UNITIL Corporation

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q4 2023 Unitil Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising that your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker, Todd Diggins, Chief Accounting Officer. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us to discuss Unitil Corporation's fiscal year 2023 results. Speaking on the call today will be Tom Meissner, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Dan Herstack, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Also with us today is Bob Hebert, President and Chief Administrative Officer, and Chris Goulding, Vice President of Finance and Regulatory. We will discuss financial and other information on this call. As we mentioned in the press release announcing today's call, we have posted information, including a presentation, to the investor section of our website at unitil.com. We will refer to that information during this call. Moving to slide two, the comments made today about future operating results or events are forward-looking statements under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted. Statements made on this call should be considered together with cautionary statements and other information contained in our most financial annual report on Form 10-K and other documents we have filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of today and we assume no obligation to update them. This presentation contains non-GAAP financial measures. The accompanying supplemental information more fully describes these non-GAAP financial measures and includes a reconciliation to the nearest GAAP financial measures. The company believes these non-GAAP financial measures are useful in evaluating its performance. With that, I will now turn the call over to Chairman and CEO, Tom Eisner.

Great. Thanks, Todd. Good morning, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today. Beginning on slide four, Today we announced another strong year of results with net income of $45.2 million, or $2.82 per share, representing an increase of $0.23 per share, or 8.9% over 2022. This increase was once again above our long-term guidance of 5% to 7%, which we are reaffirming today. We also fully earned our authorized returns on a consolidated basis with return on equity of 9.5%. As we close the books on 2023, I'm pleased to report that we had another successful year and delivered outstanding results across every facet of our business, both financially and operationally, while advancing the strategies that will provide long-term sustainable growth. I'm going to pass it over to Dan, who will take us through the details of our fiscal year results before I wrap up with a recap of our financial and operational achievements and our commitment to deliver consistent, sustainable shareholder value.