Hawaiian Electric Industries, I (HE) Stock Price & How to Invest

Hawaiian Electric Industries is a Honolulu holding company whose one meaningful business is Hawaiian Electric, the regulated electric utility serving Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Hawaii Island. That footprint covers about 95% of the state's population, roughly 470,000 customer accounts, and every county except Kauai, which is served by a member-owned cooperative. The economics are unusual for a US utility: each island runs its own isolated grid with no interconnection to anything else, generation has historically leaned heavily on imported oil, and Hawaii carries the highest retail electricity rates in the country. State law requires 100% renewable electricity by 2045, so the utility's capital plan is a long grid-and-renewables buildout rather than a maintenance program. HEI is also a much simpler company than it was two years ago: it divested 90.1% of American Savings Bank at a $450 million valuation at the end of 2024, keeping a 9.9% stake, and wound down its Pacific Current infrastructure arm through 2025. Trailing twelve-month revenue is about $3.1 billion, essentially all of it regulated utility revenue.

The investment picture is dominated by one event and its aftermath. The August 8, 2023 windstorm and Lahaina fire killed about 102 people and produced a global tort settlement of more than $4 billion across several defendants, of which HEI's share is roughly $1.99 billion, payable in four equal annual installments of about $479 million. The final condition to payment cleared on April 10, 2026, when insurers dropped their subrogation appeals, and the first installment was authorized that month. Moody's responded by lifting HEI to Ba2 and the utility to Ba1, while S&P and Fitch hold B+ ratings with positive outlooks, so the company remains below investment grade while funding both the settlement and a capital budget that steps up from about $368 million in 2025 to a planned $625 million to $750 million in 2026. Q1 2026 earnings showed the squeeze: GAAP EPS of $0.18 against $0.15 a year earlier, but core EPS of $0.18 against $0.23, with operations and maintenance expense up on storm response, insurance premiums and wildfire mitigation. A joint rate rebasing proposal filed in March 2026 asks for roughly $170 million (about 5.3%) phased across 2027 and 2028. The dividend has been suspended since 2023, and Q2 2026 results are scheduled for August 7, 2026.

The obvious risk is another fire. Hawaii's liability cap and recovery fund are still in rulemaking, so a second catastrophic event before that framework exists would land on a company with sub-investment-grade credit, no dividend cushion and three remaining $479 million payments outstanding. Financing is the second risk: the company must fund a doubled capital program and the settlement schedule simultaneously from a below-investment-grade balance sheet, which leaves equity issuance and dilution as live possibilities. Regulatory outcomes are the third: HEI operates in the most expensive electricity market in the United States, where rate increases are politically fraught, and operations and maintenance costs are currently growing faster than inflation while the rebasing request sits unresolved. The business is also concentrated in one small, tourism-dependent island economy with no geographic diversification, and there is no dividend to pay holders for waiting. Separately, the securities class action alleging misstatements about wildfire mitigation was settled for $47.75 million with preliminary approval in March 2026 and a final approval hearing set for August 13, 2026, so the last procedural step had not closed as of the start of that month.

3 analysts publish price targets on HE, averaging $12.75 against a $12.49 price as of August 2026, or +2.1%. The published targets run from $11.75 to $13.50, a narrow spread, and the ratings split 0 buy, 2 hold, 1 sell. Over the last six months there has been 1 raise and 2 cuts among the published actions. A price target is what an analyst published on a date, not a prediction, and sell-side ratings skew positive across the whole market.

Read the full HE forecast and price target for the target table, the recent rating actions by firm, and how the consensus has shifted.

We give no verdict on Hawaiian Electric Industries, I. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.

The case for buying. A capital plan that finally grows the rate base. Utility earnings track invested capital, and HEI's capital spending is set to nearly double from about $368 million in 2025 to a planned $625 million to $750 million in 2026, with elevated levels guided through 2028. The most optimistic published target, $13.50, assumes this works close to its best case.

The case against. The obvious risk is another fire. The most pessimistic target, $11.75, is roughly what HE is worth if this bites instead.

Read the full bull and bear case on HE, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see Hawaiian Electric Industries, I's investor relations page or your broker.

• Revenue (TTM): ~$3.1 billion, down ~3% year over year
• Net income / EPS (TTM): ~$127 million, ~$0.74 per share
• Q1 2026 core EPS: ~$0.18, down from ~$0.23 a year earlier
• Market cap and P/E: ~$2.2 billion at ~$12.50 a share, ~17x trailing earnings
• Dividend: None. Suspended since the last $0.36 quarterly payment in September 2023
• 2026 capital spending: ~$625 million to ~$750 million, up from ~$368 million in 2025

HE screens strangely against utility peers because the usual anchors are missing: there is no dividend yield, the credit rating is below investment grade, and trailing earnings still carry wildfire-related and divestiture-related noise. At roughly 17 times trailing earnings on a ~$0.74 EPS base, the multiple looks ordinary while the earnings base itself is depressed relative to the rate base the company is about to build. The 52-week range of about $10.60 to $17.38 and a beta near 0.51 capture the tension: low correlation to the broad market, but large moves on legal and regulatory headlines, and the analyst average price target near $12.75 sits close to the market price rather than above it.

Other names that sit close to HE: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.

There are three common ways to get HE exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it, which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so HE sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where HE fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.

New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.

HE is a monopoly island utility whose catastrophic liability is now sized and scheduled rather than open-ended, priced for the years of cash outflow standing between it and a normal regulated-utility profile again.

Whether HE is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is HE a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the HE stock forecast.

For income investors, whether HE pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does HE pay a dividend? And to weigh HE against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: HE vs PCG and HE vs XEL.