Northeast Utilities Reports Operating Results (10-K)

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Feb 25, 2011
Northeast Utilities (NU, Financial) filed Annual Report for the period ended 2010-12-31.

Northeast Utilities has a market cap of $5.85 billion; its shares were traded at around $33.17 with a P/E ratio of 17.1 and P/S ratio of 1.1. The dividend yield of Northeast Utilities stocks is 3.1%. Northeast Utilities had an annual average earning growth of 3.5% over the past 5 years.Hedge Fund Gurus that owns NU: Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies LLC. Mutual Fund and Other Gurus that owns NU: Columbia Wanger of Columbia Wanger Asset Management, Mario Gabelli of GAMCO Investors, Pioneer Investments, Jeremy Grantham of GMO LLC, Chuck Royce of Royce& Associates.

Highlight of Business Operations:

The aggregate market value of Northeast Utilities Common Shares, $5.00 par value, held by non-affiliates, computed by reference to the price at which the common equity was last sold, or the average bid and asked price of such common equity, as of the last business day of Northeast Utilities most recently completed second fiscal quarter (June 30, 2010) was $4,486,982,187 based on a closing sales price of $25.48 per share for the 176,098,202 common shares outstanding on June 30, 2010. Northeast Utilities holds all of the 6,035,205 shares, 301 shares, and 434,653 shares of the outstanding common stock of The Connecticut Light and Power Company, Public Service Company of New Hampshire and Western Massachusetts Electric Company, respectively.

Under the terms of the merger agreement, NSTAR shareholders would receive 1.312 NU common shares for each common share of NSTAR that they own (the "exchange ratio"). The exchange ratio was structured to result in a no premium merger and is based on the average closing share price of each company's common shares for the 20 trading days preceding the announcement. Following completion of the merger, common shares of the post-transaction company will be owned approximately 56 percent by NU shareholders and approximately 44 percent by former NSTAR shareholders. We anticipate that we will issue approximately 137 million common shares to the NSTAR shareholders as a result of the merger. Following the closing of the merger, our next quarterly dividend per common share will be increased to an amount that is equivalent to NSTARs last quarterly dividend per common share paid prior to the closing, divided by the exchange ratio. Based on the last quarterly dividend paid by NSTAR of $0.425 per share, and assuming there are no changes to such dividend prior to the closing of the merger, that would result in NUs quarterly dividend being increased by approximately 18 percent to approximately $0.325 per share, or approximately $1.30 per share on an annualized basis as compared to NU's current annualized dividend of $1.10 per share. NU filed its joint proxy statement/prospectus with the SEC on January 5, 2011 and scheduled a special meeting of shareholders for March 4, 2011, at which shareholders will vote on whether to approve the merger.

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