Otter Tail Corporation (OTTR) Q2 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good morning, and welcome to Otter Tail Corporation's Second Quarter 2026 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.

Good morning, and welcome to our second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. My name is Beth Eiken, and I'm Otter Tail Corporation's Manager of Investor Relations. Last night, we announced our Q2 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 CEO; Tim Rogelstad, Otter Tail Corporation's President; and Tyler Nelson, 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. We will be referencing certain adjusted financial measures or non-GAAP measures throughout this call, including adjusted net income, adjusted earnings per share and adjusted return on equity. For more information, please refer to our quarterly earnings release and the non-GAAP reconciliations included in the appendix of our earnings presentation. 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 CEO, Mr. Chuck MacFarlane.

Thanks, Beth. Good morning, and welcome to our second quarter earnings call. Please refer to Slide 4 as I begin my remarks with a summary of quarterly highlights. Our team advanced our strategic initiatives during the second quarter, delivering on near-term priorities for the benefit of our customers and shareholders. Otter Tail Power continues to execute on our regulatory agenda. We secured route permits for two of our large regional transmission projects, marking an important milestone in the development of these reliability-driven investments. We also filed our 15-year Integrated Resource Plan with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. The IRP outlines our preferred plan for meeting our Minnesota customers' future capacity and energy needs. We believe the requested resources will position us well to continue delivering low-cost, reliable electric service. Our Manufacturing and Plastics segment team members successfully capitalized on opportunities for higher sales volumes from the additional capacity recently added at our Georgia and Arizona facilities. Slide 5 provides a summary of our financial results. We produced adjusted diluted earnings per share of $1.66 compared to $1.85 last year. The expected decrease in earnings was primarily driven by Plastics segment performance as the average sales price of our PVC pipe continued to recede. We are initiating an adjusted diluted earnings per share guidance range of $5.68 to $6.08, which excludes the after-tax impact of the PVC pipe legal settlement. This reflects an increase from our original 2026 earnings guidance range of $5.22 to $5.62. Following my operational update, Tyler will provide a detailed discussion of our adjusted quarterly financial results and the outlook for the remainder of the year. Transitioning now to my operational update for Otter Tail Power beginning on Slide 7. During the second quarter, we, along with other parties to the Minnesota rate case, requested to extend the procedural schedule to provide more time to respond and review discovery requests. The Minnesota Commission approved the request and the revised procedural schedule is presented on the slide. We submitted our rebuttal testimony late last month. In the filing, we amended our requested net revenue increase to $42.3 million from $44.8 million due to an updated test year information. Our team continues to work towards reaching a constructive outcome. Separately, we are finalizing our annual cost of service analysis and we'll evaluate if a rate case filing is warranted in any of our other jurisdictions. Turning to Slide 8. We filed our 15-year Integrated Resource Plan with the Minnesota Commission in May. Our preferred plan recommends adding a 50-megawatt natural gas facility in 2031 or 2032, a 50-megawatt wind facility in 2035 and another 50-megawatt wind facility in 2040. Our preferred plan also reflects the completion of the projects currently under development or construction from our previously approved resource plan. We expect a hearing and a final order on the IRP in Q2 of 2027. Turning to Slide 9. We are reaffirming our 5-year rate base compounded annual growth rate of 10% and continue to expect Otter Tail Power's earnings to grow at a similar rate over the planning period. We remain confident in our ability to deliver on our growth plan. We are focused on project execution in an effort to minimize development risk and manage construction time lines and costs. As a reminder, our plan is not dependent on securing a large load, and this remains an incremental opportunity to what is already a robust plan. Slides 10 and 11 provide an overview of ongoing and future capital projects. Our 2 solar projects are under construction and are progressing well. We anticipate Solway Solar becoming operational in the first half of 2027 and Abercrombie Solar in 2028. Our battery storage project remains under development, and we continue to target bringing this storage facility online in 2028. Development work also continues on our large regional transmission projects. We secured route permits for both of our MISO Tranche 1 345 kV projects during the second quarter with the 2 transmission lines spanning nearly 200 miles in total. Turning to Slide 12. Otter Tail Power remains well positioned to attract and support large loads. We continue to engage with a diverse set of companies interested in adding new loads to our system. Phase 1 of our pipeline increases by approximately 350 megawatts and now totals 1,400 megawatts. Approximately 35% of the total load opportunity relates to a data center with the remaining megawatts relating to clean fuel and thermal storage. The diversity of our pipeline is a strength as each load has different needs. For example, the clean fuel and thermal storage opportunities are interruptible, giving us flexibility while still providing an opportunity for significant growth. Additionally, our team filed large load tariffs with the Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota commissions during the second quarter. The tariff structure are structured with our existing customers and shareholders in mind, including long-term contract periods and required financial guarantees to avoid stranded costs. Any costs associated with the new large loads would be directly assigned to the new customer and a portion of our fixed costs would be allocated to the new load. This allocation would produce a rate credit for existing customers as we are able to distribute our fixed costs across a larger customer base. Providing low-cost electric service to our customers has been and always will be a priority of ours. As Slide 13 illustrates, Otter Tail Power's electric rates have remained well below the national and regional average for many years, and we remain committed to managing customer bill increases. Looking ahead, we project bills to increase between 3% and 4% on a compounded annual growth rate over the current 5-year planning period. This is made possible by MISO system-wide recovery for our transmission investments, the availability of renewable energy tax credits, reduced energy purchases and other factors as well as thoughtful planning and effective project execution. Transitioning to our manufacturing platform. Slide 15 provides an overview of the industry conditions impacting Manufacturing segment volumes. Industry conditions are improving in many of the end markets we serve. Our team is well positioned to respond to the increase in demand and effectively leverage the added capacity in Georgia. The recreational vehicle and lawn and garden end markets have largely stabilized and our horticulture end market remains stable. The construction end market continues to improve as our OEM customers are seeing an increase in demand for their products. The industrial end market remains strong as the products we manufacture are used to support the growing energy demand. In contrast, agriculture industry conditions remain challenging due to the weak farm economy with elevated costs, lower relative commodity prices and ongoing trade disruption. Slide 16 provides an overview of our Plastics segment pricing and volume trends. The average sales price of our PVC pipe continued to decline during the second quarter from the same time last year, but at a slower rate, decreasing by 14%. Sales volumes increased 15% from the same time last year, surpassing our expectations for the quarter. As we shared during our Q1 earnings call, we believe our customers sought to secure additional PVC pipe in advance of announced resin price increases. Our team did an excellent job responding to the pull forward in demand, effectively leveraging the expanded capacity at our Phoenix facility and selling more pipe during Q2 than any quarter before. Separately, we entered into settlement agreements with the 3 classes in the U.S. PVC pipe antitrust litigation during the second quarter, and the court has preliminarily approved these agreements. If final approval is granted by the court in Q4, the settlement agreements will resolve all claims arising from these classes. While not admitting any wrongdoing, fault or liability, we agreed to pay $103.5 million to resolve the litigation and concluded settling was in the best interest of the company and our shareholders. The settlements meaningfully reduced the uncertainty, distraction and significant costs and exposure associated with complex antitrust litigation and most importantly, allows our team members to remain focused on what we do best, serving our customers. With that, I will now turn it over to Tyler to provide his financial update.

Thanks, Chuck, and good morning, everyone. Turning to Slide 18. We generated adjusted diluted earnings per share of $1.66 during the second quarter, a 10% decrease from the same time last year. The expected decline in earnings was primarily from our Plastics segment as we continue on the glide path to earnings levels more in line with our long-term expectations. In addition, corporate costs were higher in the period. As a reminder, our adjusted results exclude the after-tax impact of the legal settlement charges recognized in the second quarter, which amounted to $1.84 per share. Please follow along on Slides 19 and 20 as I provide an overview of our second quarter results by segment. Electric segment earnings decreased slightly from the same time last year. We benefited from higher electric rates from recent rate case activity, including interim rates in Minnesota and final rates in South Dakota. In addition, the timely recovery of our rate base investments, net of the incremental depreciation and financing costs positively impacted our quarterly results. Finally, we also benefited from increased commercial and industrial sales volumes during the period. As expected, operating and maintenance costs were higher in the second quarter compared to last year, largely from the planned outage at one of our coal facilities and the timing of vegetation management expenses. Higher labor costs in 2026 also contributed to higher O&M expense in the period. Manufacturing segment earnings increased $0.03 per share or 38%. This increase was primarily driven by higher margins due to a favorable product mix. Our strategy of providing value-added service to our customers through our full suite of fabrication capabilities provides margin expansion opportunities. Beyond product mix, increased sales volumes within the construction, recreational vehicle and horticulture end markets also contributed to our quarterly results. Partially offsetting these items were higher operating costs in the business, including from performance-based compensation. Turning to Slide 20. Adjusted Plastics segment earnings decreased $0.14 per share or 11%, primarily due to lower pipe sales prices, partially offset by higher sales volumes. These adjusted financial results outpaced our expectations. While the average sales price of our PVC pipe continues to recede, the rate of decline moderated during the second quarter due to the strong demand for our products. Corporate costs increased $0.07 per share, primarily due to the internal allocation of interim tax expense and an increase in employee compensation costs. Turning to Slide 21. We continue to be in a position of financial strength. Our equity layer as a percentage of total capital was 60% at the end of June, and we had over $600 million of available liquidity, including $278 million of cash and cash equivalents. It is the strength of our balance sheet that allows us to fund our current rate base growth plan without any external equity needs. On Slide 22, we are initiating an adjusted diluted earnings per share guidance range of $5.68 to $6.08. This range excludes the after-tax impact of the legal settlement expense recognized in the second quarter. We are maintaining our electric segment guidance, which assumes a 14% increase in earnings from the prior year, driven by robust rate base growth and increased electric rates. We are increasing our Manufacturing segment guidance as end market demand continues to improve. We anticipate sales volumes to be higher in the second half of the year than originally anticipated. Additionally, we expect margins to be higher than originally forecasted due to improved price realization and a greater leveraging of our fixed costs. We are also increasing our Plastics segment guidance as we delivered better-than-forecasted financial results on an adjusted basis during the second quarter and revised our PVC pipe pricing expectations for the remainder of the year. Due to the strong demand for our products, the average sales price of our PVC pipe increased sequentially from the first quarter of the year to the second. While we do not expect this trend to continue through the remainder of the year, we are adjusting the rate of decline assumed in our guidance. We now expect our 2026 average sales price to decrease approximately 15% from last year's average. Our annual sales volume assumption remains largely unchanged. We continue to believe that our customers pulled forward their orders in Q2 to secure pipe before the announced PVC resin price increases. As a result, we now expect sales volumes to be softer in the second half of the year, but annual volumes remain largely the same. Finally, we expect our corporate costs to increase from what we had originally assumed for the year. This is largely driven by lower investment income and a reduced tax benefit. Both of these items are driven by the litigation settlements from a lower expected investment balance and a change in our anticipated state tax rate. On Slide 23, we are reaffirming our 5-year capital investment plan. Otter Tail Power's $1.9 billion customer-focused investment plan will be the primary driver of growth over this planning period. We are focused on project execution to deliver quality investments for the benefit of our customers and shareholders. Slide 24 summarizes our financing plan, which remains unchanged. We continue to expect to fund our customer-focused growth plan without needing to access the equity capital markets. At Otter Tail Power, we expect to issue debt periodically to maintain our authorized capital structure and support our rate base growth plan. At the parent level, we have $80 million of debt maturing in the fourth quarter, which we continue to plan to retire and not replace. Upon retirement, the only outstanding debt will be at Otter Tail Power. On Slide 25, we are reaffirming our expected long-term Plastics earnings profile. We believe segment earnings will continue to decline through the end of 2027 and expect earnings in 2028 to be within a range of $45 million to $50 million. Due to seasonality and other factors, the rate of pricing decline can vary from period to period. Additionally, it continues to be difficult to predict with certainty long-term Plastics segment earnings. The timing or level of earnings could vary materially from our projection. However, our Plastics segment continues to be an important component to our overall strategy. Even as earnings recede, we expect the segment to produce an accretive return and incremental cash that we can use to reinvest into our utility-first model. Slide 26 summarizes our investment targets. Our long-term earnings per share growth rate target is 7% to 9%, resulting in a total shareholder return of 10% to 12%. We anticipate delivering on these targets once Plastics segment earnings normalize in 2028. As we continue to execute on our customer-focused growth plan, we are well positioned to deliver on our investment targets over the long term. Otter Tail Power continues to be a best-in-class utility, producing attractive returns for our shareholders while providing some of the lowest cost electric service to our customers. Our manufacturing and plastic pipe businesses consistently produce accretive returns and incremental cash, enabling us to fund our rate base growth plan without any external equity needs. It is this intentional strategic diversification that has and will continue to provide benefits to our customers and investors over the long term. We are now ready to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Tate Sullivan of Maxim Group.

Just to start and I'll get to the PVC settlement as well as a Manufacturing business. I think historically, you've pointed to a net profit margin of 5% to 7% range in that business. Is that -- I mean, are you -- can you comment on that going forward given the strength in the U.S. PMI recently and other considerations, please?

Yes. That's where we're tracking currently. If you look, say, at our first 6 months of the year, it would be at about a 5% net income return. We do think there's opportunity to improve on that with increased volumes, providing increased leveraging of our fixed costs along with operating efficiencies, production and productivity gains in the business. But yes, generally, that's where we're reading out currently.

And in terms of the manufacturing capacity footprint of BTD currently, I mean, are you operating close to that capacity level? Or do you still have room to grow as well?

We would still have room to grow. We recently expanded our facility in Georgia. So there is definitely room in that facility for additional growth, and that's -- that was a targeted investment and that's where we see growth from our existing customers in that part of the U.S.

Okay. And shifting to the PVC business too, and you've previously announced to meet most of these settlements and then adjusted the guidance today. Does it change the pricing dynamic with the distributors going forward? Was the relationship with customers part of the consideration of settling? If you can comment on those questions, please?

Tate, this is Chuck. It does not change any pricing or relationship with the customers. We don't view that, that will change in any way based on the settlement.

Okay. And then I mean, as one way to look at the settlements is looking at taking out the $100-odd million from the historical net income in the PVC business, and that's sort of the adjusted pricing where pricing would have been? Or is that an incorrect way to look at the settlements?

Yes. We don't know. We can't make that determination.

Okay. And then last, did you say during the comments, too, that the payment potentially, depending on the court approval, potentially made all 3 payments in the fourth -- by the end of the year? Is that the right way to look at timing for the cash?

Tate, this is Tyler again. So we -- by the end of July, we had actually made the full payment of $103.5 million into an escrow account that will reside in that escrow account until final court approval is provided. The amounts that were paid in escrow remain on our balance sheet. So you'll see when we file our 10-Q, we'll show a restricted cash amount of -- it's $73 million because that's what we had paid by the end of June. We then paid the remaining $30 million at the end of July. So those funds as of today are sitting in an escrow account that we don't have access to until the final court approval is received.

Our next question comes from the line of Michael Pelletier of KeyBanc.

Just on the large load pipeline, included meaningful additions this quarter. Just curious on what's driving the step-up. And then to what extent are customers increasingly looking to your service territory as alternative regions face interconnection constraints and moratoriums?

Sure. Michael, this is Tim. And so we continue to see a lot of activity on the large load front. I think as Chuck indicated, one of the things we really like is the diversity that we're seeing both from data centers as well as clean fuel and also similar to our new customer down at our Big Stone plant that is a thermal storage facility. And so we continue to see a lot of activity there. When you think about big facilities like this, we certainly see feedback from -- in our region, both negatively and positively. I think it really depends upon where you're at in our system. We've got a large geography. So we've got a lot of places to put some of these loads. But we continue to work with the different -- whether at a state level or at a local township level with different entities to try to help facilitate some of these large load additions.

Okay. And then just on the timing and cadence of the capital investments contemplated in the IRP, I guess, specifically with the natural gas gen. Would this be incremental to the $750 million opportunity? And then when could you see those opportunities begin to materialize?

Yes. So it is incremental to what we've identified already as our $750 million of incremental as well. So we'll work through the IRP process, and we would anticipate by the end of the second quarter next year, we'll have clarity whether or not we get approval. With respect to execution, that is certainly a bigger challenge these days with respect to supply chain, in particular, natural gas generators. So as we target a 2031, 2032 in service, we would anticipate we get approval next year, we would begin activities in the development of that. And potentially late in the 5-year look, we would see investment opportunities starting to show up.

As there are no remaining questions in the queue, I will turn the call back over to Chuck for his closing remarks.

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, and we look forward to speaking with you next quarter.

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.