Dominion Energy (D)

The sleeper story is that data center pipeline growth has quietly stalled this quarter, just +1GW sequentially to 54GW, even as management's 'since year-end' framing (+13% vs +11%) makes it sound like acceleration; the real conversion metric, exact signed ESA gigawatts, still isn't disclosed. The obvious headline is a clean EPS beat and CVOW at 85% complete, but the binding constraint is regulatory, not operational: three state merger dockets, a Governor intervener, and 57 SCC staff conditions now stand between Dominion and a 2H27 close, and management won't discuss the ring-fencing specifics analysts actually care about, as Bob Blue put it, 'I can hope you understand why I wouldn't want to be getting into the details of that... on the Friday before we file our rebuttal testimony'. Layer on a CFO openly describing an O&M 'lever' to hit guidance and pre-fund future years, plus a quiet $55M-plus cut to the Millstone savings outlook, and this reads like a management team managing optics around a binary regulatory event. My view changes if the November 17 Virginia hearing produces a settlement or the SCC staff's 57 conditions get meaningfully narrowed before the January 11 order deadline.