Otter Tail Corporation (NASDAQ:OTTR) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call August 1, 2023 11:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Beth Osman - Manager of Investor Relations
Chuck MacFarlane - President and Chief Executive Officer
Kevin Moug - Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Chris Ellinghaus - Siebert Williams Shank & Company, L.L.C.
Sophie Karp - KeyBanc
Brian Russo - Sidoti
Operator
Good morning, and welcome to Otter Tail Corporation's Second Quarter 2023 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.
Beth Osman
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our second quarter 2023 earnings conference call. My name is Beth Osman, 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 Kevin Moug, Otter Tail Corporation's Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
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 about 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
Thank you, Beth. Good morning, and welcome to our second quarter 2023 earnings call. Please refer to Slide 4 as I begin my comments on second quarter results.
We are pleased with our second quarter financial results. We generated earnings per share of $1.95. As expected, our earnings declined compared to second quarter of last year as earnings from our Plastics segment receded from historic highs.
Our Electric segment produced earnings growth of 4% compared to second quarter of 2022, primarily driven by the recovery of rate base investments. Manufacturing segment earnings decreased 21% due to lower sales volume of horticulture products and year-over-year lower manufacturing cost absorption. Our Plastics segment earnings declined 13%, given the general end market softness from reduced new home construction and a reduction in sales volumes as distributors continue to manage PVC pipe inventory levels.