But in the unregulated business, we know that 2011 profitmargins will drop because the company has already sold that power at a lower rate than last year.
Nonetheless, trade at its Primark stores was more intense than expected, which - along with lower than expected manufacturing costs due to a drop in cotton prices - helped the chain achieve better operating profitmargins than a year ago.
Investors still seem to believe there is more value in the stock than in Research in Motion, which has seen multiples drop to just 3-times trailing earnings while Earthlink is trading at around 21x despite net profitmargins in the third quarter of just over 2%.