Analysts say reducing the payout was inevitable.
The utility faults the agency's ruling on stranded costs. No matter, the outlook for shareholders is good. Since Pennsylvania enacted its electricity deregulation law in November 1996, Peco Energy's stock price has bounced around like a small plane in a thunderstorm. The fingerprints on the trigger, Peco officials said, belonged to the state Public Utility Commission, which voted in December to cut the company's request for compensation for the loss of its monopoly. Although analysts had predicted a dividend cut regardless of the PUC's ruling, there is no dispute that the commission's decision will make Peco's transition more painful than it might have been.