SCANA Withdraws Abandonment Petition For Nuclear Project

SCANA Corporation’s (NYSE:SCG) principal subsidiary, South Carolina Electric & Gas Company (SCE&G), has announced that it will voluntarily withdraw its Abandonment Petition from the Public Service Commission of South Carolina that was made under the Base Load Review Act (BLRA), concerning SCE&G’s new nuclear project.

This followed two weeks after the company said that it would stop operations on the project owing to increasing expenses. Over the past two weeks, SCE&G’s management has held discussions with various stakeholders and members of the South Carolina General Assembly, including legislative leaders, to talk about the abandonment of the new nuclear project and to listen to their concerns.

SCANA and partner, Santee Cooper, had already spent $9 billion on the project when it decided to terminate it. The decision attracted tremendous criticism. However, last week, rumors were making rounds relating to SCANA’s withdrawal of its abandonment plan.

The company’s decision to withdraw the petition is based on concerns heard from state lawmakers and others.

SCANA’s operations include generation, transmission, distribution and sale of electricity to retail and wholesale customers in South Carolina. The company also purchases, sells and transports natural gas to retail customers in South Carolina and southeastern Georgia. It provides energy-related risk management services and acquires, owns, and provides financing for nuclear fuel, fossil fuel, and emission allowances. In addition, it offers fiber optic communications, Ethernet services and data center facilities. SCANA also builds, manages and leases communications towers in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. The company services contracts on home appliances and heating and air conditioning units.

Over the last three months, shares of SCANA have lost 5% compared with the industry’s gain of 3.3%.

SCANA currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Some better-ranked stocks in the same space are Range Resources Corp. (NYSE:RRC) , Braskem S.A. (NYSE:BAK) and TransCanada Corp. (TO:TRP) . All these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Range Resources delivered a positive earnings surprise of 250.00% in the preceding quarter. The company beat estimates in three of the trailing four quarters with an average negative earnings surprise of 94.22%.

Braskem delivered a positive earnings surprise of 107.79% in the quarter ending September 2016.

TransCanada delivered a positive earnings surprise of 12.00% in the preceding quarter. It surpassed estimates in two of the trailing four quarters with an average positive earnings surprise of 4.06%.

The Hottest Tech Mega-Trend of All

Last year, it generated $8 billion in global revenues. By 2020, it's predicted to blast through the roof to $47 billion. Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce "the world's first trillionaires," but that should still leave plenty of money for regular investors who make the right trades early. See Zacks' 3 Best Stocks to Play This Trend >>