UNITIL (NYSE:UTL) Q3 2026 Earnings Call

0:02 and the Q3, 2026 Unitil Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, and Christopher Golding, Vice President of Finance and Regulatory. Please go ahead.

0:39 Good afternoon and thank you for joining us to discuss Unitil Corporation's third quarter 2026 financial results. Speaking on the call today will be Tom Meissner, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Dan Hurstak, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Also with us today are Bob Hevert, President and Chief Administrative Officer, and Todd Diggins, Chief Accounting Officer and Controller. We will discuss financial and other information on this call. As we mentioned in the press release announcing today's call, we have posted information including a presentation to the investor section of our website at unitil.com. We will refer to that information during this call. Moving to slide two, some of the statements made during this call may be forward-looking.

1:24 These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risk and uncertainty. which may cause the actual results to differ materially from forecasts and projections. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any of these statements. Additional information about the various factors that may cause actual results to differ in our explanation of non-GAAP measures and how they reconcile the GAAP measures is contained within our news release, the slides we posted for this call, and in our most recent 10Q and 10K. With that, I will now turn the call over to Chairman and CEO, Tom Eisner.

2:00 Great, thanks, Chris. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. Beginning on slide three, today we announced adjusted net income of $38.3 million, or $2.12 per share, for the first nine months of the year. Year-to-date, results increased 9 cents per share, or 4.4%, compared to the first nine months of 2025, reflecting disciplined execution of our operating and strategic priorities and our longstanding commitment to delivering safe, reliable and affordable service to our customers. The June 30th closing of our acquisitions of Aquarian Water Company of New Hampshire in Abenaki Water Company marked a key strategic milestone, diversifying our regulated utility portfolio and expanding our customer footprint across the state.

2:52 I'm pleased to share that the transition has been seamless. Our customers continue to receive the same high level of service and reliability that they did before the change in ownership. More recently, we completed our integration of Maine Natural Gas just last week and have ended all remaining transition services. We've now fully integrated Maine Natural Gas into our existing utility operations as we did with Bangor Natural Gas last year. As Dan will cover in greater detail, we also completed the permanent financing for our acquisitions of Maine Natural Gas and the New Hampshire Water Companies and repaid the term loans that have been used to finance those transactions. Shifting now to our regulatory agenda, we continue to make steady progress on our northern utilities gas rate cases in both Maine and New Hampshire, which are moving forward as expected.

3:48 Dan will walk through the details of those cases later in the call. On the electric side, our implementation of a new advanced metering infrastructure, or AMI system, remains firmly on track. This new metering system incorporates state-of-the-art smart meters that can provide near real-time information to customers, enabling improved decision-making and grid optimization. We completed the implementation of this technology in Massachusetts last year and expect to complete the meter replacement in New Hampshire by the end of 2027. Looking ahead, we are reaffirming our 2026 guidance of $3.20 to $3.36 per share, with a midpoint of $3.28. We also reaffirm our long-term earnings growth of 5% to 7%. Turning now to slide four, We recently released our 2026 Corporate Responsibility Report and remain on track to reduce company-wide direct greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 and to be net zero by 2050.

4:59 Through 2025, we have reduced our Scope 1 emissions by approximately 19%. An element of the report I'd like to highlight is the direct measurement of fugitive methane emissions. These emissions historically accounted for over 80% of our Scope 1 emissions when estimated using the EPA subpart W emission factors. These represented our largest source of direct operational emissions. To improve accuracy, we are implementing a measurement-informed inventory methodology that uses direct site-specific measurements to develop a more reliable and actionable accounting of our greenhouse gas footprint.

5:44 As part of this, we are now directly measuring our natural gas emissions using advanced mobile leak detection technology and have found that our pipeline emissions are 91% lower than previously estimated. In addition to providing a more accurate accounting of our greenhouse gas footprint, this technology allows us to identify, prioritize, and eliminate the remaining sources of fugitive emissions. We are also continuing to reduce methane emissions by aggressively replacing all leak prone pipe in our system. I'm pleased to highlight that over 98% of our gas systems are now constructed in plastic or cathodically protected steel pipe. We expect to complete the replacement of all remaining leak prone pipe by 2035.

6:35 Turning to slide five, as I already mentioned, our acquisitions of Aquarian Water Company of New Hampshire and Abenaki Water Company closed on June 30th. Upon closing, we added almost 11,000 customers at an attractive multiple of approximately 1.2 times rate base. As part of the transaction, we entered into a five-year operating and transition services agreement with the Aquarian Water Authority to ensure a seamless transition to Unitil's ownership and operations. Integration efforts are well underway, and we expect to assume responsibility for most operating and corporate services prior to the agreement's expiration date. As noted previously, we expect this acquisition to be earnings neutral in 2026.

7:24 Also, as we mentioned on our last call, we've entered into a non-binding letter of intent with Eversource Energy to purchase the Aquarian Water Company of Massachusetts. That transaction can move forward after the satisfactory conclusion of a base rate case in Massachusetts, which is expected to be filed around or after mid-November. Based on this timeline, there could be a final order in that case in the second half of 2027. With that, I'll now pass the call over to Dan who will provide greater detail on the quarterly and year-to-date results.

8:02 Thank you, Tom. Good afternoon, everyone. I'll begin on slide six. As Tom mentioned, we announced adjusted net income of $38.3 million, or $2.12 per share, for the first nine months of 2026, representing an increase of $4.8 million in adjusted net income, or $0.09 per share, compared to the same period in 2025. We are reporting adjusted earnings that exclude transaction costs related to our gas and water acquisitions, as those costs are not indicative of the company's ongoing costs and operations. These results the first nine months were supported by the earnings contributions from our recently acquired companies, in addition to higher distribution rates and customer growth, partially offset by higher operating expenses.

8:55 Turning to slide seven, I will discuss our electric and gas adjusted gross margins and water revenues. Beginning with our electric operations, For the nine months ended September 30, 2026, electric adjusted gross margin was $96 million, an increase of $9.6 million, or 11.1%, as compared to the same period in 2025. This increase was driven by higher rates of $10.3 million, partially offset by a non-recurring reduction of FERC transmission revenue of $0.7 million. Higher rates were primarily supported by the Unitil Energy Systems Permanent Rate Award of $13 million, which took effect May 1, 2026, as well as a Fitchburg performance-based rate adjustment and higher capital tracker revenue.

9:49 As noted during prior calls, all electric customers are under decoupled rates, which eliminates the dependency of distribution revenue on the volume of electricity sales. Moving to gas operations, for the nine months ended September 30, 2026, gas adjusted gross margin was $151.9 million, an increase of $17.2 million, or 12.8%, compared to the same period in 2025. This increase reflects higher rates in customer growth of $15.8 million and colder winter weather of $1.4 million. May Natural Gas contributed $10.5 million to gas adjusted gross margin through the first nine months of 2026.

10:37 The temporary rate award of $5.5 million for Northern Utilities New Hampshire division, which took effect June 1st, 2026, also contributed to the higher margin. The company added approximately 6,500 new gas customers compared to the same period in 2025. with the majority of these new customers being attributable to the acquisition of Maine Natural Gas. As of September 30th, 2026, approximately 52% of the company's gas customers were under decoupled rates. Moving to water operations, for the nine months ended September 30th, 2026, the Aquarian New Hampshire companies contributed $3.1 million to operating revenue.

11:24 Moving to slide eight, We provide an earnings bridge comparing the results of the first nine months of 2026 to the same period in 2025. As I just discussed, the combined adjusted gross margin for our electric and gas divisions in water revenues increased $29.9 million and reflect the contributions of Maine Natural Gas and the Aquaria New Hampshire companies, higher rates, colder winter weather, and customer growth. Operation and maintenance expenses increased $8.2 million due to higher utility operating costs of $5.1 million and higher labor and other costs of $3.8 million, partially offset by lower acquisition costs of $0.7 million.

12:11 This increase included $3.9 million and $1.2 million related to Maine Natural Gas and the Aquarium New Hampshire companies, respectively. The increase in depreciation and amortization expense and taxes other than income taxes reflect higher levels of utility plant and service and higher amortization of recoverable storm costs as well as expenses associated with Maine Natural Gas and the Aquarian New Hampshire companies. Moving to slide nine, as Tom noted earlier, our northern utilities rate cases are progressing well in both New Hampshire and Maine. Starting with New Hampshire, On April 1, 2026, we filed a petition for a permanent rate increase of $9.8 million, and on June 1, 2026, temporary rates of $5.5 million took effect.

13:06 We have proposed a multi-year rate plan with two-step adjustments to recover all 2026 and 2027 system investments. The rate proposal includes the continuation of revenue decoupling, but similar to our New Hampshire electric case, We have proposed a decoupling methodology change from a revenue per customer model to a total authorized revenue target. The first round of technical sessions has concluded and intervener testimony is due November 19th. Settlement conferences are scheduled in early 2027 with permanent rates taking effect April 1st, 2027. Turning to slide 10, the Northern Utilities main rate case. which was filed on June 1, 2026, includes a proposed rate increase of $10.4 million.

13:57 The revenue requirement in this case is based on a historical test year with adjustments to forecast rate-based revenues and expenses through the rate-effective year. This approach is designed to reduce earnings attrition and is consistent with the revenue requirement approach approved in the company's prior case. We submitted rebuttal testimony on October 27th. We look forward to working with all stakeholders through these proceedings and will provide additional details regarding the progress of these cases on future calls. Moving to slide 11, as noted during our previous earnings call, our current five-year capital investment plan through 2030 totals approximately $1.2 billion, which is an increase of 24% over the previous five-year plan.

14:47 This plan includes approximately $65 million for Bangor Natural Gas and Maine Natural Gas collectively, and approximately $33 million for the Aquarian New Hampshire companies. Rate base increased $0.2 billion, or 14.9%, compared to the same period in 2025, supported by the acquisition of Maine Natural Gas and the Aquarian New Hampshire companies. Over the past five years, rate base growth has averaged 9.5%, which is above our long-term guidance of 6.5% to 8.5%. As we have in the past, we intend to discuss our updated five-year investment plan during the fourth quarter earnings call. Turning to slide 12, our financial profile is strong and balance sheet strength remains a top priority.

15:38 Our dividend payout ratio target range remains at 55% to 65% and our most recent FFO to debt ratio according to S&P was 17%, which is squarely in the middle of our long-term FFO to debt target range and well above our downgrade thresholds. We have successfully executed our 2026 financing plan, including the issuance of $200 million of long-term debt in the private placement market at a weighted average interest rate of 5.76%. In addition, to date, we have issued $27.3 million of equity through our ATM program. I'm also pleased to report that in October, we fully repaid both tranches of the term loan utilized to finance the acquisitions of Maine Natural Gas and the Aquarium New Hampshire companies.

16:33 The repayment was primarily funded through proceeds from equity issuances and long-term debt. With the term loan now fully repaid, We consider these operating companies to be fully financed with permanent capital. Moving forward, we continue to expect cash flow from operations to fund the majority of our investment plan with the remaining amount coming from a balanced mix of debt and equity. I will now turn the call back over to Tom.

17:02 Great. Thanks, Dan. Ending now on slide 13, we are on pace for another year of successful execution of our strategic priorities. Our value proposition remains the same, investing in low risk regulated assets to generate stable cash flows while ensuring our customers receive outstanding service and reliability. We look forward to sharing more about our progress and our longer term outlook during our year end earnings call. With that, I'll pass the call back to Chris. Thank you.

17:35 Thanks, Tom. That wraps up the prepared material for this call. Thank you for attending. I'll now turn the call over to the operator who will coordinate questions. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Once again, as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question at this time, please press star 1 1. I'm showing no questions at this time.

18:20 This concludes our question and answer session and today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.