in her remarks. Beginning with Wildfire mitigation and grid reliability, safety and community protection continue to guide Southern California Edison (SCE) decisions and investments. Over the past several years, the utility has made substantial progress strengthening the grid, improving situational awareness, and reducing wildfire risk across its service area. The planned physical hardening work on the distribution system in high fire risk areas is now about 93% complete, reflecting years of sustained investment in covered conductor and targeted undergrounding. Southern California Edison (SCE) continues to evolve its Public Safety power shutoff, or PSPS (Public Safety Power Shutoff), protocols, which include enhancing its analysis of on the ground conditions enabled by its fast network of weather stations and overall system visibility. These measures, plus the grid hardening work I mentioned earlier, are keeping Southern California Edison (SCE) customers and communities safe. Importantly, in March, the Office of Energy infrastructure safety approved Southern California Edison (SCE)'s annual safety certification after its independent assessment of the utility's WMP and Southern California Edison (SCE)'s continued progress implementing its plan. Southern California Edison (SCE)'s wildfire mitigation plan includes new and expanded tools to improve safety, reliability, and efficiency across its network. Let me share some tangible examples. Southern California Edison (SCE) is using AI models to improve grid inspections and identify maintenance needs with faster and more accurate diagnostics and enhanced quality control. Since 2023, Southern California Edison (SCE) has developed and deployed AI and machine learning models that are collectively capable of detecting nearly 100 unique object classes and dozens of defect conditions. Southern California Edison (SCE) is also using LIDAR and satellite imagery to support precise, proactive vegetation management to help prevent ignitions. The utility is also expanding its deployment of early fault detection tools that identify abnormal grid conditions, enabling earlier awareness and faster response to potential equipment issues or ignition risk. Capabilities like these are increasingly integrated into how Southern California Edison (SCE) monitors conditions, anticipates risk, and deploys resources in real time. Turning to the Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program, or WRCP (Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program), Southern California Edison (SCE) continues to make progress. Southern California Edison (SCE) has now extended over 1500 offers totaling over $500 million to community members impacted by the Eaton Fire, helping families and individuals move forward more quickly without the delays and uncertainty of traditional litigation. Southern California Edison (SCE) remains committed to administering the program in a transparent way that is responsive to community needs with fast and fair payments. On the legislative front, earlier this month the California Earthquake Authority released its study. It reinforces that addressing California's growing wildfire risk requires a whole of society approach and that the status quo is not working for customers, policyholders, or wildfire impacted communities who ultimately bear the real and increasing costs of inaction. It presents options for policymaker consideration, including three non exclusive pathways, a defined set of strategies and more than two dozen specific policy choices for reforming California's wildfire insurance and utility systems. We have provided a summary on page three. There is urgency for legislative action and we remain actively engaged with policymakers and key stakeholders to help shape solutions that support safety, affordability and long term resilience for California communities. Our team is also fully engaged on the various pieces of proposed legislation pertaining to utilities with affordability a critical focus. A common goal across wildfire reform and affordability is to build the right whole of society approach, allocating wildfire risk equitably across the economy and attracting capital at a reasonable cost on customer bills. This will benefit both customers and capital providers. Operational excellence is a core Edison value as Southern California Edison (SCE) aims to maintain its cost leadership position with the lowest system average rate among the large IOUs in the state. I have shared on prior earnings calls examples of operational excellence in practice, including Southern California Edison (SCE)'s use of AI in areas like grid inspections, vegetation management and wildfire situational awareness, including the award winning Aware Grid monitoring platform. The team continues to explore new AI enabled process improvements across the entire value chain. Let me share another recent example. All utilities have instances where electricity usage can occur at a location before it is fully linked to an active customer billing record. In the past, identifying those situations required periodic manual checks and often occurred after the fact. Through Southern California Edison (SCE)'s internal innovation program and in only a handful of of development hours, frontline teams develop an initial proof of concept of an AI driven approach that continuously monitors for these situations and brings them to the surface earlier with clearer and more actionable insights. Once implemented, we anticipate this approach could yield roughly $25 million in potential unbilled revenue savings over a three to six month period. It's a good illustration of how smarter systems and disciplined execution translate directly into stronger financial controls and support long term affordability. Let me now turn briefly to the financial outlook. We remain confident in the company's financial position and long term trajectory. Major Southern California Edison (SCE) regulatory decisions like the 2025 GRC Cost of capital and legacy wildfire cost recoveries are successfully resolved, providing clear visibility to 2028 earnings combined with our operational progress and disciplined capital execution. This also points her confidence in our long term targets including 5% to 7% core EPS growth with no new equity needs. Before I turn it over to Maria, we announced that she will retire on September 1st after transitioning the Edison International CFO role on July 3rd. To Erin Moss who is here in the room with us today, Maria will focus her final months on critical policy priorities, including the SB254 process and supporting Erin's transition. This is really bittersweet because Maria and I have partnered continuously for over 15 years across our Edison Mission, Energy, Southern California Edison (SCE) and EIX gigs. Our board, our team and I are grateful for the outstanding leadership she has provided across multiple challenges that many of our investors will remember well, including the Edison Mission Energy (EME) restructuring, helping our communities recover after tragic wildfires, a global pandemic, four Southern California Edison (SCE) GRCs, and shepherding the investment and operational improvement opportunities created by the clean energy transition, historic load growth and the rapid ascendance of AI. Throughout it all, she has shown great financial skill, unflappable balance, a deep commitment to engaging with our investors, some might say a lot of patience dealing with me, and a real passion for developing our people, including Aaron. Aaron, Maria and I worked closely together through the Edison Mission Energy (EME) restructuring and we kept on going as Aaron took on the EIX and Southern California Edison (SCE) controller roles and most recently as Southern California Edison (SCE)'s chief financial officer. He has been a key Leader of Southern California Edison (SCE)'s Operational Excellence efforts over the past several years and many of you know him well already from his extensive investor interactions. I am excited about and confident in our new chapter together and so Aaron, welcome to this role. Maria, just thank you for your partnership, thank you for your friendship and now it's time for your 39th and final earnings call remarks. So waiting for you to drop the mic here. Maria Arigati (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer) I appreciate that Pedro and would like to extend my thanks as well. Over the years I've spent with Edison, I have had the privilege to work with dedicated people who are focused on delivering on the commitments we have made to our customers, communities and investors. I thank the team for their focus and innovation. I also want to thank all our investors for your engagement and feedback through the opportunities and challenges that Edison has managed and I know that Pedro, Aaron and the entire team will continue to benefit from your support. Now let's move on to the quarter and the financial outlook. I'll cover first quarter 2026 results, our capital and rate base outlook, regulatory updates and our earnings guidance. Edison International (EIX) reported first quarter core EPS of $1.42. Page four provides the year over year quarterly variance analysis. Core earnings increased by $0.05 primarily due to the adoption of the GRC decision last year, partially offset by the absence of about $0.30 recorded in Q1 2025 related to the TKM cost recovery approval. Parent and other core loss was $0.01 lower, driven primarily by lower financing costs following the redemption of preferred stock. Overall, the quarter reflects benefits from solid execution and SCE having strong regulatory visibility with no major proceedings driving this year's results. Importantly, it also reflects the quality and durability of our earnings profile while keeping our focus squarely on delivering safe, reliable and affordable service for customers. Our first quarter results reinforce our confidence in the underlying business and our ability to deliver consistent performance through the year. Building on first quarter performance, I'll turn to SCE's capital and rate base outlook shown on pages 5 and 6, which is unchanged from last quarter. Our capital plan of $38 to $41 billion from 2026 through 2030 is driven by essential investments in the grid to meet customer needs and support California's clean energy objectives. We are executing this plan with an unwavering focus on affordability and cost discipline. I want to reinforce Pedro's earlier comments on execution and line of sight into our financial projections. With an approved GRC covering the bulk of SCE's capital plan through 2028, we have a high degree of confidence in our ability to execute and deliver on this plan in a way that meets customer needs and regulatory expectations. That confidence is further bolstered by long term fundamentals as we ensure the grid is ready for the economy wide Electrification Ahead Customer demand for an increasingly reliable and resilient grid contribute continues to grow, making the need for sustained grid investment clear. As shown on page six, we expect SCE rate based compound annual growth of approximately 7% from 2025 to 2030, reflecting both near term visibility and the long term case for grid investment. SCE is focused on executing the work authorized under its current GRC, which provides clarity for most of its operations through 2028. In addition to the approved GRC, SCE has two significant stand alone applications underway. The first is the Next Gen ERP program which we have discussed in prior quarters. The second is SCE's Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) 2.0 application which was filed in March and requests approximately $3.1 billion of capital investment through 2033. As we have previously disclosed, the capital associated with both programs is already incorporated in our capital plan. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) 2.0 represents a comprehensive modernization effort with benefits across the system. It supports grid resilience and operational efficiency, enables more advanced customer services, and provides the data foundation needed to support electrification, distributed energy resources and more dynamic system management. Looking ahead to the next GRC cycle, SCE will take the first step next month by filing its Risk Assessment and Mitigation phase or RAMP application. This filing informs the next GRC and outlines the risk mitigations that guide proposed investments across wildfire, risk transmission and distribution, reliability, cybersecurity, climate adaptation and other safety related measures. As in prior cycles, this process provides a clear safety and risk driven framework for evaluating capital needs and supports consistent engagement with regulators and stakeholders on safety and risk priorities. I will highlight that following the resolution of several major proceedings last year, 2026 ... Full story available on Benzinga.com
