Jim Hatfield
Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please proceed with your question
Thank you, Don and welcome everybody. We had a solid third quarter as we benefitted from our continued cost management efforts and improvement in our customer sales. Today I'll discuss the details of our third quarter financial results provide an update on the Arizona economy and review our financial outlook including introducing 2016 guidance. Slide 3 summarizes our GAAP net income and ongoing earnings. For the third quarter of 2015, we reported consolidated ongoing earnings of $357 million, or $2.30 per share, compared with ongoing earnings of $244 million, or $2.20 per share for the third quarter of 2014. Slide 4 outlines the variances in our quarterly ongoing earnings per share. I'll highlight two primary drivers. Higher gross margin increased earnings by $0.28 per share. I'll cover the drivers of our gross margin variance on the next slide. Going the other way higher depreciation and amortization expenses decreased earnings by $0.12 per share. Similar to the first half of this year the variance includes the absence of the 2014 Four Corners cost deferrals and related 2015 amortization of the deferrals and cost associated with the acquisition. D&A expenses were also higher due to additional plant service. Turning to Slide 5, I will cover a few of the key components of the net increase of $0.28 in gross margin. Higher usage by APS customers compared to the third quarter a year ago contributed $0.08 per share. Weather normalized retail kilowatt hour sales after the effects of energy efficiency, customer conservation and distributed generation increased 2.1% in the third quarter of 2015 versus 2014. Collectively the adjustment mechanism is continuing to add incremental growth to our gross margin as designed, contributing $0.17 per share primarily the Four Corners adjuster that went into effect on January 1. Offsetting Four Corners’ expenses are included in the other drivers, primarily D&A, which I mentioned earlier. The effect of weather variations increased earnings by $0.04 per share. This year's third quarter was warmer or more favorable than normal, while the third quarter of 2014 was milder, or less favorable compared to normal conditions. As Don mentioned, August was particularly hot this year or for the first time since we added in Arkansas -- we hit our peak on a weekend. As a reminder, both the O&M and gross margin variances exclude expenses related to the renewable energy standard, energy efficiency and similar regulatory programs, all of which are offset by comparable revenue amounts under adjustment mechanism. Slide 6 presents a look at the Arizona economy, and our fundamental growth outlook. Arizona's economy continues to grow, much like it has in the past several quarters. Job growth in the third quarter in the Phoenix Metro area remained above the national average, as they have for the past 17 quarters. As seen in the upper panel of Slide 6, Metro Phoenix added jobs at a 2.8% year-over-year rate. This job growth is broad-based with the construction, healthcare, tourism, financial activity, business services and consumer service sectors, each adding jobs at a rate above 3%. Growth in consumer spending remains robust and expectations are improving for the housing market. Our expectation for the Metro Phoenix housing permits could be seen in the lower panel on Slide 6. The housing market is on track to record its best year since 2007 for both total permits and the single-family sector by itself. Total permits are up more than 12% this year and notably single family permit activity is up over 40%. Permit activity in the third quarter was the highest we’ve seen since the middle of 2007 and homeowners continue to report strong traffic in their sales offices. In summary, Metro Phoenix economy did grow fairly and is positioned for stronger growth in the next couple of years as it will act on the overbilled real estate market receipts into the past. As I have mentioned before, Arizona and Metro Phoenix remain attractive places to live and do business, especially as it is situated relative to the high-cost California market. 2015 is turning out to be better than 2014 in terms of job growth, income growth, consumer spending, and new construction. And we expect 2016 to be better than 2015. Reflecting the steady improvement in the economic conditions, APS's retail customer base grew 1.3% compared with the third quarter of last year. We expect that this growth rate will gradually accelerate in response to economic growth trends I just discussed. Importantly, the long-term fundamentals supporting future population, job growth and economic development in Arizona appear to be in place. Finally, I will review our earnings guidance and financial outlook. We continue to expect Pinnacle West's consolidated ongoing earnings for 2015 will be in the lower half of the range of $3.75 to $3.95 per share, based on the negative effects of weather through September. Year-to-date unfavorable weather through September has impacted earnings by approximately $0.08 per share versus normal conditions. We adjusted our 2015 customer growth down slightly to 1% to 2% from 1.5% to 2.5%, although our sales outlook hasn’t changed. We are introducing 2016 ongoing guidance of $3.90 to $4.10 per share which assumes the normal weather. The adjustment mechanics particularly transmission and LFCR along with modest sales growth are the key growth margin drivers. O&M is above trend in 2016 however, non-outage O&M spending remains flat in 2016 compared to 2015 with planned possible outages representing the increase year-over-year. This includes major planned outages at Four Corners and Cholla which occur roughly over six years. Separately the new lease terms related to the Palo Verde waste plant at Unit 2 that take effect January 1, 2015 offset plan and service impact and key depreciation and amortization relatively flat year-over-year. A complete list of the factors and assumptions underlying our guidance is included in our slides. Our rate based growth outlook remains 6% to 7% through 2018. We've included our updated rate based slide in the appendix. These estimates include bonus depreciation which we’re assuming will be extended for 2015 and 2016. And we continue to forecast that we will not need additional equity until 2017 at the early. Lastly as Don discussed the Board of Directors increased the indicated annual dividend last week by $0.12 per share or approximately 5% to $2.50 per share effective with the December payment. This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator we’ll now take questions.