Evergy, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call February 29, 2024 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Peter Flynn - Director, Investor Relations

David Campbell - President and Chief Executive Officer

Kirk Andrews - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Nicholas Campanella - Barclays

Michael Sullivan - Wolfe

Paul Zimbardo - Bank of America

Paul Fremont - Ladenburg Thalmann & Company

Paul Patterson - Glenrock Associates

Operator

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Q4 2023 Evergy, Inc. Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today’s call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Peter Flynn, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Peter Flynn

Thank you, Valerie and good morning everyone. Welcome to Evergy’s fourth 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 2 and the disclosures 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 2023 highlights, discuss the economic development outlook and provide an update on our regulatory and legislative agendas. Kirk will cover fourth quarter and full year results, retail sales trends and our financial outlook for 2024. Other members of management are with us and will be available during the Q&A portion of the call.

I’ll now turn the call over to David.

David Campbell

Thanks, Pete and good morning everyone. Before we begin, we’d like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family of Lisa Lopez-Galvan and all those who were impacted by the tragic events during the Chief Super Bowl parade, Kansas City and Chiefs Kingdom are grieving, but if there is one thing that I’ve learned during my time here, it’s that both are very strong and very resilient.

Moving to Slide 5, I’ll open by describing the drivers for our fourth quarter earnings falling below our guidance. While we plan for normal weather, we know the importance of consistent financial execution we are disappointed by these results. As you know, on the third quarter call, we narrowed our guidance range to $3.55 per share to $3.65 per share from our initial range of $3.55 to $3.75, due primarily to the timing of the Persimmon Creek wind farm shifting back a year.