Good morning, and welcome to the Otter Tail Corporation's Second Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. We will hold a question-and-answer session after the prepared remarks. I will now turn the call over to the company for their opening comments.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. My name is Beth Eiken, and I'm Otter Tail Corporation's Manager of Investor Relations. Last night, we announced our second quarter financial results. Our complete earnings release and slides accompanying this call are available on our website at ottertail.com. A recording of this call will be available on our website later today. With me on the call today are Chuck MacFarlane, Otter Tail Corporation's President and CEO; and Todd Wahlund, Otter Tail Corporation's Vice President and CFO. Before we begin, I want to remind you that we will be making forward-looking statements during the course of this call. As noted on Slide 2, these statements represent our current views and expectations of future events. They are subject to risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ from those presented here. So please be advised against placing undue reliance on any of these statements. Our forward-looking statements are described in more detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which we encourage you to review. Otter Tail Corporation disclaims any duty to update or revise our forward-looking statements due to new information, future events, developments or otherwise. I will now turn the call over to Otter Tail Corporation's President and CEO, Mr. Chuck MacFarlane.

Thank you, Beth, and good morning, and welcome to our second quarter 2024 earnings call. Please refer to Slide 4 as I begin my comments on our quarterly performance. We are pleased with our second quarter financial results. Diluted earnings per share increased 6% to $2.07 per share, compared to the same time last year, driven by strong financial performance within our Plastics and Manufacturing segments. Plastics segment earnings increased 9% from the second quarter of 2023 due to higher sales volumes driven by customer sales volume growth and distributor and end market demand. This was partially offset by lower pipe prices. Manufacturing segment earnings increased 15%, primarily driven by higher margins at BTD. Electric segment earnings increased 6% from the same time last year or decreased 6% from the same time last year, primarily due to the impact of unfavorable weather. We are increasing our 2024 earnings guidance to the range of $6.77 to $7.07, from our previous range of $6.23 to $6.53, primarily due to the strength of our Plastics segment. In a moment, Todd will provide a more detailed discussion of our second quarter financial results and our updated earnings expectations for 2024. Slide 5 shows our expected five-year compounded annual growth rate and earnings per share with and without the impact of our Plastics segment, through the end of 2024 based on the midpoint of our updated earnings guidance. Even without the impact of extraordinary results generated by our Plastics segment over the last few years, we expect to produce a compounded annual growth rate in earnings per share from 2019 through 2024 of 8.3%. Turning to our electric segment. Slide 7 provides an overview of our electric operations. Our regulated electric utility announced a sizable five-year capital spending plan earlier this year, with significant amounts…

Thank you, Chuck, and good morning, everyone. We delivered record second quarter earnings generating diluted earnings per share of $2.07, a 6% increase over the same time last year. Our Plastics segment continues to perform very well, capitalizing on customer sales volume growth, and distributor and end market demand, while sales prices continue to remain elevated relative to historical levels. Due to the continued strength within our Plastics segment, we have increased the midpoint of our 2024 earnings guidance by 8%. Please follow along on Slide 26, as I begin with an overview of our second quarter financial results by segment. Electric segment earnings decreased 6% from the second quarter of 2023, driven by the impact of unfavorable weather and lower transmission revenue, partially offset by the interim rate increase in North Dakota stemming from our general rate case filing, lower operating and maintenance expenses, and higher commercial and industrial sales. Manufacturing segment earnings increased 15% compared to the second quarter of 2023, primarily due to higher margins at BTD Manufacturing, driven by the positive impact from the timing of pass-through steel cost fluctuations, and the selling of lower cost inventory, as well as a favorable product mix compared to the same time last year. This was partially offset by lower sales volumes at both of our manufacturing businesses, lower profit margins at T.O. Plastics, and lower scrap sales at BTD. Like Chuck mentioned, despite the strong quarterly financial performance, our manufacturing segment continues to face end market demand related headwinds, and we anticipate conditions to soften further as the year progresses. Sales volumes decreased at BTD in the second quarter of 2024 compared to the same time last year, primarily in the lawn and garden, and agriculture end markets. The outlook for the end markets BTD serves is softening,…

[Operator Instructions] : :

As there are no questions in the queue, I'll turn the call back to Chuck for closing remarks.

Thank you for joining our call and your interest in Otter Tail Corporation. If any questions, please reach out to our Investor Relations team. We look forward to speaking with you next quarter.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for putting your participation. You may now disconnect.