Unitil (UTL) Earnings Call zum 3. Quartal 2026: Prognose bei steigenden Versorgermargen bestätigt

Kernaussagen

• Die Unitil Corporation wies für die ersten neun Monate 2026 einen bereinigten Nettogewinn von 38,3 Mio. US-Dollar bzw. 2,12 US-Dollar je Aktie aus. Das bereinigte Ergebnis je Aktie (EPS) stieg gegenüber dem Vorjahreszeitraum um 0,09 US-Dollar oder 4,4 %.
• Das Management bestätigte seine EPS-Prognose für 2026 von 3,20 bis 3,36 US-Dollar mit einem Mittelwert von 3,28 US-Dollar und hielt an seinem langfristigen Gewinnwachstumsziel von 5 % bis 7 % fest.
• Die bereinigte Bruttomarge im Stromgeschäft stieg um 11,1 % auf 96,0 Mio. US-Dollar, was in erster Linie auf höhere Verteilungsentgelte zurückzuführen ist.
• Die bereinigte Bruttomarge im Gasgeschäft erhöhte sich um 12,8 % auf 151,9 Mio. US-Dollar, gestützt durch höhere Tarife, Kundenwachstum, kälteres Winterwetter und den Beitrag von Maine Natural Gas.
• Unitil schloss im Oktober die dauerhafte Finanzierung für die Übernahmen von Maine Natural Gas und des Wassergeschäfts in New Hampshire ab und zahlte die entsprechenden Laufzeitdarlehen vollständig zurück.
• Der Fünfjahres-Investitionsplan des Unternehmens bis 2030 beläuft sich weiterhin auf rund 1,2 Mrd. US-Dollar und liegt damit 24 % über dem vorherigen Fünfjahresplan.

Wichtige Finanzdaten

Geschäfts- und operative Entwicklung

Die bereinigte Bruttomarge im Stromgeschäft profitierte von höheren Tarifen in Höhe von 10,3 Mio. US-Dollar, was teilweise durch einen einmaligen Rückgang der FERC-Übertragungserlöse um 0,7 Mio. US-Dollar ausgeglichen wurde. Die höheren Tarife beinhalteten Unterstützung durch die dauerhafte Tariferhöhung von Unitil Energy Systems in Höhe von 13 Mio. US-Dollar mit Wirkung zum 1. Mai 2026, eine leistungsbezogene Tarifanpassung bei Fitchburg sowie höhere Erträge aus Kapital-Trackern. Für alle Stromkunden gelten entkoppelte Tarife.

In der bereinigten Bruttomarge des Gasgeschäfts spiegelten sich 15,8 Mio. US-Dollar aus höheren Tarifen und Kundenwachstum sowie 1,4 Mio. US-Dollar aus kälterem Winterwetter wider. Maine Natural Gas trug in den ersten neun Monaten 10,5 Mio. US-Dollar bei. Unitil gewann im Jahresvergleich rund 6.500 Gaskunden hinzu, hauptsächlich durch die Übernahme von Maine Natural Gas. Zum 30. September 2026 unterlagen etwa 52 % der Gaskunden entkoppelten Tarifen.

Der Betriebs- und Instandhaltungsaufwand stieg um 8,2 Mio. US-Dollar. Dies umfasste 5,1 Mio. US-Dollar an höheren Versorger-Betriebskosten sowie 3,8 Mio. US-Dollar an höheren Personal- und sonstigen Kosten, was teilweise durch 0,7 Mio. US-Dollar an geringeren Akquisitionskosten ausgeglichen wurde. Auf Maine Natural Gas und die Aquarion-Unternehmen in New Hampshire entfielen 3,9 Mio. US-Dollar bzw. 1,2 Mio. US-Dollar dieses Anstiegs.

Die Übernahmen der Aquarion Water Company of New Hampshire und der Abenaki Water Company wurden am 30. Juni abgeschlossen und brachten fast 11.000 Kunden zu etwa dem 1,2-Fachen der regulierten Vermögensbasis ein. Das Management erklärte, dass die Übernahme für 2026 voraussichtlich ergebnisneutral sein wird. Unitil schloss zudem die Integration von Maine Natural Gas ab und beendete alle verbleibenden Übergangsdienstleistungen.

Der Aufbau der modernen Zählerinfrastruktur von Unitil liegt weiterhin im Zeitplan. Das Unternehmen geht davon aus, den Zähleraustausch in New Hampshire bis Ende 2027 abzuschließen, nachdem die Einführung in Massachusetts im Jahr 2025 abgeschlossen wurde.

Prognose des Managements

Das Management bestätigte seine EPS-Prognose für 2026 von 3,20 bis 3,36 US-Dollar mit einem Mittelwert von 3,28 US-Dollar. Das Unternehmen hielt zudem an seinem langfristigen Gewinnwachstumsziel von 5 % bis 7 % und seiner langfristigen Prognose für das Wachstum der regulierten Vermögensbasis von 6,5 % bis 8,5 % fest.

Der aktuelle Investitionsplan bis 2030 beläuft sich auf insgesamt rund 1,2 Mrd. US-Dollar. Er enthält zusammen etwa 65 Mio. US-Dollar für Bangor Natural Gas und Maine Natural Gas sowie rund 33 Mio. US-Dollar für die Aquarion-Unternehmen in New Hampshire. Das Management geht davon aus, dass der operative Cashflow den Großteil des Plans finanzieren wird, während der Rest durch eine Kombination aus Fremd- und Eigenkapital finanziert wird.

Risiken und wichtige Beobachtungspunkte

Die von Northern Utilities vorgeschlagenen dauerhaften Tariferhöhungen sind weiterhin Gegenstand behördlicher Genehmigungsverfahren. In New Hampshire beantragte Unitil eine dauerhafte Erhöhung um 9,8 Mio. US-Dollar, während vorläufige Tarife in Höhe von 5,5 Mio. US-Dollar am 1. Juni 2026 in Kraft traten. Das Management rechnet damit, dass die dauerhaften Tarife am 1. April 2027 nach Fachsitzungen, Anhörungen von Beteiligten und Vergleichskonferenzen in Kraft treten werden.

In Maine beantragte Northern Utilities eine Tariferhöhung um 10,4 Mio. US-Dollar. Das Unternehmen reichte am 27. Oktober eine Gegenstellungnahme ein; das Verfahren ist weiterhin anhängig.

Der potenzielle Erwerb der Aquarion Water Company of Massachusetts durch Unitil wird durch eine unverbindliche Absichtserklärung geregelt. Das Management erklärte, dass die Transaktion erst nach dem zufriedenstellenden Abschluss eines Basistarifverfahrens in Massachusetts fortgesetzt werden könne, wobei eine finale Entscheidung möglicherweise in der zweiten Jahreshälfte 2027 ergeht.

Höhere Betriebsausgaben, Abschreibungen sowie Steuern schwächten den positiven Effekt von Übernahmen, höheren Tarifen, Kundenwachstum und kälterem Wetter in den ersten neun Monaten 2026 teilweise ab.

Vollständiges Transkript der Telefonkonferenz

Vollständiges Transkript der Telefonkonferenz

Ausführungen des Managements

Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q3 2026 Unitil Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Christopher Goulding, Vice President of Finance and Regulatory. Please go ahead.

Christopher Goulding

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 Investors section of our website at unitil.com. We will refer to that information during this call.

Moving to Slide 2. Some of the statements made during this call may be forward-looking. 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 and our explanation of non-GAAP measures and how they reconcile to GAAP measures is contained within our news release, the slides we posted for this call, and in our most recent 10-Q and 10-K.

With that, I will now turn the call over to Chairman and CEO, Tom Meissner.

Tom Meissner

Great. Thanks, Chris. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us today.

Beginning on Slide 3. Today, we announced adjusted net income of $38.3 million or $2.12 per share for the first 9 months of the year. Year-to-date, results increased $0.09 per share or 4.4% compared to the first 9 months of 2025, reflecting disciplined execution of our operating and strategic priorities and our long-standing commitment to delivering safe, reliable and affordable service to our customers.

The June 30 closing of our acquisitions of Aquarion Water Company of New Hampshire and Abenaki Water Company marked a key strategic milestone, diversifying our regulated utility portfolio and expanding our customer footprint across the state. 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. 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 4. 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. 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. 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 of plastic or cathodically protected steel pipe, and we expect to complete the replacement of all remaining leak-prone pipe by 2035.

Turning to Slide 5. As I already mentioned, our acquisitions of Aquarion Water Company of New Hampshire and Abenaki Water Company closed on June 30. Upon closing, we added almost 11,000 customers at an attractive multiple of approximately 1.2x rate base. As part of the transaction, we entered into a 5-year operating and transition services agreement with the Aquarion Water Authority to ensure a seamless transition to Unitil's ownership and operation. 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.

Also, as we mentioned on our last call, we've entered into a nonbinding letter of intent with Eversource Energy to purchase the Aquarion 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 time line, 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.

Daniel Hurstak

Thank you, Tom. Good afternoon, everyone. I'll begin on Slide 6. As Tom mentioned, we announced adjusted net income of $38.3 million or $2.12 per share for the 9 months -- for the first 9 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 for the first 9 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.

Turning to Slide 7. I will discuss our electric and gas adjusted gross margins and water revenues. Beginning with our electric operations, for the first 9 months -- for the 9 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 nonrecurring 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. 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 9 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 and customer growth of $15.8 million and colder winter weather of $1.4 million. Maine Natural Gas contributed $10.5 million to gas adjusted gross margin through the first 9 months of 2026. The temporary rate award of $5.5 million for Northern Utilities New Hampshire division, which took effect June 1, 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 30, 2026, approximately 52% of the company's gas customers were under decoupled rates.

Moving to water operations. For the 9 months ended September 30, 2026, the Aquarion New Hampshire companies contributed $3.1 million to operating revenue.

Moving to Slide 8. We provide an earnings bridge comparing the results of the first 9 months of 2026 to the same period in 2025. As I just discussed, the combined adjusted gross margin for our electric and gas divisions and water revenues increased $29.9 million and reflect the contributions of Maine Natural Gas and the Aquarion 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. This increase included $3.9 million and $1.2 million related to Maine Natural Gas and the Aquarion New Hampshire companies, respectively.

The increase in depreciation and amortization expense and taxes other than income taxes reflect higher levels of utility plant in service and higher amortization of recoverable storm costs as well as expenses associated with Maine Natural Gas and the Aquarion New Hampshire companies.

Moving to Slide 9. 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. We have proposed a multiyear rate plan with 2-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 intervenor testimony is due November 19. Settlement conferences are scheduled in early 2027, with permanent rates taking effect April 1, 2027.

Turning to Slide 10. The Northern Utilities Maine rate case, which was filed on June 1, 2026, includes a proposed rate increase of $10.4 million. The revenue requirement in this case is based on a historical test year with adjustments to forecast rate base, 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 27. We look forward to working with all stakeholders through these proceedings, and we'll 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 5-year capital investment plan through 2030 totaled approximately $1.2 billion which is an increase of 24% over the previous 5-year plan. This plan includes approximately $65 million for Bangor Natural Gas and Maine Natural Gas collectively and approximately $33 million for the Aquarion New Hampshire companies. Rate base increased $0.2 billion or 14.9% compared to the same period in 2025, and supported by the acquisition of Maine Natural Gas and the Aquarion New Hampshire companies. Over the past 5 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 5-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. 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 Aquarion New Hampshire companies. 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.

Tom Meissner

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 that 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.

Christopher Goulding

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.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] I'm showing no questions at this time. This concludes our question-and-answer session and today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.