The company that sends electric bills to New York City has a dividend of its own to send. Consolidated Edison declared a quarterly dividend of 88.75 cents a share on October 15, payable Tuesday, December 15, to stockholders of record as of Wednesday, November 18.
Fifty-two raises in a row
The 88.75-cent payout is not new. Con Edison set it in January, when the company announced that the yearly total would rise by 15 cents a share, from $3.40 to $3.55. The company called it the 52nd consecutive annual dividend increase.
Con Edison says that is the longest such streak of any utility in the S&P 500. The October declaration carries that January rate forward. Four payments at 88.75 cents make $3.55 a share.
The first payment at the new rate was payable March 16 to holders of record on February 18. The December 15 payment closes out the 2026 cycle, and a holder who stayed in through the year collects 88.75 cents each quarter.
For a retiree who owns 400 shares, one payment comes to $355 and the year comes to $1,420. The annual figure is the one the company raised: the previous $3.40 on the same 400 shares would have been $1,360, so the raise adds $60.
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Who the dividend pays for
The stock belongs to a holding company with three subsidiaries. Consolidated Edison Company of New York, known as CECONY, provides electric service in New York City and Westchester County, gas service in Manhattan, the Bronx and parts of Queens and Westchester, and steam service in Manhattan.
Orange and Rockland Utilities serves a 1,300-square-mile area of southeastern New York and northern New Jersey. Con Edison Transmission, the third unit, develops and owns interests in electric transmission projects and falls mainly under Federal Energy Regulatory Commission oversight.
Con Edison says its New York electric and gas rate plans include revenue decoupling, so revenues are generally not affected by changes in how much energy customers use. Gas and steam sales in the CECONY territory also carry a weather normalization clause. Both features cut the swing in earnings that cold or mild weather would otherwise cause.
Earnings run about $6 a share
Con Edison’s second-quarter results, reported August 6, showed net income of $308 million, or 83 cents a share. A year earlier the adjusted figure was $240 million, or 67 cents. The company reaffirmed adjusted earnings of $6.00 to $6.20 a share for 2026.
Against that range, the $3.55 dividend uses about 57% to 59% of a year’s earnings. That ratio comes from the two published figures, not from a number the company stated. It leaves roughly $2.45 to $2.65 a share for the business after dividends.
Over the first six months, GAAP net income was $1,232 million against $1,038 million a year earlier. CECONY added $62 million of that, Orange and Rockland added $6 million, and the transmission unit added $130 million, mainly from the pipeline sale. Base rate increases at Orange and Rockland contributed $3 million on electric and $2 million on gas in the second quarter.
The first six months produced adjusted earnings of $3.00 a share, up from $2.91. Reported earnings were higher at $3.37 a share, because the figure included a gain from selling the company’s equity stake in the Mountain Valley Pipeline. That gain was $189 million before tax, or 37 cents a share after tax, and it is excluded from the adjusted numbers.
Chairman and chief executive Tim Cawley said in the release that “Con Edison continues to deliver nation-leading electric service reliability.” The second-quarter gain at CECONY, up $74 million, came from a higher electric rate base, the timing of a rate increase in billing and a higher gas rate base.
The company also described a build-out ahead. Chief financial officer Kirk Andrews said the company expects 28 new substations in service by 2035, and management listed tens of billions of dollars in other planned capital investment, covering reliability and preparing the network for extreme heat.
The raise itself was modest in percentage terms. Moving from $3.40 to $3.55 a year is a 4.4%% increase. Second-quarter adjusted earnings of 83 cents a share were up about 24%% from 67 cents, a much faster pace than the dividend has grown.
Half of the $3.55 annual dividend is $1.775 a share, and adjusted earnings for the first six months were $3.00. The first-half payout therefore ran near 59%%, in line with the full-year range. The reaffirmed $6.00 to $6.20 guidance implies the second half has to deliver roughly $3.00 to $3.20 more.
The timeline is long. The board declared the dividend on October 15, the record date comes 34 days later on November 18, and the cash goes out 27 days after that on December 15. From declaration to payment is 61 days, with the third-quarter earnings report landing in the middle.
The next dates on the calendar
Con Edison reports third-quarter earnings on Thursday, November 5, after the market closes. That is 13 days before the record date. The dividend itself is already declared, so the results do not change the December 15 payment.
Is the December 15 Con Edison payment in the winter bill plan?
A utility dividend runs on the board’s schedule, but heating and electric bills run on the customer’s. Retirees who plan around the December 15 payment can also look at help with those bills, which is a separate application with its own cutoff.
The Benefits Checklist covers 11 benefit programs, including heating help and free weatherization in Part 4, with the 2026 income limits and a 50-state phone directory for the offices that take applications. A printable application tracker comes with it, so each form has a line and a date.
Get the Benefits Checklist, with its heating-help section and 50-state phone directory →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
