Evergy, Inc. (EVRG) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Evergy, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) Q1 2023 Results Conference Call May 5, 2023 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Peter Flynn - Director, Investor Relations

David Campbell - President, Chief Executive Officer

Kirk Andrews - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Shar Pourreza - Guggenheim

Michael Sullivan - Wolfe Research

Durgesh Chopra - Evercore

Dariusz Lozny - Bank of America

Paul Patterson - Glenrock Associates

Operator

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q1 2023 Evergy Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during this session, you will need to press star-one-one on your telephone. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference call is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to your speaker for today. Peter Flynn, you may go ahead.

Peter Flynn

Thank you, Lisa, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Evergy's first 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 our first quarter highlights provide regulatory and legislative updates and discuss our ESG progress. Kirk will cover in more detail the first quarter results, retail sales trends and our financial outlook for the year. 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, and I'm pleased to report that Evergy had a solid first quarter as we delivered adjusted earnings of $0.59 per share compared to $0.56 per share a year ago. The increase was driven by weather-normalized sales growth, transmission margin and lower O&M expenses, partially offset by the impact of a mild winter, an increase in depreciation and amortization and higher interest expense. Kirk will discuss these earnings drivers in more detail in a few minutes.