John D'Orazio
Operator
Good morning. I'm John D'Orazio, President and CEO of RGC Resources, Inc. Welcome and thank you for joining us as we discuss RGC Resources' Second Quarter 2019 Results. First, I would like to go over a few administrative items. [Operator Instructions] The link to today's presentation is available on our Investor & Financial Information page on our website at www.rgcresources.com. We begin the presentation with a quick reminder on forward-looking statements, as shown on slide 1. Moving on to slide 2. Today, we plan to review key operational and financial highlights, our outlook for 2019 and end with Q&A. As shown on slide 3, we had a very strong quarter. Second quarter 2019 earnings per share are $0.58, which is an $0.11 or 23% improvement over second quarter 2018. Further details of our financial results will be discussed later in the presentation. As slide 4 highlights, we invested $5.3 million in a regulated utility in the second quarter, a 6% increase over the same period last year. We spent approximately $2 million on infrastructure replacement, $2.7 million on customer growth and $0.4 million on other capital needs. The quarter-to-quarter change was primarily due to elevated spending related to customer growth. As shown on slide 5, our year-to-date capital spending increased approximately $600,000 over the first half of 2018, primarily due to infrastructure replacement and customer growth. For slide 6, we continue to experience steady customer growth. We added 179 customers during the second quarter, bringing year-to-date customer additions to 392. As noted on slide 7, total volumes for the second quarter 2019 decreased slightly as compared to the prior year. This was due to a 4.2% warmer weather compared to the same period in 2018. Commercial and industrial lines were consistent period-over-period. Over on slide 8. Despite warmer weather, year-to-date volumes increased slightly compared to the prior year. Commercial and industrial volumes increased 2% and continue to show consistent growth. Now I would like to introduce Paul Nester, Chief Financial Officer, to review our financial results.