New Jersey Resources Corporation (NYSE:NJR) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Steve Westhoven: So Gabe, we have nothing to announce there. But certainly, the market dynamics with the development of LNG along the Gulf Coast, the amount of volatility and balancing that’s needed down in that area is evident by the price movements that have taken place. It’s certainly a very constructive and supportive market. So we’re certainly looking where we can make expansion. And provided that we’ve got a customer that can support the capital investment that’s there, we’ve always talked about it in that fashion. But again, nothing to announce, but it’s certainly a very supportive market at this point in time.

Gabe Moreen: Thanks, Steve. And maybe if I can ask a little bit of a multi-faceted question here on gas prices having come down so significantly. Can you just talk about impacts to the business, whether bad debt expense, less inflationary pressures and also just the strategy on kind of hedging gas prices going forward? Because I know that you guys were fairly insulated coming into the winter anyway.

Steve Westhoven: Yeah. I think just to talk about the hedging strategy going forward, we’ve got a pretty rigid hedging strategy. That aligns itself well to being able to put fixed price gas in the storage well ahead of when volatility would really impact the market. And that’s still in place now. So I would expect that, that would be helpful for us as we roll into our next hedging season, so to speak. And then ultimately, gas goes up and down in that volatility, it can be beneficial to us through prices and certainly through Energy Services and such. But it just shows that the market is resilient. And our customers will enjoy, hopefully, lower pricing if it continues in this direction going forward and certainly unit (ph) supportive of our overall business as an economic way to heat your house and provide energy.

Gabe Moreen: Got it. Thanks, Steve. And if I could just squeeze one more in sort of on the 1Q outperformance. Is it fair to say that if S&T outperformance kind of holds that is really in 4Q that you’ll accrue, I guess, some O&M expense or G&A rather around additional comp and stuff like that so that may be an offset to some of the 1Q outperformance here?

Roberto Bel: Yeah. So — yes, you’re right. Our expenses related to labor are seasonal and exactly as you pointed out, Q4 tends to be the highest.

Gabe Moreen: Thanks, Roberto.

Steve Westhoven: Thanks, Gabe.

Operator: Our next question is from Sam Klau (ph) from Bank of America. Sam, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Participant: Hey, guys. Good morning. Just a quick question on your financing projections here. Just given Q1’s outperformance, is there any reason why your financing activity projections haven’t really changed? And also within that, why you’re sort of thinking more towards increasing equity issuances over debt relative to your previous update?

Roberto Bel: Yeah. So I remind you we’re talking about what we’re showing in terms of our projection for our cash flows. So even though we have increased our guidance, we feel we’re still within the range that we show there. So that’s why we haven’t changed that. So that’s number one. And then on your question regarding debt versus equity, as we have stated before, we have no plans to issue any block equity in the near future, and that remains true today.

Unidentified Participant: Got it. Thanks, Roberto.

Operator: Our next question is from Shar Pourreza from Guggenheim Partners. Shar, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Jamieson Ward: Hi, guys. It’s Jamieson on for Shar. Thanks for taking our questions.

Steve Westhoven: Hey, Jamieson.