Dean Martin’s classic song, “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” is one of my favorite winter tunes. When temps are cold, demand for heat (which means demand for natural gas) soars. Keeping up with that nat gas demand, and providing it at a very nice profit to shareholders, is Oklahoma City-based Expand Energy Corp. (EXE), writes Jim Woods, editor of Investing Edge.
The 2025/2026 winter season is shaping up to be one of the coldest in decades, and that means people are going to be dealing with the reality of Old Man Winter’s wrath. I reside in sunny Southern California, but even here the winter mornings are chilly. And because I’m an admitted weather wimp, temps south of about 70 degrees prompt me to turn on my heater (yes, you can laugh now).
Expand is an independent natural gas producer in the US. The company is focused on developing and selling the supply of natural gas, oil, and natural gas liquids (LNG). Its operations are located in the shale reserves of Louisiana, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio – and include interests in approximately 8,000 gross natural gas and oil wells.
Expand Energy Corp. (EXE)
Expand was formed in 2024, but it’s by no means a newbie on the scene. In fact, the company was born out of the merger of Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy, which made it the largest natural gas producer.
In terms of one of the key metrics I use when selecting stocks, earnings per share growth, EXE is cooking with gas. In Q3 2025, Expand reported incredible EPS growth of 506% versus the same quarter a year earlier! Yes, you read that correctly — a five-fold increase over the prior year’s quarter!
Part of that increase was in anticipation of cold weather, but that’s not the only reason for the spike. It’s also because of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the demand for nat gas used to power huge data centers churning out those massive, large-language models (LLMs). And while the future of the AI buildout in 2026 has been a hot topic of conversation, my opinion is that the money will keep pouring in — and that means more and more energy demand.
If you want to own a company with multiple factors driving demand for its core product – one that also delivers a healthy dividend yield that’s north of 2% -- it may be time to expand your holdings with Expand Energy.
Recommended Action: Buy EXE.
