Updates to add details from company call, analyst comment in paragraph 5 through 8
By Srivastava Vallari
April 25 (Reuters) - CMS Energy CMS.N reported a rise in first-quarter profit on Thursday, as the electric and gas utility benefitted from higher sales and improved weather which lowered storm-related restoration costs.
Operating expenses for the first quarter, which include restoration costs, fell to $1.76 billion from $1.97 billion in the year-ago quarter.
U.S. gas futures NGc1 fell about 30% sequentially in the January-March quarter, which helped utilities such as CMS Energy reduce their costs. NGA/
Peers such as Xcel Energy XEL.O and PG&E Corp PCG.N also benefitted from lower operating expenses and beat analysts' expectations for first-quarter profit earlier today.
CMS Energy, during its post-earnings call, said it had secured a contract with a large data center in Michigan earlier this year. Utilities such as Southern Co SO.N, NextEra NEE.N and American Electric Power AEP.O have highlighted the ongoing AI and data center boom as a tailwind for earnings.
"This is load growth. And I'm even more excited about the manufacturing load growth we are seeing in Michigan, which is a differentiator for us," said CEO Garrick Rochow.
CMS Energy, which provides services to about 6.8 million customers across Michigan, also reaffirmed its full-year adjusted profit forecast of $3.29 to $3.35 per share, compared with analysts' estimates of $3.33 per share, per LSEG data.
"Forecast is conservative as always on this front, but we see the trends as encouraging," Scotiabank analyst Andrew Weisel said in a .
The Jackson, Michigan-based firm said income attributable to shareholders rose to $285 million, or 96 cents per share, in the quarter ended March 31, from $202 million, or 69 cents per share, a year ago.
(Reporting by Vallari Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore and Ravi Prakash Kumar)