Key Takeaways
- Duke Energy yields 3.8% and Consolidated Edison 3.5%, and both raised their dividends about 2% a year from fiscal 2020 to fiscal 2025.
- Consolidated Edison paid out 60% of its fiscal 2025 normalized EPS, against 67% at Duke Energy, and analysts expect both ratios to dip in fiscal 2026.
- Duke Energy carries more debt, at 5.4x net debt to EBITDA against 4.3x for Consolidated Edison, as it builds new generation for data centers.
- $10,000 invested today pays $380 a year at Duke Energy and $350 at Consolidated Edison.
Consolidated Edison (ED) has raised its dividend for 52 straight years. Its latest increase, 4.4% on the annualized payout, was more than twice the 2.1% a year it averaged from fiscal 2020 to fiscal 2025.
That’s a tough act for Duke Energy (DUK) to follow. Duke raised its quarterly dividend 2% in July, in line with recent years, but it still pays the bigger yield: 3.8% to Con Edison’s 3.5%.
Both pay for their building with new debt and stock, so I’ll judge each dividend on its share of normalized earnings. Which one is the better dividend stock?
| Metric | Duke Energy (DUK) | Consolidated Edison (ED) |
|---|---|---|
| Dividend yield | 3.8% | 3.5% |
| Dividend growth, fiscal 2020–2025 | 2.0% a year | 2.1% a year |
| Record (company’s own count) | Over 20 years of annual raises | 52 straight years of raises |
| Payout ratio of normalized EPS, fiscal 2025 | 67% | 60% |
| Payout ratio of normalized EPS, fiscal 2026 consensus | 65% | 58% |
| Net debt / EBITDA, LTM | 5.4x | 4.3x |
| Interest coverage (EBIT / interest), LTM | 2.35x | 2.93x |
Duke Energy is building for data centers
Duke’s growth story is data centers. It has signed 7.8 gigawatts of electric service agreements with data center customers. To serve them, it’s in a record generation build, aiming for 15 gigawatts of capacity by 2031.
That’s showing up in earnings. Adjusted EPS rose to $1.43 in the second quarter of 2026 from $1.25 a year earlier, and Duke reaffirmed 2026 guidance of $6.55 to $6.80. It expects adjusted EPS to grow 5% to 7% a year through 2030, off 2025’s $6.30 midpoint.
The dividend is growing more slowly than that. Duke called July’s 2% raise “consistent with growth in recent years.” Earnings outpacing the payout pulled its payout ratio down from 76.9% of normalized EPS in fiscal 2018 to 66.9% in fiscal 2025…
Analysts expect 65% for fiscal 2026, a manageable level for a utility. The risks are the ones Duke names itself: finishing its capital projects, and recovering those costs through rate cases on time.
Con Edison is betting on electrification
Duke’s growth comes from data centers. Con Edison’s comes from New York’s push to electrify buildings and transportation. Requests for electric demand at new buildings are up 20% to 25%, and the company projects its average investment earnings base will grow 8.8% a year over five years.
Adjusted EPS rose to $0.83 in the second quarter of 2026 from $0.67 a year earlier, and Con Edison reaffirmed 2026 guidance of $6.00 to $6.20.
Its payout ratio has fallen further than Duke’s. It went from 73.2% of normalized EPS in fiscal 2020 to 59.6% in fiscal 2025, as normalized EPS climbed from $4.18 to $5.70…
On fiscal 2026 consensus, it’s a well-covered 58%. The main risk is New York’s regulators: Con Edison names the chance that its utilities’ rate plans won’t provide a reasonable return. CEO Tim Cawley says the company is “redoubling our efforts to keep our service affordable for all customers.”
So which dividend wins?
Consolidated Edison is the better dividend stock. What decides it for me is the room under each dividend. Con Edison’s payout ratio is 60% of fiscal 2025 normalized EPS and 58% on fiscal 2026 consensus, against Duke’s 67% and 65%. It has 52 straight years of raises behind it. And its latest raise, 4.4%, was more than double Duke’s 2%.
It also carries less debt. Duke’s leverage has eased from 5.9x net debt to EBITDA in fiscal 2023 to 5.5x in fiscal 2025, and it stands at 5.4x over the last twelve months. Con Edison’s is 4.3x…
And Duke is lining up new stock to pay for its build. “We are taking a proactive approach to equity funding, locking in attractive pricing today to derisk our future equity needs,” CFO Brian Savoy said on the second-quarter call.
This isn’t to say Duke’s dividend is in trouble. It pays the bigger check: $380 a year on $10,000, against $350 at Con Edison. At each company’s five-year pace, $10,000 in Duke would pay about $455 in year 10, a 4.5% yield on your cash today. At those paces, Con Edison wouldn’t catch up for more than 30 years. Duke has also paid a quarterly cash dividend for 100 years in a row.
It’s just that the five-year math has Con Edison going back to 2.1% a year, after a 4.4% raise. For a dividend I’m counting on for decades, I’ll take the one with more room under it.
Of course, if Duke’s data center build pays off and it earns in the top half of that 5% to 7% range from 2028, as it expects to, its payout ratio could keep falling and leave room for bigger raises.
So what is Consolidated Edison stock actually worth?
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