Northwest Natural Holding Company (NYSE:NWN) Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript August 2, 2024 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Nikki Sparley - Director of IR
David Anderson - CEO
Brody Wilson - CFO, VP, Treasurer and Chief Accounting Officer
Justin Palfreyman - President

Conference Call Participants

Chris Ellinghaus - Siebert Williams Shank
Tyler Rakers - Stifel

Operator

Good morning. Thank you for attending today's Northwest Natural Holding Company Q2 2024 Earnings Call. My name is Jayla, and I'll be your moderator for today. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call, with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. I would now like to pass the conference over to our host, Nikki Sparley, Director of Investor Relations. Nikki, you may proceed.

Nikki Sparley

Good morning and welcome to our second quarter 2024 earnings call. As a reminder, some things that will be said this morning contain forward-looking statements. They are based on management's assumptions, which may or may not occur. For a complete list of our cautionary statements, refer to the language at the end of our press release. We expect to file our 10-Q later today. As mentioned, this teleconference is being recorded and will be available on our website following the call. Please note these calls are designed for the financial community. If you are an investor and have additional questions after the call, please contact me directly at 503-721-2530. News media may contact David Roy at 503-610-7157.

Speaking this morning are David Anderson, Chief Executive Officer, and Brody Wilson, CFO, Vice President, Treasurer and Chief Accounting Officer. David and Brody have prepared remarks and then will be available along with other members of our executive team to answer your questions.

With that, I'll turn it over to David.

David Anderson

Thanks, Nikki, and good morning and welcome. Our financial results are on track for the year and in line with our full year guidance issued in February. Brody will go through the detailed results here in a moment. This morning, I'll walk you through a few economic indicators and provide an update on our Oregon gas utility rate case. I'll wrap up with an update on our long-term decarbonization and growth initiatives.

Turning to a few comments on the economy. Related to our gas utility service territory, Oregon's unemployment rate remains low and on par with the national average at 4.1% in June. Employment growth increased in Oregon to 1.6%, compared to a drop in US employment growth to 1.5% annualized for June 2024. Single-family housing permits were up 8.6% year-over-year in Oregon and increased 19.1% in the Portland metro area, signaling favorable conditions for customer growth ahead. For June, unemployment rates in our water service territories were as low as 3%. In six of the nine counties, our water utilities served, single-family building permits posted double-digit growth for the 12 months ended June 2024, compared to the same period in 2023. Collectively, our gas and water utility customer base grew 1.8% over the last 12 months.