NextEra Energy Inc. (NEE) reported second-quarter 2026 results on July 24 with higher earnings per share and a 2026 outlook that stayed in place. The company has also set a date for its third-quarter report, which will come before the New York Stock Exchange opens on October 21, 2026. That gives readers a fixed point to check against. This piece walks through the second-quarter figures, the trailing numbers in our own data, the backlog, and the announcements made since the quarter closed.

Second-quarter earnings rose on both measures

GAAP net income attributable to NextEra Energy was $3.144 billion in the second quarter of 2026, or $1.50 per share on a diluted basis. A year earlier it was $2.028 billion, or $0.98 per share. Diluted per-share figures count the extra shares created by stock options, convertible securities and similar instruments. That count lowers earnings per share compared with a simple share count.

Adjusted net income, the company's non-GAAP measure, was $2.407 billion, or $1.15 per share, against $2.164 billion, or $1.05 per share, a year earlier. Adjusted measures leave out items the company identifies as outside its core results. As calculated by Trend & Ticker, adjusted EPS rose 9.5% and GAAP EPS rose 53.1%.

Operating revenues were $7.534 billion, up from $6.700 billion. As calculated by Trend & Ticker, that is growth of 12.4%. Net income grew faster than revenue in the period, so each dollar of sales carried more profit than it did a year earlier.

Chart one plots EPS for the second quarters of 2025 and 2026 on both bases. GAAP EPS moved from $0.98 to $1.50, and adjusted EPS moved from $1.05 to $1.15. In 2025 adjusted EPS sat $0.07 above GAAP EPS. In 2026 GAAP EPS sat $0.35 above adjusted EPS, and most of the gap between the two growth rates comes from that reversal. View NextEra Energy financial data

The reversal is arithmetic rather than a forecast. When GAAP EPS sits above adjusted EPS, the items the company removes from the adjusted measure added to profit in that quarter. The release figures used here do not name those items in a way this piece can verify, so the piece does not describe them.

Trailing figures, margins and debt

Our dossier for NextEra Energy carries trailing twelve-month figures that run through the first quarter of 2026, so they do not yet include the second quarter. Over that period revenue was $26.0 billion, up 8.3% from the year before. Net income was $8.2 billion.

Operating margin, which is operating income as a share of revenue, came to 31.7%. Net margin, which is net income as a share of revenue, came to 31.5%. Both margins are as calculated by Trend & Ticker from those inputs.

The second-quarter revenue growth of 12.4% is faster than the 8.3% trailing rate. As the second quarter replaces the same quarter a year earlier in the twelve-month window, the trailing growth figure will move. The direction of that move is visible in the quarterly numbers above.

Chart two sets trailing revenue of $26.0 billion beside net income of $8.2 billion, with both margins shown alongside. It uses the same dossier inputs as the text. View NextEra Energy financial data

Debt is the largest figure on the balance sheet in our data. The dossier records $103.1 billion of debt against $2.0 billion of cash. As calculated by Trend & Ticker, net debt is $101.1 billion, and debt is about 52 times cash.

Chart three compares those two balance sheet lines, debt and cash, at the dossier date. The gap between the two bars is the clearest point the chart makes. View NextEra Energy financial data

The dossier records an annual dividend of $2.33 per share. The board declared a quarterly dividend on July 30, 2026, according to the company's news release list. The declared amount is not in our data, so this piece does not state it.

Backlog and the 2026 outlook

The company's second-quarter release put its renewable and storage development backlog at about 35.1 gigawatts. Coverage of the results reported that the company added 3.6 gigawatts in the quarter, including 2 gigawatts of battery storage. The same coverage reported that 1.1 gigawatts entered commercial operation after the first-quarter update.

A backlog is a pipeline of projects, not revenue. Projects in it turn into earnings only after they reach commercial operation, which is why the 1.1 gigawatts that moved into operation matters more to near-term results than the added figure does.

The release gave the backlog as an approximate figure. A change of a few tenths of a gigawatt from one report to the next would say little on its own. A move of a full gigawatt or more would be easier to read as a real change in the pipeline.

The release gave a 2026 adjusted EPS range of $3.92 to $4.02. As calculated by Trend & Ticker, the second-quarter adjusted figure of $1.15 equals 29.0% of that range's midpoint of $3.97. A reader can set the quarter against the full-year range without any other input.

Coverage also reported that the company kept its long-term target of adjusted EPS growth above 8% a year through 2032. That target is a company statement, and the figures in this piece do not test it.

Announcements since the quarter closed

On August 12, the company said it had finalized commercial terms with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Government of Japan for up to 10 gigawatts of gas-powered generation. It also reported reaching a funding milestone for the project.

On September 8, the company's news list records a Department of Energy loan of up to $1.9 billion to restart the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa. A loan for a single plant does not change the consolidated figures in our dossier, so it sits outside the numbers this piece uses. On September 30, the Department of Commerce and the Government of the Republic of Korea announced a strategic investment in Project Star, a $22.3 billion energy campus in Encinal, Texas.

On October 1 the company announced its participation in the Wolfe Research utilities conference. On October 7 it announced that its third-quarter results will come before the New York Stock Exchange opens on October 21. The company set a webcast for 9 a.m. Eastern that day.

What the October 21 report has to answer

Three questions will shape how readers read that report. The first is whether adjusted EPS keeps rising at the pace of the second quarter, when it grew 9.5%. The second is whether the backlog moves above 35.1 gigawatts once the Japan gas project and the Texas campus are counted. The third is whether the 2026 range of $3.92 to $4.02 holds.

Our data cannot answer the debt question. The summary figures in our dossier show total debt only. They do not show how the $103.1 billion is spread across existing plants, the backlog and the new campuses. Readers will need the company's filings for that split.

Readers who want to compare the two reports can keep the same four lines in view: GAAP EPS, adjusted EPS, operating revenue, and the backlog in gigawatts. Holding those lines fixed makes any change in the company's reporting easy to see. It also keeps the comparison anchored to the company's own releases and the figures in our data.

The next dated check is the release on October 21, 2026, which the company says will come before the New York Stock Exchange opens.