Otter Tail Corporation (NASDAQ:OTTR) Q1 2024 Results Conference Call May 7, 2024 11:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Beth Eiken - Manager of Investor Relations
Chuck MacFarlane - President, Chief Executive Officer
Todd Wahlund - Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Tim Winter - Gabelli Funds
Operator
Good morning, and welcome to Otter Tail Corporation's First Quarter 2024 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.
Beth Eiken
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Beth Eiken, and I'm Otter Tail Corporation's Manager of Investor Relations. 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 Todd Wahlund, Otter Tail Corporation's Vice President and CFO. 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 against 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, Beth. Good morning, and welcome to our first quarter 2024 earnings call. Please refer to Slide 4, as I begin my comments on our quarterly performance. We are pleased with our overall first quarter financial results. Diluted earnings per share increased nearly 20% to a $1.77 per share compared to the same time last year, driven by strong financial performance within our Plastics segment.
Plastics segment earnings increased 39% from the first quarter of 2023 due to higher sales volumes driven by customer sales volume growth and strong distributor and end market demand. Electric segment earnings decreased modestly, primarily driven by weather related headwinds. Manufacturing segment earnings decreased 23% due to lower sales volumes. Our corporate costs decreased due to returns earned on our short-term investments driven by a larger cash balance and higher interest rates.