FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) Q1 2024 Results Conference Call April 26, 2024 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Irene Prezelj - VP, IR and Communications
Brian Tierney - President and CEO
Jon Taylor - SVP and CFO

Conference Call Participants

Shar Pourreza - Guggenheim Partners
Michael Sullivan - Wolfe Research
Jeremy Tonet - JPMorgan
Carly Davenport - Goldman Sachs
David Arcaro - Morgan Stanley
Gregg Orrill - UBS
Anthony Crowdell - Mizuho
Paul Patterson - Glenrock Associates
Angie Storozynski - Seaport Global

Operator

Hello, and welcome to the FirstEnergy Corp. First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call [Operator Instructions]. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Irene Prezelj, Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications. Please go ahead, Irene.

Irene Prezelj

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. And welcome to FirstEnergy’s first quarter 2024 earnings review. Our President and Chief Executive Officer, Brian Tierney, will lead our call today and he will be joined by Jon Taylor, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Our earnings release, presentation slides and related financial information are available on our Web site at firstenergycorp.com. Today’s session will include the use of non-GAAP financial measures and forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause our results to differ materially from those statements can be found in our SEC filings. The appendix of today’s presentation includes supplemental information, along with the reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures. Now, it’s my pleasure to turn the call over to Brian.

Brian Tierney

Thank you, Irene. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today and for your interest in FirstEnergy. This morning, I will review financial performance and highlights for the first quarter, provide some updates on key regulatory developments and review FirstEnergy's shareholder value proposition. For the first quarter, FirstEnergy delivered GAAP earnings of $0.44 per share compared to $0.51 per share in 2023. Operating earnings were $0.55 per share, $0.02 higher than the midpoint of guidance for the quarter versus $0.60 per share last year. It is important to note that higher revenues from investments to better serve our customers and more favorable weather compared to last year were offset by higher planned O&M expenses and the expected decrease in Signal Peak earnings resulted in higher quality utility earnings for the quarter. Jon will provide additional details later in the call. During the last earnings call, we announced our five year $26 billion investment program to better serve our customers, branded as Energize 365. That plan, combined with our ongoing regulatory updates and our continuous improvement program, give us the confidence to affirm our 6% to 8% long term operating growth rate. We are also affirming our operating earnings guidance range of $2.61 to $2.81 per share for 2024. We are providing guidance of $0.50 to $0.60 per share for the second quarter of this year.