Otter Tail Corporation (NASDAQ:OTTR) Q4 2022 Earnings Conference Call February 14, 2023 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Tyler Nelson - VP of Accounting

Chuck MacFarlane - President & CEO

Kevin Moug - SVP & CFO

Conference Call Participants

Chris Ellinghaus - Siebert Williams

Brian Russo - Sidoti

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to Otter Tail Corporation's 2022 Earnings Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded and 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, everyone, and welcome to our 2022 earnings conference call. My name is Tyler Nelson. Last night, we announced our 2022 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 the call will be made 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 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.

For opening remarks, 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 2022 year-end earnings call. Please refer to Slide 4, as I begin my comments on our annual results. Otter Tail Corporation achieved record financial results in 2022. We generated diluted earnings per share of $6.78, a 60% increase from 2021.

All segments produced double-digit earnings growth led by our Plastics segment, which capitalized on extraordinary industry conditions to achieve another record level of earnings. Looking forward, we expect Plastics segment earnings to recede in 2023 from our record level this past year, but remain elevated relative to our expected normalized earnings beginning in 2024. In a moment, Kevin will provide a more detailed discussion of our financial performance.