Otter Tail Q4 2020 Earnings Report
Key Takeaways
Otter Tail Corporation reported a decrease in net income for Q4 2020, driven by lower performance in the Electric segment and increased corporate costs, although the Manufacturing and Plastics segments showed improvements. The company's full-year earnings per share increased by 7.8%.
Consolidated operating revenues increased by 5.2% to $226.8 million compared to Q4 2019.
Net income decreased by 8.3% to $18.7 million compared to Q4 2019.
Diluted earnings per share decreased to $0.45 from $0.51 in Q4 2019.
The company expects 2021 diluted earnings per share to be in a range of $2.39 to $2.54.
Otter Tail
Otter Tail
Otter Tail Revenue by Segment
Forward Guidance
The corporation anticipates 2021 diluted earnings per share to be in the range of $2.39 to $2.54.
Positive Outlook
- Merricourt and Astoria Station projects being commercially operational.
- Rate base being reflective of the total capital spend on these investments.
- Increased revenues related to $22 million in completed capital spend for self-funded generator interconnection agreements in 2020.
- The impact of our filed Minnesota 2021 rate case.
- An expected increase in sales at BTD driven mostly by improving end markets.
Challenges Ahead
- Increased non-labor operating and maintenance expenses related to a planned outage at Big Stone Plant of $3.9 million in 2021.
- Increases related to having the Merricourt and Astoria Station projects fully operational in 2021.
- Increased expenses caused in large part by a decrease in the discount rate used for the pension plan and a lower rate used for our long-term rate of return.
- Higher depreciation and property tax expense due to large capital projects being put into service.
- Increased interest costs associated with a full year’s interest expense on the $35 million and $40 million of senior unsecured notes that were issued in February and August of 2020, respectively.
Revenue & Expenses
Visualization of income flow from segment revenue to net income