Black Hills Corp /sd/ (BKH) · Nov 4, 2026 · Earnings
Beat — Adjusted EPS $0.57 vs ~$0.47 consensus
Black Hills earnings beat Q3 EPS expectations and reaffirmed 2026 guidance, while Wyoming data-center growth remains a future catalyst.
Black Hills is a regulated electric-and-gas utility trying to turn Wyoming’s rising data-center demand into a new capital-growth engine, while also pursuing its NorthWestern Energy merger. The data-center direction was already known before this filing: the prior quarter described progress toward definitive agreements for a 1.8 GW Wyoming project, so today’s filing mainly converts that thesis into firmer contracts, investment figures, and timing.
The quarter beat the earnings bar, but not cleanly across the income statement. Adjusted EPS of $0.57 exceeded the published consensus of roughly $0.47, while revenue of $466.1 million came in below the roughly $483 million expectation. The earnings outperformance was helped by new rates, rider recovery, and favorable weather, so it is solid execution but not a pure demand-driven surprise. The filing says, “Third-quarter adjusted EPS was $0.57, compared to $0.45 in the same period in 2025.”
| Q3 2026 | Q3 2025 | Consensus | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adjusted EPS (Financial Highlights) | $0.57 (+26.7%) | $0.45 | $0.47 |
| GAAP EPS (Financial Highlights) | $0.54 (+58.8%) | $0.34 | |
| Revenue (Consolidated Financial Results) | $466.1M (+8.3%) | $430.2M | $483.0M |
| Operating income (Consolidated Financial Results) | $98.1M (+24.6%) | $78.7M |
The more important strategic update is confirmation, not a surprise. Black Hills says it signed definitive agreements tied to Google’s planned Wyoming data center, with $1.8 billion of company-owned generation investment and an expected $150 million of net income contribution in 2030. The filing says, “We expect earnings to begin mid-2027 and increase to approximately $150 million of net income in 2030.” That materially strengthens the long-term utility-growth story, but the earnings impact is deferred and still depends on construction, transmission, and regulatory execution.
Management held the near-term bar rather than raising it. The $4.25-$4.45 adjusted-EPS range was reaffirmed, not increased, and the company still expects to land in the upper half of its 4%-6% long-term EPS-growth target. That is supportive versus a deterioration scenario, but it is not incremental guidance upside; the current-year consensus midpoint was around $4.40, near the top half of the company’s range.
The filing also adds execution milestones, but leaves the main regulatory gates open. South Dakota Electric and Arkansas Gas received rate approvals, while the $686 million Wyoming transmission requests and the NorthWestern merger still require regulatory decisions. The filing says the merger is “subject to receipt of a satisfactory final regulatory approval from the Montana Public Service Commission.” 〔0〕
Bottom line: This is a modestly better quarter than expected, with a more concrete data-center growth pipeline, but no increase to 2026 guidance. The business story improves at the margin; the biggest upside remains a 2027-and-beyond execution story rather than a near-term reset.
Nov. 5 earnings call; Montana merger decision; 2027 Wyoming approvals
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