Spire Inc (SR) 2026 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day and welcome to Spire's first-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please note, this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Megan McPhail, Managing Director, Investor relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome to Spire's Fiscal 2026 first-quarter earnings call. We issued an earnings news release this morning, and you may access it on our website at spireenergy.com under Newsroom. There's a slide presentation that accompanies our webcast, which can be downloaded from our website.

Before we begin, let me cover our Safe Harbor statement and use of non-GAAP earnings measures.

Today's call, including responses to questions, may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although our forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, there are various uncertainties and risk factors that may cause future performance or results to be different from those anticipated. These risks and uncertainties are outlined in our quarterly and annual filings with the SEC.

In our comments, we will be discussing non-GAAP measures used by management when evaluating our performance and results of operations. Explanations and reconciliations of these measures to their GAAP counterparts are contained in both our news release and slide presentation.

On the call today is Scott Doyle, President and CEO; and Adam Woodard, Executive Vice President and CFO. With that, I will turn the call over to Scott Doyle. Scott?

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. As we begin our fiscal first quarter update, I want to recognize and appreciate the hard work of our employees across every part of our organization during winter storm Fern. The recent weather event was an opportunity for us to serve our customers when they need us most, and I'm very proud of how we responded. With extreme weather impacting all our service territories, our team collaborated closely, making sure homes and businesses stayed safe and warm.

According to the American Gas Association, winter storm Fern led to some of the highest demand of natural gas in our nation's history. In fact, at the height of the storm, just our Spire utilities delivered natural gas equivalent to 31 gigawatts of electric generation capacity at a much lower cost to customers. Despite extreme conditions, natural gas once again distinguished itself, underscoring that direct use of natural gas remains the most reliable and affordable way to heat your home.

This morning, we announced adjusted earnings of $1.77 per share, up from $1.34 per share a year ago. The strong year-over-year improvement reflects solid execution in our gas utility business, supported by new rates across all of the utilities.

Our marketing and midstream segments also delivered meaningful contributions. Just as we've discussed on prior calls, cost management and customer affordability remains central to our strategy. We continue to pursue efficiencies while investing in system improvements and safety, ensuring we maintain the reliability our customers expect.

On the regulatory front, we are executing on our goal to achieve constructive outcomes in all jurisdictions. New Missouri rates became effective in October and in November, we filed a request for a $30.3 million revenue increase under the infrastructure system replacement surcharge with rates expected to be effective no later than May. Spire Alabama and Spire Gulf rates under the rate stabilization and equalization mechanism were updated in December, supporting our continued system investment.

Looking ahead, we are reaffirming our 2026 adjusted EPS guidance of $5.25 to $5.45 per share, our 2027 adjusted EPS guidance of $5.65 to $5.85 per share, and our long-term 5% to 7% adjusted EPS growth target. These targets underscore our confidence in the strength of our portfolio and our disciplined approach to capital deployment. Our 10-year capital plan remains at $11.2 billion, with the majority targeted toward utility investments.

Finally, we remain on track to close the acquisition of the Piedmont Tennessee business in calendar quarter one, 2026, a transaction that strengthens our regulated growth profile. We remain committed to delivering on our financial and operational goals as we execute our strategy to grow organically, invest in infrastructure, and drive continuous improvement.

Turning now to page 5 for an update on the Tennessee acquisition. We continue to make progress toward closing. The Hart-Scott-Rodino review is complete and approval from the Tennessee Public Utility Commission remains pending. Our financing plan is aligned with maintaining our current credit ratings and includes a balanced mix of debt, equity, and hybrid securities. In November, we issued $900 million of Junior Subordinated Notes of Spire Inc.

Following this, in December, we entered into a Master Note purchase agreement for $825 million of Spire Tennessee Senior Notes, which we'll fund at closing. We continue to expect minimal common equity needs.

As we've discussed on previous earnings calls, our evaluation of the potential sale of our natural gas storage assets is ongoing. The timeline for an announcement has extended beyond our initial expectations, reflecting our objective to achieve the right value for each of the assets. We are focused on simplifying our portfolio and expect to provide an update later this quarter, ahead of the acquisition close.

Operationally, our integration planning is well underway, supported by an 18-month transition services agreement designed to ensure seamless continuity for both customers and employees.

Moving to page 6. In the quarter, we invested $230 million in capital expenditures with the majority directed to our gas utility operations, including system upgrades, infrastructure modernization, and new business connections.

These investments are already delivering value as reflected in the strong operational performance and reliability of the system through a quarter marked by weather swings from unseasonably warm to well below average temperatures.

CapEx was lower year over year, driven by the near completion of the advanced meter upgrades in the St. Louis region and the wrap-up of our storage expansion project. We continue to expect 2026 CapEx of $809 million, supported by our 10-year $11.2 billion capital plan. These investments directly support rate base growth of roughly 7% in Missouri and 7.5% in Tennessee and 6% regulated equity growth in Alabama and Gulf. This consistent and disciplined investment strategy underpins our confidence in achieving long-term 5% to 7% adjusted EPS growth.

I'll now turn the call over to Adam for a financial review and update on guidance and outlook. Adam?

Thanks, Scott, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin with our quarterly results, which are detailed on pages 7 and 8 of our presentation. For the first quarter, we reported adjusted earnings of $108 million or $1.77 per share compared to $81 million or $1.34 per share a year ago.

Breaking down earnings by business segment. Gas Utilities earned $104 million, up over 33% or $26 million from last year, driven by the new rates in Missouri and higher margin under the RSE in Alabama. These benefits were partially offset by the lower volumetric margin in both Missouri and Alabama, along with higher O&M, depreciation, and interest expense.

Gas Marketing earned $4.5 million, an increase of $2.3 million due to increased portfolio optimization opportunities. Midstream delivered earnings of $12.7 million, up almost $1 million from last year, driven by additional capacity at Spire Storage, partially offset by higher depreciation and interest expense.

And finally, other corporate costs were adjusted or an adjusted loss of $12.7 million, approximately $2 million higher than the prior year. This reflects higher corporate costs and slightly higher interest expense in the current year.

Turning now to our growth outlook on page 9. As Scott mentioned, we are reaffirming our 5% to 7% long-term adjusted EPS growth target, supported by strong rate base growth across Missouri and Tennessee, steady, regulated equity growth in Alabama and Gulf, and our 10-year, $11.2 billion CapEx plan.

We remain committed to executing on our strategy and are affirming our 2026 adjusted earnings guidance range of $5.25 to $5.45 per share. As a reminder, this range excludes the results of the pending acquisition of the Piedmont Tennessee business and includes a full year of earnings related to our natural gas storage facilities.

We are also affirming our 2027 adjusted earnings guidance range of $5.65 to $5.85 per share, which reflects a full year of expected earnings contribution the Piedmont Tennessee business and excludes earnings from Spire Storage. The adjusted earnings range for Corporate and Other has been updated to a range of negative $40 million to negative $46 million, lowering the midpoint $9 million to reflect the interest expense related to the incremental debt to redeem the Spire Inc. preferred stock.

Fiscal 2026 preferred dividends impacting EPS are expected to be lower by $9 million. I would like to note that our merger of the STL and MoGas Pipeline was completed January 1, 2026. It will operate as the Spire-MoGas Pipeline.

Moving now to slide 10 for an update on our base business financing plan, excluding Tennessee. We expect equity needs of $0 million to $50 million per year, and we'll continue to rely on long-term debt to support refinancing and capital requirements.

Our recent base business financing activity includes $200 million of first mortgage bonds issued at Spire Missouri in October of 2025 and $200 million of 6.375% Junior Subordinated Notes issued in January 2026. We intend to use the proceeds from these JSNs along with other funds to redeem all outstanding shares of Spire Inc.'s preferred stock.

Our projected long-term debt issuances for 2026 has increased by $250 million driven by the decision to redeem the preferred shares. As always, we remain focused on maintaining our balance sheet strength and flexibility. We continue to target FFO to debt of 15% to 16%.

With that, let me turn it back over to you, Scott.

Thanks, Adam. To close, our business priorities for the year remain consistent with our commentary over the past several quarters: safely and reliably deliver natural gas service; execute our capital plan efficiently and recover capital in a timely manner; maintain a strong focus on customer affordability through disciplined cost management; achieve constructive regulatory outcomes, including preparing for a future test year Missouri rate case; and successfully financing and closing the Tennessee acquisition while ensuring a seamless integration.

Thank you for joining us today. We appreciate your continued support, and we are now ready to take your questions.

(Operator Instructions) Gabe Moreen, Mizuho.

Hey. Good morning, team. I mean, if I can start off in terms of some of the volatility we've seen here in gas markets in January. Scott, you mentioned how well the utilities performed operationally. But can you talk about maybe how marketing was positioned during the month and whether it might have been able to capture some of that volatility?

Hey, Gabe. Good morning. Yeah. I mean, as we mentioned, I feel really good about how all of our systems performed across the enterprise during the month. It's a little early to describe them quantitatively at this time.

So -- but one thing we do know, we met all of our customer obligations. The market itself performed very well, both from the supply side but even just the way the markets work during those times. Everything was fluid and liquid during that time, so we felt good about how that event took place. So I look forward to talking more about that on the second quarter call.

Got it, Scott. And I know you said you want to talk about things too much quantitatively, but can you also just talk about how your utilities hedging strategy may or played out in terms of protecting customers from some of the volatility and whether you're satisfied with how that worked out as well?

Yeah. Simple answer is, yes, satisfied. As you know, on our utility purchasing strategy, particularly in both Missouri and Alabama, we have the ability to operate effectively our own AMA for the utilities and those performed as expected during this time. So our customers were protected and benefited from that activity.

Great. That's all I have. Thanks, Scott.

Yeah. Thanks, Gabe.

Thanks, Gabe.

David Arcaro, Morgan Stanley.

Hey. Good morning. Thanks so much. I was wondering if you could give maybe a little bit more color on the storage asset sales process. I guess, any feedback that you got from the market on interest and appetite for those assets? Could you maybe lay out the timing and how that might line up? Like could this go a full transaction get done before the close? Or kind of how -- what are the backup plans there? Thanks so much.

Yeah. Sure, David. Good morning. As we mentioned in our prepared remarks, the evaluation process has gone a little longer than we initially anticipated. What -- our focus remains, making sure we get the right value for each of the assets. Maybe just a comment about the assets themselves.

Coming out of January, in particular, from an operational perspective, they performed very well, met all of our customer obligations, still have demand for those services, for those assets on a going-forward basis. So feel good about that.

I feel good about the process, how it's unfolding at this time, but just making sure we're spending the time looking at the opportunities that are in front of us. And our focus continues to remain on prioritizing the utilities and simplifying our portfolio as we go through this process.

I'll let Adam maybe comment a little bit more on timing and maybe from a financing standpoint. Adam?

Hey, David. It's Adam. We do expect to have -- make an announcement on the storage evaluation a little bit later this quarter. To your point, as far as whether something is transacted prior to the close of Tennessee, we do -- are fully covered with a bridge loan, and if we needed to tap that for a short period of time, that we would be able to do that. But we we are committed to making announcement here later this quarter prior to the close of Tennessee.

Yeah. Got it. Thanks. And just was it response to, was it harder to find interest or sell the assets together or were valuations different from what you had expected going into that process?

No. Yeah, David. We've had very good interest in them. Again, these assets can be looked at in combination or they can be looked at separately. And so what we're wanting to do is make sure that full process plays out.

Got it. Okay. Thanks. That is helpful. Then maybe a separate topic. I was just wondering if you could touch on maybe more broadly, economic development efforts.

Are you seeing opportunities for large loads or large generation facilities coming into your service territories, anything on the larger side that would boost growth in the pipeline?

Yeah. Sure, David. On the -- particularly on large loads as it relates to the pipeline, the opportunity there for us is to serve generation needs, either as they convert coal to gas or as new gas flats come online. We're active in talking to different parties, but don't have anything to announce. We'll announce when the time is right.

Okay. Great. Thanks so much.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith, Jefferies.

Hi, team. This [Spark Lee] on for Julian. Congrats on the solid quarter. Appreciate the color on the storage transaction and marketing segment. And maybe just a quick follow-up. Just how should we think about the timing for equity issuance related to the Tennessee acquisition?

Yeah. So [Spark], maybe to walk through where we're at -- where we've come from and where we're at now and then expectations around that. So in November raised $900 million of the JSN market and then followed that up with $825 million for the operating company -- Spire Tennessee operating company. That leaves, give or take, about $750 million to either raise or recycle through -- from potential sale of businesses. We're looking to get that announcement made on what that looks like.

That would that would indicate something. If we weren't needing to go to the equity market, that would be some time after the next call in May or June.

Understood. I appreciate the color.

Yeah. Thanks. Spark.

Ross Fowler, Bank of America.

Morning, Scott. Morning, Adam. How are you?

Morning, Rossa.

Maybe taking a step back, bigger picture question. Obviously, we're on track to close Tennessee by the end of the first quarter, or I mean, excuse me, we're on track to get a storage asset sale announced by the end of the first quarter, you're moving to Tennessee close pending approval of Tennessee Commission.

So once we get through both of those things, how do you -- you talked about prioritizing utilities, simplifying the business model. How do you think about your scale of the company post those two transactions should they be executed and completed?

And how do you think about strategically how you would think about adding utility to that portfolio or other things you could take out of the portfolio? Just general thoughts around it.

Yeah. Thanks, Ross. Our primary focus right now is closing the transaction and integrating Tennessee and making sure that we have a seamless transition for customers there. And so our plate is really full right now with regard to executing on that priority. And so that we want to keep that a priority. So at this time, that's what we're focused on is doing that.

From a scale perspective, this has some benefit for customers ultimately because we'll be able to spread our shared services costs over a bigger base is what we'll do as well. So that scale benefit is a benefit for our customers and for the company as well. But that's what we're focused on right now is executing on our plan.

And then how do you -- you mentioned the integration of Tennessee post close. How do you think about there's probably system stuff, you have to do operational stuff you have to do? I mean, it's not contiguous, but there's still all of that sort of back office, if you have to do, as you mentioned, shared services. How do you think about the timeline of -- on a piece of paper, it never looks like a lot over to imagine it going to work. How do you think about the time line of getting that much in getting through that integration?

Yeah. I know the 100-plus people on our side that are working on that, really appreciate that comment, Ross, as to the amount of effort they required as well. So a lot of work takes place post close. As you know, we do have integration teams working very closely with Duke, both on the separation of the assets but also on the continued operation of them is we'll have transition services for a period of 18 months.

So our job will be to work to make sure that both for employees and customers as we transition those services and bring them to the Spire umbrella of serving them, that we do that in a way that is methodical, but also brings value to the organization as well.

And so when we do that, a lot of plans have been put in place. And once we close, we'll be doing the really hard work of pulling this off. The good news is this is a company -- Spire is a company that has a long history of doing this and has a lot of well-developed muscles regarding this, and I feel very confident in our ability to do this.

All right. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Ross.

Paul Fremont, Ladenburg.

Thank you. Congratulations on a strong quarter. I guess my first question relates to storage. I guess in the past, you guys -- you've expressed optimism of being able to complete the review with the sale. Do you still have that optimism at this point in time that at the end of the month, you can achieve a sale -- or at the end of the quarter, I mean?

Yeah, Paul. This Scott, and good morning. Yeah, look, we've had strong interest in these assets. And as I've mentioned earlier, our desire at this time is to make sure that we're getting good value for both or each. And so that's what's causing the process to perhaps go a little longer than we had anticipated initially but feel good about where we are in the stage of the process at this time.

Great. And then when I look at all the financing that you've done, it seems like you've been able to achieve some very reasonable rates, and you've gone beyond in terms of potentially achieving savings from the retirement of preferred. Does that compare favorably to the assumptions that you put out when you gave guidance on the fourth quarter call?

Hey. Paul. It's Adam. It's a good question. I would say that we were contemplating the redemption of the preferred in that guidance. So that's -- it's not additive to it. And I think so far in the acquisition financing, it's -- we're relatively close to what our expectations were. Good question.

Great. Thanks a lot. That's it for me.

Thank you, Paul

(Operator Instructions) Bill Appicelli, UBS.

Hi. Good morning.

Good morning, Bill.

Just a question on the -- clarifying that preferred impact because you guys do show the corporate and other signed line item getting impacted by about $9 million, but then there's a direct one-to-one offset, right, on the the preferred dividend impact, which you don't actually quantify in the guidance.

But -- so net-net, EPS is unchanged, right? So even though the cumulative looks like the earnings, if you add the buckets up gets worse, but there's an offset that's not actually shown. Is that the way to think about it?

That's right, Bill. I think you've followed it.

Okay. And then can you just remind us on the regulatory strategy or calendar from here, particularly as it relates to Missouri? Just as a -- walk us through the timeline of when the next case would be filed and new rates under the new legislation?

Yeah. Hey, Bill. On the rate case timing, it will -- the way we have at least anticipated right now is we follow the pattern of our prior case, which is we'd file it after fiscal year-end before Thanksgiving. So look at the October, November time frame of this year. And then the timeframe of the rate case for prosecution would follow most likely the same amount of time it took for this last rate case.

And as we talk to a lot of folks, it's a case of first impression with being the first future test year that we would be filing. So we'd want to work through those details with the commission as we go through this process as well.

But that's what we're looking forward to later this year. And work is already underway in dialogue with commission staff and others as we prepare to file that -- the package under the conditions that they like for us to file it.

Okay. That's very helpful. Thank you. That's it for me.

Thank you, Bill.

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Megan McPhail for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Thank you for joining us on the call today. We look forward to seeing many of you at conferences in the coming weeks. Have a great day.

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.