Evergy, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call November 7, 2023 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Peter Flynn - Director, IR

David Campbell - President, CEO & Director

Kirkland Andrews - EVP & CFO

Conference Call Participants

Shahriar Pourreza - Guggenheim Securities

Nicholas Campanella - Barclays

Dariusz Lozny - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Steven Fleishman - Wolfe Research

Paul Patterson - Glenrock Associates

Operator

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Third Quarter 2023 Evergy Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Peter Flynn. Please go ahead.

Peter Flynn

Thank you, Michelle, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Evergy's third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Our webcast slides and supplemental financial information are available on our Investor Relations website. at investors.evergy.com.

Today's discussion will include forward-looking information. Slide two and the disclosure in our SEC filings contain a list of some of the factors that could cause future results to differ materially from our expectations. They also include additional information on our non-GAAP financial measures. Joining us on today's call are David Campbell, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Kirk Andrews, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

David will cover our third quarter highlights, provide an update on our regulatory and legislative agenda and discuss updates to our financial outlook. Kirk will cover in more detail the third quarter and year-to-date results, retail sales trends and our long-term guidance. Other members of management are with us and will be available during the question-and-answer portion of the call.

I will now turn the call over to David.

David Campbell

Thanks, Pete, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin on Slide 5. I'm pleased to report that Evergy had a solid quarter as we delivered adjusted earnings of $1.88 per share compared to $2 per share a year ago. The decrease was driven by milder weather and higher depreciation and amortization and interest expense, partially offset by lower O&M expenses, higher corporate-owned life insurance proceeds or COLI and tax items.

Results for the quarter were also impacted by over $9 million in excess O&M storm costs in July, driven by a mid-month storm, which brought straight-line wins of over 80 miles per hour over much of our service territory. Overall, I'm pleased to report that our reliability metrics held strong for the quarter.