Earnings Labs

Otter Tail Corporation (OTTR)

Q4 2025 Earnings Call· Tue, Feb 17, 2026

$89.12

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Otter Tail Corporation's Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]. I will now turn the call over to the company for their opening comments.

Beth Eiken

Analyst

Good morning, and welcome to our fourth quarter 2025 earnings conference call. My name is Beth Eiken and I'm Otter Tail Corporation's Manager of Investor Relations. Last night, we announced our fourth quarter and annual 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 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.

Chuck MacFarlane

Analyst

Thank you, Beth. Good morning, and welcome to our fourth quarter earnings call. Please refer to Slide 4 as I begin my remarks with an overview of recent highlights. We are pleased with our 2025 financial results as they exceeded our original expectations for the year. Our team members continue to deliver for our customers and shareholders amidst dynamic market conditions. I am grateful for their efforts throughout the year. Otter Tail Power continued to deliver on our significant rate base growth plan while executing on our regulatory priorities. Interim rates went into effect December 1 in South Dakota, and we obtained approval from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to implement interim rates beginning on January 1. Phase 2 of Vinyltech's expansion project continued to progress as well. And we expect the new line to be fully operational in early 2026, and we look forward to bringing this incremental capacity online. Earlier this year, we increased our dividend by 10%, producing an annual indicated dividend of $2.31 per share. This was the second year in a row we announced a double-digit increase to our dividend, reflecting our financial health and commitment to delivering value and returning capital to our shareholders. 2026 will mark the 88th consecutive year we have paid dividends to our shareholders without interruption or reduction. Slide 5 provides a summary of our quarter to date and annual earnings. For the year, we produced diluted earnings per share of $6.55, a decrease of 9% from last year. The decrease in earnings was expected as our earnings from our Plastics segment receded from record levels achieved last year. We ended 2025 in a position of financial strength with a strong balance sheet and ample liquidity to fund our customer-focused growth plan. We are initiating our 2026 diluted earnings per…

Todd Wahlund

Analyst

Thank you, Chuck, and good morning, everyone. Turning to Slide 19. We are pleased with our consolidated 2025 financial results. We generated $6.55 of diluted earnings per share, which was towards the upper end of our 2025 earnings guidance range. Please follow along on Slides 20 and 21 as I provide an overview of annual financial results by segment. Electric segment earnings increased over 7% year-over-year with an increase of $0.16 per share. The increase in earnings was driven by a recovery of our increased rate base investments, higher residential and commercial sales volumes, the impact of favorable weather relative to 2024 and lower operating and maintenance expenses through prudent cost management related efforts. While weather conditions were slightly negative in 2025 compared to normal levels, they were much closer to normal levels than the mild 2024. These drivers were partially offset by higher depreciation and interest expense related to our rate base investments and associated financing costs. Manufacturing segment earnings decreased $0.06 per share or 16% year-over-year, primarily driven by lower sales volumes, the impact of product mix on average pricing and higher SG&A expenses. Sales volumes were negatively impacted by soft end market demand and inventory management efforts by manufacturers and dealers throughout 2025. These drivers were partially offset by lower production costs as our team members did a great job aligning our cost structure with the current demand environment. We finished the year strong with higher year-over-year sales volumes in Q4, and this momentum is carrying into 2026. Turning to Slide 21. Plastics segment earnings decreased $0.72 per share or 15% year-over-year as earnings receded from the historic high reached in 2024. The decrease in earnings was largely driven by lower average sales prices. Sales prices decreased 15% from the 2024 average. We continue to offset some…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] There are currently no questions in the queue, but we will wait a brief moment in case anyone is experiencing technical difficulties. As there are still no questions in the queue. I will turn the call back to Chuck for his closing remarks.

Chuck MacFarlane

Analyst

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

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.