Xcel Energy (XEL) Earnings: Q3 2026 Results

The quarter ended September 30, 2026 and Xcel Energy published the results on October 29, 2026. Revenue and diluted EPS are shown against Q3 2025, the same quarter a year earlier, which takes seasonal swings out of the comparison. Xcel Energy reports EPS two ways: GAAP, under the accounting rules every US filer follows, and ongoing, which leaves out items the company considers outside its operating results. The release reconciles the two, and when they diverge, the reconciliation says why.

• The ~5% weather-normalized electric sales growth quoted above is Xcel Energy's assumption for 2027; for 2026 it assumes ~3%.
• Xcel Energy's Q3 2025 GAAP results included a $287 million charge for the settlement of Marshall Wildfire litigation, which is why GAAP and ongoing EPS differ in the year-ago quarter and match in Q3 2026.

Source: Xcel Energy Q3 2026 earnings release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.01), October 29, 2026. Also in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. Figures as reported; checked against the release on November 10, 2026.

How Xcel Energy splits revenue in its own release, under its own labels, for Q3 2026 against Q3 2025. Indented lines are parts of the line above them.

• Xcel Energy's Electric revenue was $3.9 billion in Q3 2026, up 7% from $3.6 billion in Q3 2025, 93% of total revenue.
• Xcel Energy's Natural gas revenue was $272 million in Q3 2026, up 3% from $264 million in Q3 2025, 7% of total revenue.
• Xcel Energy's Other revenue was $12.0 million in Q3 2026, down 8% from $13.0 million in Q3 2025, under 1% of total revenue.

Segment lines are the figures writers cite most often, because they show where the growth in a quarter came from. Companies redraw their segments from time to time and restate the prior year to match, so a year-ago figure here can differ from the one printed a year ago. When that has happened, the note above says so.

From the earnings release

In its Q3 2026 release, Xcel Energy said:

“Xcel Energy's 2026 ongoing earnings guidance is a narrowed range of $4.10 to $4.16 per share, from the original guidance of $4.04 to $4.16 per share.”

“Xcel Energy's 2027 ongoing earnings guidance is a range of $4.48 to $4.62 per share.”

“Weather-normalized retail electric sales are projected to increase ~5%.”

“Deliver long-term annual EPS growth of 6% to 8+%.”

Source: Xcel Energy Q3 2026 earnings release, Oct 29, 2026.

This is the company's own guidance as of Oct 29, 2026, quoted as given. Walnut does not make forecasts of its own. Analyst estimates for the coming quarters are on the XEL forecast page.

Revenue and diluted EPS for the last 5 quarters. Each date links to that quarter's release.

GAAP total operating revenues and diluted EPS, each as first reported in that quarter's earnings release. Xcel Energy's results are seasonal, so quarters are not directly comparable to one another.

We do not hold a confirmed date for Xcel Energy's next report. Companies post the date on their investor relations site a few weeks ahead, usually with the time of the conference call.

Each quarter keeps its own page with the figures as reported, so a link to one stays pointed at the same numbers after the next report.

• Q3 2026 (this page), reported Oct 29, 2026

Xcel Energy's total operating revenues were $4,172 million in Q3 2026, up from $3,915 million. Electric revenue was $3,888 million, 93.2% of the total, natural gas $272 million and other $12 million. Xcel Energy is a regulated utility serving about 3.9 million electric and 2.2 million natural gas customers in eight states through four subsidiaries: NSP-Minnesota, NSP-Wisconsin, PSCo (Colorado) and SPS (Texas and New Mexico). (Xcel Energy Q3 2026 earnings release, Oct 29, 2026; Xcel Energy Form 10-K, 2025, Feb 25, 2026)

Xcel Energy's electric revenue rose $250 million. The release attributes $93 million to non-fuel riders, $88 million to rate outcomes in Colorado, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, $50 million to weather, $42 million to sales and demand and $25 million to wholesale transmission, offset by $55 million of production tax credits flowed back to customers and $41 million lower wholesale generation. Fuel and purchased power costs are largely passed through in revenue; that expense fell $31 million. (Xcel Energy Q3 2026 earnings release, Oct 29, 2026)

Xcel Energy's retail electric sales rose 7.3% in the quarter, or 3.0% after adjusting for weather, with residential sales up 11.7% on an unseasonably warm summer. SPS had the strongest weather-normalized growth at 5.6%, and Xcel Energy cites energy-sector and manufacturing activity for commercial and industrial gains. Firm natural gas sales fell 3.8%. (Xcel Energy Q3 2026 earnings release, Oct 29, 2026)

Recent rate decisions set Xcel Energy's revenue for the coming years. In September 2026 Colorado regulators granted PSCo an electric revenue increase of $184 million on an ROE of 9.3%, and in July 2026 Minnesota regulators ordered an NSP-Minnesota electric increase of about $211 million over two years on an ROE of 9.60%. NSP-Minnesota has also signed an electric service agreement to power a new Google data center, awaiting approval, with a decision expected in early 2027. (Xcel Energy Q3 2026 earnings release, Oct 29, 2026)

Xcel Energy's GAAP and ongoing diluted EPS were both $1.52 in Q3 2026. A year earlier GAAP EPS was $0.88 and ongoing EPS $1.24; the difference was the $287 million Marshall Wildfire settlement charge, worth $0.36 per share, which ongoing earnings exclude. By subsidiary, PSCo contributed $0.57, NSP-Minnesota $0.51, SPS $0.34 and NSP-Wisconsin $0.08. (Xcel Energy Q3 2026 earnings release, Oct 29, 2026)

Against the year-ago GAAP figure, Xcel Energy's EPS gained $0.32 from higher electric revenues, $0.11 from AFUDC and $0.09 from equity method investments, mostly unrealized gains on investment funds' stakes in energy technology companies. Higher interest charges cost $0.13, common equity financing $0.10 and higher O&M $0.08. The effective tax rate was 6.7%, against 1.5%, lowered mainly by production tax credits. (Xcel Energy Q3 2026 earnings release, Oct 29, 2026)

Xcel Energy is issuing shares to fund its capital plan, which dilutes EPS. Diluted shares were 632 million, against 595 million a year earlier. In Q3 it issued 10.5 million shares for net proceeds of $819 million, and 79.4 million shares remained unsettled on forward sale agreements at September 30, 2026, with minimum expected proceeds of $5.8 billion. (Xcel Energy Q3 2026 earnings release, Oct 29, 2026)

Diluted EPS divides net income by the weighted average number of shares outstanding in the quarter, plus the shares that options and other equity awards could add. Buybacks shrink that count and lift EPS for the same profit; share issuance and stock awards enlarge it.

Xcel Energy gives annual EPS guidance in its release, on an ongoing basis. It narrowed 2026 guidance to $4.10 to $4.16 per share, from $4.04 to $4.16, and set 2027 guidance at $4.48 to $4.62, assuming weather-normalized retail electric sales growth of about 5% and O&M up about 4%. Its long-term objectives are annual EPS growth of 6% to 8+% and dividend increases of 4% to 6%. (Xcel Energy Q3 2026 earnings release, Oct 29, 2026)

Xcel Energy's base capital plan for 2027 through 2031 totals $70,000 million, led by renewables ($21,360 million) and electric transmission ($18,560 million), to be funded by $35,810 million of cash from operations, $26,190 million of new debt and $8,000 million of equity. The plan excludes investment for future large load customers. (Xcel Energy Q3 2026 earnings release, Oct 29, 2026)

A consensus figure is the average of the models published by the analysts who cover Xcel Energy, collected by a data provider and revised up to the day of the report. A quarter that lands above it says how expectations were set as much as how the business did, and the share price on the day also reflects the guidance and the lines no consensus covers.

The consensus figures on this page are Yahoo Finance's, as pulled on the date shown. Each comes with the number of analysts behind it; the smaller that number, the more one revised estimate can move the average.

The figures below are the ones Xcel Energy's own release and filings put weight on for Q3 2026, with the latest reported value for each.

What the quarter means for a holding is a separate question from what it reported. The case for and against owning XEL is on is XEL a buy or a sell?, what analysts expect next is on the XEL forecast, and what the company does is on the Xcel Energy (XEL) stock page.

Every number on this page can be traced to a document Xcel Energy published. Checking one takes a couple of minutes, and it is worth doing before you quote a figure anywhere.

• The results release is the document linked in the source line above. Companies publish it on their investor relations site at the moment results go out, and it carries the headline tables: revenue, operating income, net income and EPS for the quarter and the year-ago quarter.
• The same release is filed with the SEC as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K under Item 2.02, usually on the day of the report. The SEC copy does not change after the fact, which makes it the safer thing to link when you cite a number.
• The quarterly report (Form 10-Q) follows within a few weeks and carries the full financial statements, the segment note and management's discussion of what changed. The fourth quarter is covered by the annual report (Form 10-K) instead.
• Restated comparisons are flagged in the notes on this page. When a company redraws its segments or changes how it adjusts EPS, it restates the year-ago column, so the year-ago figure in a new release can differ from the one printed a year ago. This page always uses the comparison in the newer release, because that is the like-for-like one.

A walk-through of every line in a release, with what each one tells you, is in how to read an earnings report.