Otter Tail Corporation (NASDAQ:OTTR) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call May 2, 2023 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Tyler Nelson - Vice President-Accounting

Chuck MacFarlane - President & Chief Executive Officer

Kevin Moug - Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Tate Sullivan - Maxim Group

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to Otter Tail Corporation's First 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.

Tyler Nelson

Good morning, and welcome to our first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. My name is Tyler Nelson. Last night, we announced our first 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, Tyler. Good morning, and welcome to our first quarter 2023 earnings call. Please refer to slide 4 as I begin my comments on our first quarter results.

We are pleased with our first quarter financial results. We generated earnings per share of $1.49. As expected, our earnings declined compared to first quarter of last year as earnings from our Plastics segment receded from historic hits. In contrast, our electric and manufacturing segments each produced double-digit earnings growth in the first quarter of 2023.

Based on our first quarter results and expectations for the remainder of the year, we are increasing our 2023 earnings guidance range from $4.55 and to $4.85 per share, an increase of approximately 20% from our previous guidance, driven by increased earnings from our Plastics and Manufacturing segments. In a moment, Kevin will provide a more detailed discussion of our first quarter financial results and our expectations for the remainder of the year.