Key Takeaways
🌿 Dividend yield of 3.06%, with over 50 consecutive years of dividend increases and a freshly raised quarterly payout of $0.888 per share.
💰 Strong operational cash flow of $4.80 billion supports dividend sustainability despite continued heavy infrastructure spending.
📊 Mixed analyst sentiment with a consensus “Hold” rating and a mean price target of $108.38, slightly below current trading levels.
📈 Full-year EPS of $5.72 reflects disciplined execution across regulated operations in the New York metropolitan area.
👔 Experienced management team led by CEO Tim Cawley continues to prioritize grid modernization, reliability, and long-term financial prudence.
Updated 2/25/26
Consolidated Edison (ED) is a long-standing regulated utility delivering electricity, gas, and steam to over 10 million people in the New York metropolitan area. The company has increased its dividend for more than 50 consecutive years and maintains a payout ratio just under 60%, supported by stable earnings and robust operational cash flow.
Under CEO Tim Cawley, Con Ed has maintained its focus on core utility operations and grid modernization after exiting less predictable business lines in prior years. With a forward yield of 3.06% and a stock price trading near the upper end of its 52-week range, ED continues to reflect investor confidence in regulated utility earnings. Full-year EPS of $5.72 underscores disciplined execution, while a dividend increase in February 2026 reinforces the company’s commitment to its long-standing payout growth record. Capital investment pressures and regulatory uncertainties remain, but the company’s leadership, financial positioning, and infrastructure focus continue to support a resilient long-term outlook.
Recent Events
Consolidated Edison opened 2026 by raising its quarterly dividend to $0.888 per share, paid on February 18, 2026, marking the latest step in a streak of consecutive annual increases that now spans more than five decades. The move lifted the annualized payout to $3.44 per share and signals management’s continued confidence in the company’s regulated cash generation. For income investors, this kind of quiet, consistent action is exactly what Con Ed is known for delivering.
The company has also remained in focus amid broader conversations about utility sector demand, particularly as electrification trends in transportation and building systems continue to accelerate across the New York metropolitan area. Con Ed serves one of the densest and most energy-intensive urban grids in the country, and the infrastructure investments the company has been making for several years are increasingly viewed as forward-looking positioning rather than mere maintenance spending.
On the regulatory front, Con Ed continues to navigate ongoing rate proceedings with New York State authorities. The outcome of those proceedings remains a key variable for near-term earnings visibility, as approved rate structures directly influence how much of the company’s infrastructure investment gets recovered through customer billings. The regulatory environment in New York has historically been constructive for Con Ed, though the pace and scale of recent capital programs means the stakes of each rate case are higher than they’ve been in prior cycles.
With electric demand in the metro area expected to remain steady and the company’s operational footprint firmly rooted in regulated services, Con Ed heads further into 2026 in a familiar posture: methodical, financially disciplined, and focused on the long-term reliability of the grid it operates.
Key Dividend Metrics
🪙 Forward Dividend Yield: 3.06%
💰 Annual Dividend: $3.44 per share
📈 5-Year Average Dividend Yield: 3.66%
📆 Last Dividend Paid: February 18, 2026 ($0.888 per share)
🔔 Most Recent Quarterly Increase: From $0.85 to $0.888
🔄 Payout Ratio: 59.09%
🏛️ Years of Consecutive Increases: Over 50
🔓 Dividend Safety: Strong
Dividend Overview
For income-focused investors, Con Ed’s dividend remains a central part of its investment case. The annual payout of $3.44 per share isn’t designed to compete with speculative high-yielders. It’s engineered for durability, and in that department, the company continues to deliver. The February 2026 increase from $0.85 to $0.888 per quarter represents a meaningful step up and extends a record of consecutive annual raises that very few companies in any sector can match.
The payout ratio of 59.09% strikes a sensible balance. It’s generous enough to produce a competitive yield for a regulated utility while leaving management with room to maneuver in tighter environments. Crucially, this dividend is backed not just by reported earnings but by $4.80 billion in operating cash flow over the trailing twelve months, giving the payout a level of real cash support that accounting-based metrics alone don’t always capture.
What Con Ed offers is predictability. That’s why it has long held status among the most reliable dividend growers in the utility sector, with a streak of increases now exceeding 50 consecutive years. The current yield sits slightly below the five-year average of 3.66%, largely because the stock has appreciated toward the upper end of its 52-week range. For many investors, that modest yield compression is an acceptable trade-off given the company’s track record and the stability of its earnings base.
Dividend Growth and Safety
Growth here is measured rather than aggressive, but the consistency is precisely the point. Con Edison typically raises its dividend once per year, and the February 2026 hike from $0.85 to $0.888 per quarter represents an increase of approximately 4.5%. That follows a prior increase from $0.83 to $0.85, which was itself about 2.4%. Looking back across the dividend history provided, the pattern is clear: modest, reliable, and unbroken annual raises that compound meaningfully over time without straining the business.
Full-year EPS came in at $5.72, giving the $3.44 annual dividend a comfortable earnings cushion. The payout ratio of 59.09% is actually one of the tighter readings Con Ed has carried in recent years, reflecting the fact that earnings growth has kept reasonable pace with dividend increases. Operating cash flow of $4.80 billion provides an even stronger backdrop for the payout, even as free cash flow remains negative at approximately $145 million due to ongoing capital expenditure programs.
That negative free cash flow figure deserves context rather than alarm. Utilities in active infrastructure investment cycles routinely run negative free cash flow, and Con Ed is no exception. The company is spending heavily to upgrade and harden the grid serving one of the most complex urban environments in the world. These are necessary investments that get recovered through the rate base over time, and the operating cash generation more than covers the dividend obligation on its own.
The safety of this dividend is grounded in the company’s regulated revenue model, which insulates it from the kind of earnings volatility that can destabilize payouts in other sectors. Conservative financial management and a long institutional memory of protecting the dividend through multiple economic cycles further reinforce its reliability.
Chart Analysis
Consolidated Edison has staged an impressive recovery over the past year, climbing from a 52-week low of $94.04 to its current price of $110.99, a gain of roughly 18% off the trough. That kind of price appreciation is not something income investors typically expect from a regulated utility, but it reflects a broader repricing of defensive yield as interest rate expectations have shifted. The stock is now within striking distance of its 52-week high of $113.03, sitting just 1.81% below that level, which suggests the market is treating ED with a degree of confidence that has been absent for much of the past two years.
The moving average picture is constructive. ED is trading above both its 50-day moving average of $103.40 and its 200-day moving average of $99.77, and the 50-day has crossed above the 200-day to form what technicians call a golden cross. For a utility stock, this kind of alignment across timeframes is meaningful because it confirms that the trend is not a short-term spike but rather a sustained directional shift. The spread between the current price and the 200-day average is now more than 11%, which tells you that a fair amount of the easy money from the initial recovery has already been captured.
The RSI reading of 60.05 sits in a comfortable zone for a stock approaching multi-year resistance. It is elevated enough to confirm genuine buying momentum without flashing the kind of overbought signal that tends to precede sharp reversals. A reading in the high 60s or above 70 would raise more caution, but at 60, ED appears to have room to continue grinding toward that 52-week high before momentum becomes a headwind. Utilities often see RSI readings compress quickly when broader risk appetite returns and capital rotates out, so this is a metric worth watching in the weeks ahead.
For dividend investors, the chart tells a reassuring story without demanding that you chase the stock. ED is in a confirmed uptrend with supportive moving average structure, and the proximity to its 52-week high suggests that price discovery is ongoing rather than exhausted. Investors adding here are not buying at a distressed entry, but they are also not overpaying relative to the trend. The more relevant consideration for long-term income holders is that a rising price compresses the forward yield, so those prioritizing income over total return may want to size their position thoughtfully at current levels rather than committing all at once.
Cash Flow Statement
Consolidated Edison’s operating cash flow tells a constructive story for income investors, even if the headline numbers require some context. Operating cash flow swung from $2,733.0 million in 2021 to a notably stronger $3,935.0 million in 2022, then pulled back to $2,156.0 million in 2023 before recovering to $3,614.0 million in 2024. The trailing twelve months figure of $4,800.0 million represents the strongest operating cash generation in this five-year window, which is an encouraging signal heading into the next dividend cycle. Free cash flow, however, has remained persistently negative across every period shown, ranging from a low of negative $2,338.0 million in 2023 to a much-improved negative $145.2 million on a TTM basis. For a regulated utility like ED, negative free cash flow is not the red flag it would be in other sectors, because the capital expenditure programs driving that gap are precisely what regulators allow the company to earn a regulated return on. The improving TTM free cash flow figure nonetheless matters, because it signals that the gap between operating generation and capital spending is narrowing meaningfully.
Zooming out across the full five-year trend, the volatility in both operating and free cash flow reflects the uneven timing of large infrastructure investments and working capital swings that are typical for a large regulated utility operating in a capital-intensive regulatory environment. The 2023 trough in operating cash flow, at $2,156.0 million, coincided with the deepest free cash flow deficit of negative $2,338.0 million, suggesting that period represented peak capital deployment pressure. The recovery trajectory into 2024 and the TTM period points toward a more balanced phase of the investment cycle. ED funds its dividend primarily through operating cash flow rather than free cash flow, and with operating cash flow running at $4,800.0 million on a TTM basis against an annual dividend obligation that sits well below that level, the payout remains well-supported from a cash generation standpoint. Shareholders should understand that this utility will always be a net consumer of external capital due to its ongoing infrastructure mandate, but the trend toward a less negative free cash flow position reduces financing risk and supports continued dividend growth in line with ED’s established track record.
Analyst Ratings
Analyst sentiment on Consolidated Edison sits at a consensus “Hold” across 16 covering analysts, a reading that reflects respect for the company’s stability without a strong conviction that the stock offers significant near-term upside from current levels. The mean 12-month price target of $108.38 sits modestly below the current trading price of $110.92, suggesting that the analyst community broadly views ED as fairly valued or slightly stretched at current levels rather than presenting a clear buying opportunity.
The range of price targets tells its own story. The high target of $130.00 implies meaningful upside for the most optimistic observers, likely those who place greater weight on the company’s long-term regulated earnings growth trajectory and its position as a core infrastructure holding in a densifying urban market. The low target of $86.00 reflects a more cautious view, probably anchored in concerns about valuation relative to peers, the pace of capital spending, and the pace at which the regulatory process will allow rate base growth to translate into earnings. With no recent specific analyst actions available, the consensus data is the clearest signal: analysts see Con Ed as a steady hold rather than a compelling add at these prices, which is consistent with the stock trading slightly above the mean target.
For dividend investors, the analyst hesitation around near-term price appreciation matters less than it might for growth-oriented holders. The “Hold” consensus doesn’t cast doubt on the dividend’s safety or the company’s operational execution. It simply reflects that at roughly $111 per share, much of the near-term good news appears to be reflected in the price.
Earning Report Summary
Consolidated Edison delivered full-year earnings of $5.72 per share, a solid result that continues the upward trend in adjusted EPS the company has maintained over recent years. The performance reflects disciplined execution within regulated rate plans and the benefits of ongoing infrastructure investment flowing back through the regulated asset base. Revenue for the trailing twelve months reached approximately $16.9 billion, and net income came in at just over $2.0 billion, supporting a profit margin of nearly 12%.
Full-Year Performance
The $5.72 EPS figure represents a meaningful step forward from the $5.40 per share that management had guided toward coming out of the prior year, and it reflects the benefit of rate plan execution and continued growth in the company’s regulated electric and gas operations. Return on equity of 8.77% and return on assets of 3.19% are characteristic of a capital-intensive regulated utility, where asset bases are large and returns are steady rather than dramatic. Operating cash flow of $4.80 billion was a standout figure, representing strong underlying cash generation from core operations.
Leadership’s Take
CEO Tim Cawley has consistently framed the company’s investment program around long-term reliability and the energy transition underway across New York. His emphasis on maintaining what Con Ed considers the most reliable electric service in the nation remains a central theme in how management communicates with investors and regulators alike. The company’s focus on electrification trends in transportation and buildings positions the regulated business to benefit from rising electricity demand in its service territory over the coming decade.
CFO Kirkland Andrews has maintained a clear message around capital discipline, ensuring that the pace of infrastructure spending is matched by appropriate financing activity that doesn’t compromise dividend sustainability or credit quality. The equity and debt management strategy reflects a management team that takes a measured approach to funding its ambitious capital program.
Looking Ahead
With EPS now running at $5.72 and a payout ratio that has actually tightened toward 59%, Con Ed heads into the remainder of 2026 with a stronger earnings cushion beneath its dividend than it has carried in recent memory. The regulatory environment and the outcome of pending rate cases remain the most consequential near-term variables for earnings visibility. Management’s long-standing guidance framework targeting mid-single-digit compound annual EPS growth remains consistent with the trajectory the company has been executing against, and there is no indication from current financial results that the strategy is off track.
Management Team
Consolidated Edison is led by Tim Cawley, who serves as Chairman, President, and CEO. He has spent decades with the company and has worked through its various operational layers, including time leading Orange and Rockland Utilities, one of Con Ed’s subsidiaries. His approach to leadership is measured and operationally grounded, with a consistent emphasis on grid reliability, long-term infrastructure investment, and the financial discipline required to keep a major regulated utility running smoothly through an evolving energy landscape. The decision in prior years to exit the Clean Energy Businesses and refocus entirely on regulated operations reflects the kind of strategic clarity that has characterized his tenure.
Kirkland B. Andrews serves as CFO and brings a pragmatic, balance-sheet-oriented perspective to the company’s capital allocation decisions. He has been a steady voice on the importance of funding infrastructure investment in a way that preserves dividend security and credit quality. The broader senior leadership team brings deep experience across legal, operations, investor relations, and treasury functions. This is not a management team chasing near-term catalysts. They are executing a long-cycle infrastructure strategy designed to compound earnings and dividends steadily over many years, and the financial results suggest that approach is working.
Valuation and Stock Performance
ED is currently trading at $110.92, just a few dollars below its 52-week high of $115.25 and well above the 52-week low of $94.96. The stock has made a meaningful recovery from that lower end of its range, reflecting renewed investor appetite for regulated utility stability in the current environment. For a company with a beta of just 0.39, the price action has been relatively constructive.
Valuation metrics tell a story of a fairly priced utility rather than a deep value opportunity. The trailing P/E of 19.39 is reasonable for a company of this quality and consistency, though it doesn’t leave much margin of safety for investors hoping for a discount entry. The price-to-book ratio of 1.66 against a book value of $66.99 per share is typical for a regulated utility with a large, growing rate base. The market cap of approximately $40 billion reflects the scale and essential nature of Con Ed’s operations. With the mean analyst price target of $108.38 sitting slightly below the current price, the market appears to be pricing in a modest premium for the dividend growth track record and the defensive characteristics that make ED a staple in income-oriented portfolios. For investors already holding the stock, the valuation supports continued ownership. For those considering a new position, patience for a better entry point may be warranted.
Risks and Considerations
The regulatory environment in New York remains one of the most consequential variables for Con Ed’s earnings trajectory. Rate case outcomes determine how much of the company’s substantial capital investment gets recovered through customer billing, and the political dynamics around utility rates in New York City and Westchester County have grown more complex in recent years. Any meaningful shortfall between what the company requests and what regulators approve could slow the pace of earnings growth and put modest pressure on the payout ratio, even if the dividend itself remains well covered.
Capital expenditure intensity is another consideration that warrants ongoing attention. Free cash flow was negative at approximately $145 million over the trailing twelve months, and while the company’s operating cash flow more than covers the dividend, the need to continuously access debt and equity markets to fund its infrastructure program introduces refinancing risk and dilution potential over time. Rising interest rates in prior cycles increased the cost of that external financing, and while the rate environment has shifted, the structural dependency on capital markets remains a feature of the business model that income investors should factor into their assessment.
Extreme weather and climate-related infrastructure stress continue to present operational risk for a utility serving one of the most densely populated urban environments in the country. The investments Con Ed is making in grid hardening and flood-resistant infrastructure are necessary and well-conceived, but they are expensive and ongoing. The pace of climate-related disruption in the Northeast means that the capital required to maintain reliability is unlikely to diminish over the coming decade, keeping pressure on free cash flow for the foreseeable future.
Finally, with short interest at approximately 9.2 million shares, there is a measurable population of investors making a bearish case on the stock. That level of short interest isn’t alarming for a company of Con Ed’s size and stability, but it does suggest that the valuation skepticism visible in analyst price targets has real money behind it in the market.
Final Thoughts
Consolidated Edison doesn’t aim to be flashy, and the February 2026 dividend increase to $0.888 per quarter is a fitting symbol of what the company is: consistent, deliberate, and committed to rewarding long-term shareholders through steady income growth. With operating cash flow of $4.80 billion, a payout ratio that has actually tightened to 59%, and EPS of $5.72 showing continued forward progress, the fundamental picture supporting the dividend is as solid as it has been in recent years.
The stock trading near the top of its 52-week range and slightly above the mean analyst price target means the entry point math requires some patience for valuation-conscious investors. But for those already holding ED as a core income position, the combination of a 50-plus year dividend growth streak, a freshly raised payout, and a management team with a clear long-term strategy continues to make a compelling case for staying the course.