NYSE:NJR New Jersey Resources Q4 2023 Earnings Report $49.17 -0.21 (-0.43%) Closing price 04/25/2025 03:59 PM EasternExtended Trading$48.52 -0.65 (-1.31%) As of 04/25/2025 04:53 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Earnings HistoryForecast New Jersey Resources EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.30Consensus EPS $0.30Beat/MissMet ExpectationsOne Year Ago EPS$0.50New Jersey Resources Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$331.30 millionExpected Revenue$759.99 millionBeat/MissMissed by -$428.69 millionYoY Revenue Growth-56.70%New Jersey Resources Announcement DetailsQuarterQ4 2023Date11/21/2023TimeBefore Market OpensConference Call DateTuesday, November 21, 2023Conference Call Time10:00AM ETUpcoming EarningsNew Jersey Resources' Q2 2025 earnings is scheduled for Monday, May 5, 2025, with a conference call scheduled on Tuesday, May 6, 2025 at 10:00 AM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Annual Report (10-K)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by New Jersey Resources Q4 2023 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrNovember 21, 2023 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 9 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Thank you for standing by. My name is Regina, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the New Jersey Resources Fiscal 2023 4th Quarter and Year End Conference Call and Webcast. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. Operator00:00:29And answer session. I would now like to turn the conference over to Adam Prior, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:38Thank you so much. Welcome to New Jersey Resources fiscal 2023 4th quarter and year end conference call and webcast. I am joined here today by Steve Westhoven, our President and CEO Roberto Bell, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer as well as other members of our senior management team. Certain statements in today's call contain estimates and other forward looking statements within the meaning of the securities laws. We wish to caution listeners of this call that the current expectations, assumptions and beliefs forming the basis for our forward looking statements including many factors that are beyond our ability to control or estimate precisely. Speaker 100:01:11This could cause results to materially differ from our expectations as found on Slide 1. These items can also be found in the forward looking statements section of today's earnings release furnished on Form 8 ks and in our most recent forms 10 ks and 10 Q as filed with the SEC. We do not by including the statement assume any obligation to review or revise any particular forward looking statement referenced herein in light of future events. We will also be referring to certain non GAAP financial measures such as net financial earnings or NFE. We believe that NFE, net financial loss, utility gross margin, Financial margin, adjusted funds from operations and adjusted debt provide a more complete understanding of our financial performance. Speaker 100:01:52However, these non GAAP measures are not intended to be a substitute for GAAP. To our non GAAP financial measures are discussed more fully in Item 7 of our 10 ks. The slides accompanying today's presentation are available on our website were furnished on our Form 8 ks filed this morning. Our agenda for today is filed on Slide 4. Steve will begin with this year's highlights, followed by Roberto, who will review our financial results. Speaker 100:02:15Then we will open the call up for your questions. With that said, I will turn the call over to our President and CEO, Steve Westhoven. Please go ahead, Steve. Speaker 200:02:23Thanks, Adam, and good morning, everyone. Fiscal 2023 represented another solid year in NJR as we reported earnings well in excess of our industry leading to 9% long term growth rate. Our performance this past year speaks to the strength of our diversified business model and our ability to adapt to challenges in ways that benefit our customers and our investors. This morning, we reported fiscal 2023 net financial earnings per share of $2.70 This is at the top end of our revised guidance range, which was increased by $0.20 back in the Q1. We've accomplished quite a bit this year. Speaker 200:03:01New Jersey Natural Gas added 8,800 new customers with expansion throughout New Jersey Natural Gas' service territories as our customer growth has returned to pre pandemic levels. Clean Energy Ventures grew its project pipeline to the highest level in our company's history and we increased our in service capacity by the largest amount for any given year. At S and T, Adelphia Gateway completed its 1st full year in operation and Leaf River continued to deliver strong results. And finally, Energy Services once again delivered outperformance during periods of Volatility during the year. As strong as this fiscal year 2023 performance was, we have been more enthusiastic about our future. Speaker 200:03:47The details of our guidance for fiscal 2024 are on Slide 6. We are introducing to the guidance of $2.70 per share to $2.85 per share, which represents a 12% increase from the midpoint of our initial guidance last year. We've broadened the size of our guidance range for fiscal 2024 to $0.15 We've had a range of $0.10 for many years Despite significant growth of our earnings, this new range is consistent with those of our peers. Our projections are supported by contributions from all of our to the Q and A session. During fiscal 2024, a significant portion of our net financial earnings will come from our utility business as highlighted on Slide 7. Speaker 200:04:32However, we do expect a higher contribution from Energy Services in fiscal 2024 than in prior years due to the outsized contribution from the fixed payments associated with the asset management agreements announced in 2020. Looking ahead, we feel very comfortable with our long term growth rate in the future years. And in fiscal 2025, we expect to return to more normalized segment contributions. Speaker 300:04:57Overall, we have Speaker 200:04:57a to portfolio of complementary businesses that deliver utility like returns over the long term. With that, I'll turn to a discussion of our business units beginning on Slide 8. We invested over $450,000,000 at New Jersey Natural Gas through a variety of programs in fiscal 2023 With nearly 40% of that CapEx providing near real time returns. New Jersey Natural Gas' ability to generate these returns helps to alleviate Regulatory lag, which is of particular importance in a high interest rate environment. Within that 40% is our Save Green program, which helps to residential and commercial customers lower their energy usage. Speaker 200:05:39We spent approximately $60,000,000 in fiscal 2023 to help our customers save money and reduce their carbon footprint, which is New Jersey Natural Gas' largest ever annual investment in the program for the 2nd straight year. We recently completed a commercial energy efficiency project at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, which is located not far from our headquarters here in Monmouth County. We provided over $6,000,000 in energy efficiency financing at Jersey Shore and expect the net energy savings on this project to pay back the entire cost within 4 years. Growing these programs is a central element of our de carbonization strategy and New Jersey Natural Gas has long been a leader in this area. We achieved solid new customer growth throughout the year adding 8,800 new customers compared to approximately 7,800 last year through a combination of new construction and conversions. Speaker 200:06:34During fiscal 2024, our capital strategy will ensure that our infrastructure continues to provide the most reliable and affordable energy delivery service available for our customers. We also expect our customer growth to continue to trend higher. And with our current IIP and Saved Green investments, approximately 40% of capital investments to the timeline of our major technology investments. Moving to slide 9, our solar business Clean Energy Ventures had an exceptional 2023. We added 82 megawatts of new solar capacity, which represents the largest capacity increase in any fiscal year since CEV's inception. Speaker 200:07:21We expanded geographically and during the year over 40% of our capacity growth has come from outside of New Jersey. Our focus is on developing solar investment opportunities to provide high single digit unlevered returns and again utility like in their construct. Our project pipeline continues to grow and includes approximately 7 50 megawatts of potential investment options. As we've discussed in past calls, we are creating a diverse pipeline with multiple opportunities for expansion without any significant with multiple opportunities for expansion without any significant reliance on particular geographic location or subsidy program. Moving to our storage and transportation segment on Slide 10. Speaker 200:08:00This was our 1st year with Adelphia fully in operation, which is an 84 mile pipeline that runs from Martins Creek, Pennsylvania to just south of Philadelphia. Our team did an excellent job ensuring the Pipeline operated effectively throughout the fiscal year, particularly during winter storm Elliott. At Leaf River, we continue to pursue service enhancements to the company's ability to deliver the benefits of our customers. Moving to Slide 11, Energy Services had an excellent 2020 to 3 with a significant contribution from the AMAs coupled with an outsized performance from our portfolio of strategically positioned assets. The AMAs will allow NJR to exceed its stated NF EPS long term growth rate this year. Speaker 200:08:42And as demonstrated over the course of the last 3 years, We still have the ability to generate additional earnings from our remaining portfolio in times of volatility. With that, I'll turn the call over to Roberto for a review of our financial results. Roberto? Speaker 400:08:58Thank you, Steve, and good morning, everyone. Slide 13 shows the main drivers of our NFE for fiscal 2023. We reported NFE of $261,800,000 or $2.70 per share compared with NFE of $240,300,000 or $2.50 per share last year. The results of our business segments exceeded our initial expectations and reflected a year over year improvement at Energy Services and CV, partially offset by higher depreciation and interest expenses in our other segments. New Jersey Natural Gas reported NFE in line with to the patients, which included another strong year for our VGSX incentive programs. Speaker 400:09:47I also wanted to note that a significant portion The year on year increase in O and M at our utility is due to a difficult comparison versus fiscal 2022. Well, India and G deferred nearly $11,000,000 of budget expenses in accordance with the July 2020 BPU deferral order. Fin Energy Ventures increased NFE by over $5,000,000 As Steve mentioned, We increased our service capacity by more than 82 megawatts during the year. And we will recognize the value of the associated tax attributes over the next 5 years. Distortion Transportation reported NFE of $12,800,000 which included higher revenues from the facilities that went into service at Adeocea Gateway during the year as well as higher depreciation and interest expenses. Speaker 400:10:39Finally, Energy Services reported NFE of $68,500,000 compared to $39,100,000 in the prior year. As we look to fiscal 2024, it's important to note that we expect to recognize a significant portion of the AMA's total revenues during the year, most of which will be recorded during our fiscal Q4. Turning to our capital plan on Slide 14. Over the next 2 years, we expect to invest between $1,200,000,000 $1,500,000,000 across the company. This capital deployment is expected to support growth throughout our business units and is consistent with our long term NSEPS growth target of 7% to 9%. Speaker 400:11:27For fiscal 2024, we're increasing the bottom and top ends of the range from our previous projections, largely driven by higher expected capital investments at NGNG. In the next 2 years, we anticipate spending between $800,000,000 $1,000,000,000 of the utility. At CEV, we see a number of opportunities for future growth and expect to spend between $300,000,000 $470,000,000 over the next 2 years, taking advantage of our broad opportunity set of solar investments. And finally, at S and T, we expect to maintain a moderate CapEx level with service enhancements at Leaf River representing the largest investments. Our capital projections are anchored by strong cash flows from operations. Speaker 400:12:22On Slide 15, we showed a very strong operating cash flow achieved during fiscal 2023. We also show our updated projections for fiscal year 2024 and introduce fiscal 2025. As you can see, we expect cash to range between 450,000,000 and 490,000,000 in the coming year. Moving to Slide 16, NJNG continues to maintain favorable investment grade credit ratings and NJR's adjusted FFO to adjusted debt was 19% for fiscal 2023 and is expected to be between 17% 18% for fiscal 2024. We have no plans to issue block equity. Speaker 400:13:09However, as we have stated in the past, our existing dealer investment program and welcome everyone. Finally, on Slide 17, we provide a breakout of our long term debt. As you can see, Most of our debt is fixed rate in nature. We don't have significant maturities in any particular year and we have substantial liquidity at both to NGR and NGLNG. Our NSEPS guidance for fiscal 2024 and our long term NCPF growth guidance assume high interest rate for the foreseeable future. Speaker 400:13:51Overall, We are in an outstanding position to fund our growth objectives. With that, I will turn the call back to Steve. Speaker 200:14:01Thanks, Roberto. Since our Analyst Day in 2020, NJR has reported 12 quarters of financial results. During this time, we have raised our earnings guidance on 5 occasions as a result of strong performance throughout our business units. We exceeded our 7% to 9% long term growth rate for each of the past 3 years and we expect to do it again this year. An important component of our value proposition is the ability to return capital to our share owners. Speaker 200:14:27For fiscal year 2024, we have raised our dividend to an annualized rate of $1.68 per share, a nearly 8% increase compared to fiscal 2023. With this increase, we have now raised our dividend every year for the last 28 years. The combination of our expected growth in dividend provides investors with an expected shareholder return of between 11% to 13%. In the coming years, we'll continue to develop organic growth opportunities that support long term NF EPS to growth targets through prudent capital decision making reinforced by a strong balance sheet. As always, I'd like to thank all of our employees at NJR for and your hard work and contribution. Speaker 200:15:08And with that, I'll now open the call for your questions. Operator00:15:16To questions. Our first question will come from the line of Julien Dumoulin Smith with Bank of America. Please go ahead. Speaker 500:15:28Hi, good morning. This is Tanner on for Julian. Now that we're a few years into the long term planning period, What factors are you seeing that could trend your EPS growth to the upper or lower ends of your long term guidance for the remainder of the planning period. Given your upcoming rate filing and CapEx plan, should we think of NJNG as accelerating here in the back end? I'm just Trying to get a sense of the how you view the linearity of NJNG and then Clean Energy Ventures as well. Speaker 600:16:01So, Tanner, I think you described it right there. We've got a number of options. We're able to grow or deploy capital, I guess, more quickly in order to accelerate that growth. See the CapEx program at Utility increasing due to customer growth and other factors of clean energy. We've got a large pipeline of projects at CEV. Speaker 600:16:20We've got potential expansion although nothing's been announced at our S and T group. Speaker 400:16:25So you have Speaker 600:16:26all those factors pushing forward. Added into that, the fact that we have lessened needs for equity due to the cash flows for management services, It's just built a strong platform for future investments. So I'd like to think about it as we've got a good plan solidly built going forward to hit the 7% to 9% growth and then the potential for additional investments should any of the things that I just mentioned hit. Speaker 500:16:54Great. Thanks. And then with respect to the upcoming rate case application, can you set some preliminary expectations for the Composition of the filing, is it expected to be pretty straightforward? Or could there be programs or mechanisms attached with the filing? Thanks. Speaker 700:17:13Tanner, this is Pat Migliaccio, Chief Operating Officer of New Jersey Natural Gas. To answer your question, this is a pretty straightforward rate case. You may recall, we'll be filing sometime in fiscal year 2024, the principal toggle for that is in IT Investments related to our program NEX, as well as other, I'll call bread and butter utility investments around safety and reliability, Pipeline, etcetera. But to hit the other hand, it's a pretty straightforward Speaker 500:17:46Great. Thank you very much. Operator00:17:50Your next question comes from the line of Travis Miller with Morningstar. Please go ahead. Speaker 800:17:55Good morning, everyone. Thank you. Speaker 600:17:57Hey, Travis. Speaker 800:17:59Quick question on Slide 11 to start. Those the revenue and cash flow projections, what kind of Variability, should we expect in those or not at all? Speaker 400:18:12Robbie, hi. This is Roberto Bell. So you're talking about the AMA, right? Speaker 800:18:20The AMA, yes. Speaker 400:18:22Yes. Those are contracted. There is no variability on those vessels or remedies. Speaker 800:18:27Okay. So we can model in terms of modeling, just model those straight out as you presented them? Okay. And then can you tell us what the earned ROE Was it NJNG this year for the fiscal year? Speaker 400:18:44No. Unfortunately, that's something we don't disclose Speaker 800:18:50Okay, okay. Understand. And then a higher level question. On CEV, wonder if you could characterize both the types of projects that are in the pipeline and then also your thinking around strategy in terms of Building and or contracting and or buying projects in the future. Speaker 600:19:13Yes. I guess I'll take the strategy. It hasn't changed from where we started. We've got a few different stages of Projects that we're able to purchase and acquire, we started developing, but certainly not opposed to buying late stage projects or even ones in operation. General strategy is to be able to build, develop and own within to regions and jurisdictions that are favorable and fit our risk profile. Speaker 600:19:41So I'd say New Jersey like and we get outside New Jersey which we have I think 40% of our projects to the state outside New Jersey or 40% going forward outside New Jersey. We're really looking at the risk profile, making sure the regulatory environment is favorable and really It matches what we like to say is utility like earnings across the whole company. So that's the way we're looking at it. Speaker 400:20:06Okay. Do you Speaker 800:20:07foresee doing projects on your own or would you consider going into Maybe some very large projects with a partner or other tax equity partner, however you'd want Could you see yourselves going into bigger projects with a partner? Speaker 600:20:30I wouldn't I'm not going to take anything off the table. To date, you've seen the size projects that we're doing anywhere from a few megawatts up to 25 megawatts to 30 megawatts. So smaller in nature when you look at large scale utility like investments and I think that niche market fits us well not only from a to a return management perspective. That being said, I think we certainly have the capability to manage larger projects. Again, this is all really focused on returns and risk profile of the jurisdiction in which we're making the investment. Speaker 800:21:05Okay. Great. I appreciate the thoughts. Operator00:21:15Your next question will come from the line of Robert Moskow with Mizuho. Please go ahead. Speaker 300:21:21Hi, good morning, everyone. So on Slide 9, which is the The stage of the CEB backlog addition, the break points on the X axis changed, so it's kind of hard to tell if anything is different with respect to Project timing, but any notable developments you want to call out? It also seems like CEV CapEx in 24 Is going to be slightly higher than originally thought. So any thoughts there would be helpful. Speaker 400:21:47So what are you looking for Robert? I'm not sure what the question is. Speaker 300:21:52Yes, sorry. So Slide 9, the CEV project addition timeline. So Just wondering if anything has changed because the break points on the X axis are different than they were in the prior quarter. So any developments are kind of steady as she goes? And it also looks like the 24 CapEx for CEV is slightly higher than originally thought. Speaker 300:22:13So any thoughts there? Speaker 400:22:15Hey, Rob. This is Roberto. So on Slide 9, if you compare this slide to prior slides similar to this one from prior calls, There is no significant difference, although that our in service capacity has increased because we have been taking significant months of maintenance. But if you look at the Right, that 1.2 gigawatts that we have on the right has not changed. So we continue to move and progress creating our pipeline. Speaker 400:22:41But From the last quarter when we had this conversation, no material changes. Speaker 300:22:48Okay, great. That's helpful. And Steve, I think you touched on it in your prepared remarks just with the widening of the guidance range. Is that just to match your peers or is there any more earnings variability In your base businesses this year compared to prior years and if there is just wondering what that could be attributable to? Speaker 400:23:06No, not related to more variability. This This is exactly what you said to much of our peers. If you think about our guidance range, it's been about $0.10 for 12 years, I don't know, more than 8 years. And despite that, we have been growing earnings every single year, right? So it is just to bring us back in line with what our peers on a per day basis. Speaker 300:23:28Okay, great. Thanks, Roberto. And just a quick last one for me. I know you mentioned kind of pursuing the service enhancements at Leaf River. Just wondering, is that something that could be monetized? Speaker 300:23:41Is that an area of growth? Or is that Improving customer service for those customers. Speaker 600:23:48No, I think the whole strategy associated with our S and T business is to be able to get on to organic growth with those assets. And certainly, we've got Growth mindset into these businesses. So yes, we've got some small investments that we're making now tied to some contractual arrangements. And I think moving forward, it's been a secret that storage is going to expand in the Gulf Coast and certainly pipeline infrastructure in the Northeast It's difficult to build greenfield, so expanding existing pipelines is much easier. So if you look at those two facts, we look at expansion. Speaker 600:24:31We've got nothing to announce now, but it's certainly something that we look at that could be outside of the plan. Speaker 300:24:41Got it. All right. Thanks for the day, everyone. Speaker 400:24:44Thank you. Operator00:25:00We have no further questions at this time. I'll turn the call back over to Adam Prior for any closing remarks. Speaker 600:25:06Thanks, Regina. I'd like to thank everyone for joining us Speaker 100:25:08this morning. As a reminder, a Speaker 600:25:10recording of this call is available for replay on our website. As everyone has a happy and safe Thanksgiving, as always, we appreciate your interest and investment in JL. Thanks so much. Goodbye. Operator00:25:21That will conclude today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.Read morePowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallNew Jersey Resources Q4 202300:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Annual report(10-K) New Jersey Resources Earnings HeadlinesNew Jersey Natural Gas Expands Workforce Development Programs with Isles, Inc.April 23 at 1:48 PM | gurufocus.comNew Jersey Resources Highlights the Success of the Coastal Climate Initiative in Celebration of Earth DayApril 22, 2025 | businesswire.comTrump’s tariffs just split the AI market in twoTrump’s tariff just split the AI market – among others – in two. One group of AI companies—the ones relying on cheap foreign hardware—just saw their costs shoot through the roof. For the other group of AI companies, they were just handed a massive competitive advantage. Make no mistake, AI as a whole is still a game-changer for the global economy. But within the AI sector, Trump’s tariffs have created a huge divergence.April 26, 2025 | Traders Agency (Ad)William T. Yardley Elected to the Board of Directors of New Jersey ResourcesApril 21, 2025 | gurufocus.comWilliam T. Yardley Elected to the Board of Directors of New Jersey Resources | NJR Stock NewsApril 21, 2025 | gurufocus.comNew Jersey Resources Elects William Yardley to BoardApril 21, 2025 | tipranks.comSee More New Jersey Resources Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like New Jersey Resources? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on New Jersey Resources and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About New Jersey ResourcesNew Jersey Resources (NYSE:NJR), an energy services holding company, distributes natural gas. The company operates through four segments: Natural Gas Distribution, Clean Energy Ventures, Energy Services, and Storage and Transportation. The Natural Gas Distribution segment offers regulated natural gas utility services to approximately 576,000 customers in Burlington, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, and Sussex counties in New Jersey; provides capacity and storage management services; and participates in the off-system sales and capacity release markets. The Clean Energy Ventures segment invests in, owns, and operates clean energy projects, including commercial and residential solar installation situated in New Jersey, Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut, Michigan, and Indiana. The Energy Services segment maintains and operates natural gas transportation and storage capacity contracts, as well as provides physical wholesale energy, retail energy and energy management services in the United States and Canada. The Storage and Transportation segment invests in invests in energy-related ventures. It provides heating, ventilation, and cooling services; sales and installation of appliances; offers solar equipment installation, and plumbing repair and installation services; and holds commercial real estate properties. The company was incorporated in 1981 and is headquartered in Wall, New Jersey.View New Jersey Resources ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles Market Anticipation Builds: Joby Stock Climbs Ahead of EarningsIs Intuitive Surgical a Buy After Volatile Reaction to Earnings?Seismic Shift at Intel: Massive Layoffs Precede Crucial EarningsRocket Lab Lands New Contract, Builds Momentum Ahead of EarningsAmazon's Earnings Could Fuel a Rapid Breakout Tesla Earnings Miss, But Musk Refocuses and Bulls ReactQualcomm’s Range Narrows Ahead of Earnings as Bulls Step In Upcoming Earnings Cadence Design Systems (4/28/2025)Welltower (4/28/2025)Waste Management (4/28/2025)AstraZeneca (4/29/2025)Mondelez International (4/29/2025)PayPal (4/29/2025)Starbucks (4/29/2025)DoorDash (4/29/2025)Honeywell International (4/29/2025)Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (4/29/2025) Get 30 Days of MarketBeat All Access for Free Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools. 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There are 9 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Thank you for standing by. My name is Regina, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the New Jersey Resources Fiscal 2023 4th Quarter and Year End Conference Call and Webcast. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. Operator00:00:29And answer session. I would now like to turn the conference over to Adam Prior, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:38Thank you so much. Welcome to New Jersey Resources fiscal 2023 4th quarter and year end conference call and webcast. I am joined here today by Steve Westhoven, our President and CEO Roberto Bell, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer as well as other members of our senior management team. Certain statements in today's call contain estimates and other forward looking statements within the meaning of the securities laws. We wish to caution listeners of this call that the current expectations, assumptions and beliefs forming the basis for our forward looking statements including many factors that are beyond our ability to control or estimate precisely. Speaker 100:01:11This could cause results to materially differ from our expectations as found on Slide 1. These items can also be found in the forward looking statements section of today's earnings release furnished on Form 8 ks and in our most recent forms 10 ks and 10 Q as filed with the SEC. We do not by including the statement assume any obligation to review or revise any particular forward looking statement referenced herein in light of future events. We will also be referring to certain non GAAP financial measures such as net financial earnings or NFE. We believe that NFE, net financial loss, utility gross margin, Financial margin, adjusted funds from operations and adjusted debt provide a more complete understanding of our financial performance. Speaker 100:01:52However, these non GAAP measures are not intended to be a substitute for GAAP. To our non GAAP financial measures are discussed more fully in Item 7 of our 10 ks. The slides accompanying today's presentation are available on our website were furnished on our Form 8 ks filed this morning. Our agenda for today is filed on Slide 4. Steve will begin with this year's highlights, followed by Roberto, who will review our financial results. Speaker 100:02:15Then we will open the call up for your questions. With that said, I will turn the call over to our President and CEO, Steve Westhoven. Please go ahead, Steve. Speaker 200:02:23Thanks, Adam, and good morning, everyone. Fiscal 2023 represented another solid year in NJR as we reported earnings well in excess of our industry leading to 9% long term growth rate. Our performance this past year speaks to the strength of our diversified business model and our ability to adapt to challenges in ways that benefit our customers and our investors. This morning, we reported fiscal 2023 net financial earnings per share of $2.70 This is at the top end of our revised guidance range, which was increased by $0.20 back in the Q1. We've accomplished quite a bit this year. Speaker 200:03:01New Jersey Natural Gas added 8,800 new customers with expansion throughout New Jersey Natural Gas' service territories as our customer growth has returned to pre pandemic levels. Clean Energy Ventures grew its project pipeline to the highest level in our company's history and we increased our in service capacity by the largest amount for any given year. At S and T, Adelphia Gateway completed its 1st full year in operation and Leaf River continued to deliver strong results. And finally, Energy Services once again delivered outperformance during periods of Volatility during the year. As strong as this fiscal year 2023 performance was, we have been more enthusiastic about our future. Speaker 200:03:47The details of our guidance for fiscal 2024 are on Slide 6. We are introducing to the guidance of $2.70 per share to $2.85 per share, which represents a 12% increase from the midpoint of our initial guidance last year. We've broadened the size of our guidance range for fiscal 2024 to $0.15 We've had a range of $0.10 for many years Despite significant growth of our earnings, this new range is consistent with those of our peers. Our projections are supported by contributions from all of our to the Q and A session. During fiscal 2024, a significant portion of our net financial earnings will come from our utility business as highlighted on Slide 7. Speaker 200:04:32However, we do expect a higher contribution from Energy Services in fiscal 2024 than in prior years due to the outsized contribution from the fixed payments associated with the asset management agreements announced in 2020. Looking ahead, we feel very comfortable with our long term growth rate in the future years. And in fiscal 2025, we expect to return to more normalized segment contributions. Speaker 300:04:57Overall, we have Speaker 200:04:57a to portfolio of complementary businesses that deliver utility like returns over the long term. With that, I'll turn to a discussion of our business units beginning on Slide 8. We invested over $450,000,000 at New Jersey Natural Gas through a variety of programs in fiscal 2023 With nearly 40% of that CapEx providing near real time returns. New Jersey Natural Gas' ability to generate these returns helps to alleviate Regulatory lag, which is of particular importance in a high interest rate environment. Within that 40% is our Save Green program, which helps to residential and commercial customers lower their energy usage. Speaker 200:05:39We spent approximately $60,000,000 in fiscal 2023 to help our customers save money and reduce their carbon footprint, which is New Jersey Natural Gas' largest ever annual investment in the program for the 2nd straight year. We recently completed a commercial energy efficiency project at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, which is located not far from our headquarters here in Monmouth County. We provided over $6,000,000 in energy efficiency financing at Jersey Shore and expect the net energy savings on this project to pay back the entire cost within 4 years. Growing these programs is a central element of our de carbonization strategy and New Jersey Natural Gas has long been a leader in this area. We achieved solid new customer growth throughout the year adding 8,800 new customers compared to approximately 7,800 last year through a combination of new construction and conversions. Speaker 200:06:34During fiscal 2024, our capital strategy will ensure that our infrastructure continues to provide the most reliable and affordable energy delivery service available for our customers. We also expect our customer growth to continue to trend higher. And with our current IIP and Saved Green investments, approximately 40% of capital investments to the timeline of our major technology investments. Moving to slide 9, our solar business Clean Energy Ventures had an exceptional 2023. We added 82 megawatts of new solar capacity, which represents the largest capacity increase in any fiscal year since CEV's inception. Speaker 200:07:21We expanded geographically and during the year over 40% of our capacity growth has come from outside of New Jersey. Our focus is on developing solar investment opportunities to provide high single digit unlevered returns and again utility like in their construct. Our project pipeline continues to grow and includes approximately 7 50 megawatts of potential investment options. As we've discussed in past calls, we are creating a diverse pipeline with multiple opportunities for expansion without any significant with multiple opportunities for expansion without any significant reliance on particular geographic location or subsidy program. Moving to our storage and transportation segment on Slide 10. Speaker 200:08:00This was our 1st year with Adelphia fully in operation, which is an 84 mile pipeline that runs from Martins Creek, Pennsylvania to just south of Philadelphia. Our team did an excellent job ensuring the Pipeline operated effectively throughout the fiscal year, particularly during winter storm Elliott. At Leaf River, we continue to pursue service enhancements to the company's ability to deliver the benefits of our customers. Moving to Slide 11, Energy Services had an excellent 2020 to 3 with a significant contribution from the AMAs coupled with an outsized performance from our portfolio of strategically positioned assets. The AMAs will allow NJR to exceed its stated NF EPS long term growth rate this year. Speaker 200:08:42And as demonstrated over the course of the last 3 years, We still have the ability to generate additional earnings from our remaining portfolio in times of volatility. With that, I'll turn the call over to Roberto for a review of our financial results. Roberto? Speaker 400:08:58Thank you, Steve, and good morning, everyone. Slide 13 shows the main drivers of our NFE for fiscal 2023. We reported NFE of $261,800,000 or $2.70 per share compared with NFE of $240,300,000 or $2.50 per share last year. The results of our business segments exceeded our initial expectations and reflected a year over year improvement at Energy Services and CV, partially offset by higher depreciation and interest expenses in our other segments. New Jersey Natural Gas reported NFE in line with to the patients, which included another strong year for our VGSX incentive programs. Speaker 400:09:47I also wanted to note that a significant portion The year on year increase in O and M at our utility is due to a difficult comparison versus fiscal 2022. Well, India and G deferred nearly $11,000,000 of budget expenses in accordance with the July 2020 BPU deferral order. Fin Energy Ventures increased NFE by over $5,000,000 As Steve mentioned, We increased our service capacity by more than 82 megawatts during the year. And we will recognize the value of the associated tax attributes over the next 5 years. Distortion Transportation reported NFE of $12,800,000 which included higher revenues from the facilities that went into service at Adeocea Gateway during the year as well as higher depreciation and interest expenses. Speaker 400:10:39Finally, Energy Services reported NFE of $68,500,000 compared to $39,100,000 in the prior year. As we look to fiscal 2024, it's important to note that we expect to recognize a significant portion of the AMA's total revenues during the year, most of which will be recorded during our fiscal Q4. Turning to our capital plan on Slide 14. Over the next 2 years, we expect to invest between $1,200,000,000 $1,500,000,000 across the company. This capital deployment is expected to support growth throughout our business units and is consistent with our long term NSEPS growth target of 7% to 9%. Speaker 400:11:27For fiscal 2024, we're increasing the bottom and top ends of the range from our previous projections, largely driven by higher expected capital investments at NGNG. In the next 2 years, we anticipate spending between $800,000,000 $1,000,000,000 of the utility. At CEV, we see a number of opportunities for future growth and expect to spend between $300,000,000 $470,000,000 over the next 2 years, taking advantage of our broad opportunity set of solar investments. And finally, at S and T, we expect to maintain a moderate CapEx level with service enhancements at Leaf River representing the largest investments. Our capital projections are anchored by strong cash flows from operations. Speaker 400:12:22On Slide 15, we showed a very strong operating cash flow achieved during fiscal 2023. We also show our updated projections for fiscal year 2024 and introduce fiscal 2025. As you can see, we expect cash to range between 450,000,000 and 490,000,000 in the coming year. Moving to Slide 16, NJNG continues to maintain favorable investment grade credit ratings and NJR's adjusted FFO to adjusted debt was 19% for fiscal 2023 and is expected to be between 17% 18% for fiscal 2024. We have no plans to issue block equity. Speaker 400:13:09However, as we have stated in the past, our existing dealer investment program and welcome everyone. Finally, on Slide 17, we provide a breakout of our long term debt. As you can see, Most of our debt is fixed rate in nature. We don't have significant maturities in any particular year and we have substantial liquidity at both to NGR and NGLNG. Our NSEPS guidance for fiscal 2024 and our long term NCPF growth guidance assume high interest rate for the foreseeable future. Speaker 400:13:51Overall, We are in an outstanding position to fund our growth objectives. With that, I will turn the call back to Steve. Speaker 200:14:01Thanks, Roberto. Since our Analyst Day in 2020, NJR has reported 12 quarters of financial results. During this time, we have raised our earnings guidance on 5 occasions as a result of strong performance throughout our business units. We exceeded our 7% to 9% long term growth rate for each of the past 3 years and we expect to do it again this year. An important component of our value proposition is the ability to return capital to our share owners. Speaker 200:14:27For fiscal year 2024, we have raised our dividend to an annualized rate of $1.68 per share, a nearly 8% increase compared to fiscal 2023. With this increase, we have now raised our dividend every year for the last 28 years. The combination of our expected growth in dividend provides investors with an expected shareholder return of between 11% to 13%. In the coming years, we'll continue to develop organic growth opportunities that support long term NF EPS to growth targets through prudent capital decision making reinforced by a strong balance sheet. As always, I'd like to thank all of our employees at NJR for and your hard work and contribution. Speaker 200:15:08And with that, I'll now open the call for your questions. Operator00:15:16To questions. Our first question will come from the line of Julien Dumoulin Smith with Bank of America. Please go ahead. Speaker 500:15:28Hi, good morning. This is Tanner on for Julian. Now that we're a few years into the long term planning period, What factors are you seeing that could trend your EPS growth to the upper or lower ends of your long term guidance for the remainder of the planning period. Given your upcoming rate filing and CapEx plan, should we think of NJNG as accelerating here in the back end? I'm just Trying to get a sense of the how you view the linearity of NJNG and then Clean Energy Ventures as well. Speaker 600:16:01So, Tanner, I think you described it right there. We've got a number of options. We're able to grow or deploy capital, I guess, more quickly in order to accelerate that growth. See the CapEx program at Utility increasing due to customer growth and other factors of clean energy. We've got a large pipeline of projects at CEV. Speaker 600:16:20We've got potential expansion although nothing's been announced at our S and T group. Speaker 400:16:25So you have Speaker 600:16:26all those factors pushing forward. Added into that, the fact that we have lessened needs for equity due to the cash flows for management services, It's just built a strong platform for future investments. So I'd like to think about it as we've got a good plan solidly built going forward to hit the 7% to 9% growth and then the potential for additional investments should any of the things that I just mentioned hit. Speaker 500:16:54Great. Thanks. And then with respect to the upcoming rate case application, can you set some preliminary expectations for the Composition of the filing, is it expected to be pretty straightforward? Or could there be programs or mechanisms attached with the filing? Thanks. Speaker 700:17:13Tanner, this is Pat Migliaccio, Chief Operating Officer of New Jersey Natural Gas. To answer your question, this is a pretty straightforward rate case. You may recall, we'll be filing sometime in fiscal year 2024, the principal toggle for that is in IT Investments related to our program NEX, as well as other, I'll call bread and butter utility investments around safety and reliability, Pipeline, etcetera. But to hit the other hand, it's a pretty straightforward Speaker 500:17:46Great. Thank you very much. Operator00:17:50Your next question comes from the line of Travis Miller with Morningstar. Please go ahead. Speaker 800:17:55Good morning, everyone. Thank you. Speaker 600:17:57Hey, Travis. Speaker 800:17:59Quick question on Slide 11 to start. Those the revenue and cash flow projections, what kind of Variability, should we expect in those or not at all? Speaker 400:18:12Robbie, hi. This is Roberto Bell. So you're talking about the AMA, right? Speaker 800:18:20The AMA, yes. Speaker 400:18:22Yes. Those are contracted. There is no variability on those vessels or remedies. Speaker 800:18:27Okay. So we can model in terms of modeling, just model those straight out as you presented them? Okay. And then can you tell us what the earned ROE Was it NJNG this year for the fiscal year? Speaker 400:18:44No. Unfortunately, that's something we don't disclose Speaker 800:18:50Okay, okay. Understand. And then a higher level question. On CEV, wonder if you could characterize both the types of projects that are in the pipeline and then also your thinking around strategy in terms of Building and or contracting and or buying projects in the future. Speaker 600:19:13Yes. I guess I'll take the strategy. It hasn't changed from where we started. We've got a few different stages of Projects that we're able to purchase and acquire, we started developing, but certainly not opposed to buying late stage projects or even ones in operation. General strategy is to be able to build, develop and own within to regions and jurisdictions that are favorable and fit our risk profile. Speaker 600:19:41So I'd say New Jersey like and we get outside New Jersey which we have I think 40% of our projects to the state outside New Jersey or 40% going forward outside New Jersey. We're really looking at the risk profile, making sure the regulatory environment is favorable and really It matches what we like to say is utility like earnings across the whole company. So that's the way we're looking at it. Speaker 400:20:06Okay. Do you Speaker 800:20:07foresee doing projects on your own or would you consider going into Maybe some very large projects with a partner or other tax equity partner, however you'd want Could you see yourselves going into bigger projects with a partner? Speaker 600:20:30I wouldn't I'm not going to take anything off the table. To date, you've seen the size projects that we're doing anywhere from a few megawatts up to 25 megawatts to 30 megawatts. So smaller in nature when you look at large scale utility like investments and I think that niche market fits us well not only from a to a return management perspective. That being said, I think we certainly have the capability to manage larger projects. Again, this is all really focused on returns and risk profile of the jurisdiction in which we're making the investment. Speaker 800:21:05Okay. Great. I appreciate the thoughts. Operator00:21:15Your next question will come from the line of Robert Moskow with Mizuho. Please go ahead. Speaker 300:21:21Hi, good morning, everyone. So on Slide 9, which is the The stage of the CEB backlog addition, the break points on the X axis changed, so it's kind of hard to tell if anything is different with respect to Project timing, but any notable developments you want to call out? It also seems like CEV CapEx in 24 Is going to be slightly higher than originally thought. So any thoughts there would be helpful. Speaker 400:21:47So what are you looking for Robert? I'm not sure what the question is. Speaker 300:21:52Yes, sorry. So Slide 9, the CEV project addition timeline. So Just wondering if anything has changed because the break points on the X axis are different than they were in the prior quarter. So any developments are kind of steady as she goes? And it also looks like the 24 CapEx for CEV is slightly higher than originally thought. Speaker 300:22:13So any thoughts there? Speaker 400:22:15Hey, Rob. This is Roberto. So on Slide 9, if you compare this slide to prior slides similar to this one from prior calls, There is no significant difference, although that our in service capacity has increased because we have been taking significant months of maintenance. But if you look at the Right, that 1.2 gigawatts that we have on the right has not changed. So we continue to move and progress creating our pipeline. Speaker 400:22:41But From the last quarter when we had this conversation, no material changes. Speaker 300:22:48Okay, great. That's helpful. And Steve, I think you touched on it in your prepared remarks just with the widening of the guidance range. Is that just to match your peers or is there any more earnings variability In your base businesses this year compared to prior years and if there is just wondering what that could be attributable to? Speaker 400:23:06No, not related to more variability. This This is exactly what you said to much of our peers. If you think about our guidance range, it's been about $0.10 for 12 years, I don't know, more than 8 years. And despite that, we have been growing earnings every single year, right? So it is just to bring us back in line with what our peers on a per day basis. Speaker 300:23:28Okay, great. Thanks, Roberto. And just a quick last one for me. I know you mentioned kind of pursuing the service enhancements at Leaf River. Just wondering, is that something that could be monetized? Speaker 300:23:41Is that an area of growth? Or is that Improving customer service for those customers. Speaker 600:23:48No, I think the whole strategy associated with our S and T business is to be able to get on to organic growth with those assets. And certainly, we've got Growth mindset into these businesses. So yes, we've got some small investments that we're making now tied to some contractual arrangements. And I think moving forward, it's been a secret that storage is going to expand in the Gulf Coast and certainly pipeline infrastructure in the Northeast It's difficult to build greenfield, so expanding existing pipelines is much easier. So if you look at those two facts, we look at expansion. Speaker 600:24:31We've got nothing to announce now, but it's certainly something that we look at that could be outside of the plan. Speaker 300:24:41Got it. All right. Thanks for the day, everyone. Speaker 400:24:44Thank you. Operator00:25:00We have no further questions at this time. I'll turn the call back over to Adam Prior for any closing remarks. Speaker 600:25:06Thanks, Regina. I'd like to thank everyone for joining us Speaker 100:25:08this morning. As a reminder, a Speaker 600:25:10recording of this call is available for replay on our website. As everyone has a happy and safe Thanksgiving, as always, we appreciate your interest and investment in JL. Thanks so much. Goodbye. Operator00:25:21That will conclude today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.Read morePowered by