Essential Utilities, Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) Q3 2024 Earnings Conference Call November 5, 2024 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Brian Dingerdissen - VP, IR and Treasurer
Christopher Franklin - President and CEO
Daniel Schuller - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Julien Dumoulin Smith - Jefferies
Durgesh Chopra - Evercore ISI
Travis Miller - Morningstar
Davis Sunderland - Baird
Greg Cordell - UBS
Jonathan Reeder - Wells Fargo

Operator

Thank you for standing by. My name is Ellie and I will be your conference operator for today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Essential Utilities Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions].Thank you.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Brian Dingerdissen. You may now begin.

Brian Dingerdissen

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Essential Utilities third quarter 2024 earnings call, during which we will provide an update on new long-term guidance. The slides that we will be referencing and a webcast of this event can be found on our website.

As a reminder, some of the matters discussed during this call may include forward-looking statements that involve risk, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause the actual results to be materially different from any future results or expressed implied by such forward-looking statements. Please refer to our most recent 10Q, 10K, and other SEC filings for description of such risk and uncertainties. During the course of this call, reference may be made to certain non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of any non-GAAP to GAAP financial measures is posted in the investor relations section of the company's website.

We will begin the call today with Chris Franklin, our Chairman and CEO, who will provide an update on the company, and then Dan Schuller, our CFO, who will provide an update on the financial results before Chris closes the call with our guidance.

With that, I will turn the call over to Chris Franklin.

Christopher Franklin

Hey, thanks, Brian, and welcome, everyone. We've got some really exciting news to share with you today. I've got some more color, but let me just run through it in a very, very brief summary on top here.

We had a great quarter, financially. We had a strong capital investment so far this year, and we have an approved Pennsylvania gas rate case that included a weather normalization mechanism. We had a settlement in our Pennsylvania water rate case, yielding us $73 million, and we are reinstating our multiyear EPS guidance at a 5% to 7% growth rate through 2027, which, importantly, does not include DELCORA, any earnings associated with DELCORA. And then we're also going to talk a little bit about our strong recovery from the Hurricane Helene that hit North Carolina. So, a lot of good things to talk about for the quarter, so let me get into the details.