Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q4 2022 Unitil Earnings Conference Call. At this time all participants’ are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers’ presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Todd Diggins, Director of Finance. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us to discuss Unitil Corporation's fiscal year 2022 financial results. Speaking on the call today will be Tom Meissner, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Bob Hevert, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Also with us today is Dan Hurstak, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer. 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 Investors 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 recent 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 company's 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, President and CEO, Tom Meissner.

Great. Thanks, Todd. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for being with us today. I am going to begin on Slide 4 where today we announced another strong year of financial results, with net income of $41.4 million or $2.59 per share. This represents an increase of $0.24 per share or 10.2% over 2021, driven by higher adjusted growth margins achieved through customer growth in execution of our regulatory agenda. Looking forward, we reaffirm our long-term guidance of 5% to 7% growth in earnings per share, with operating efficiency, cost control and disciplined investment, continuing to be our focus. From a business and financial perspective, 2021 or '22 certainly had its challenges. Ultimately, we were able to overcome these challenges and finish the year strong. We successfully wrapped up two rate cases and now have a majority of our customers under decoupled rates. S&P improved our credit outlook to stable and now rates our business risk is excellent and we secured additional liquidity through our credit facility. Bob will provide a refresh on our investment plan later in the call, but I'd like to highlight the robust investment opportunities that remain before us and reaffirm our expectation for long-term rate base growth in the range of 6.5% to 8.5%. Turning now to slide five; our customer and employee satisfaction ratings remain among the best in the industry and we have been recognized as one of New Hampshire's most desirable places to work. These ratings reflect our tireless commitment to our customers and employees and are also closely aligned with how we approach sustainability. Sustainability is fundamental to our strategy and it's clear that managing clean, reliable and efficient energy systems is something that our employees are proud of and our customers greatly appreciate. Moving on to Slide six, I'd like to…

Thank you Tom, and good afternoon everyone. I will start on Slide eight. As Tom mentioned, today, we announced fiscal year 2022 net income of $41.4 million or $2.59 a share. Net income increased $5.3 million or $0.24 per share compared to fiscal year 2021. Earnings growth was supported by higher distribution rates including recoupment associated with the New Hampshire rate cases, partially offset by higher operating expenses. Turning now to Slide nine; for the 12 months ended December 31, electric adjusted gross margin was $98.8 million, an increase of $1.4 million or 1.4% compared to fiscal year 2021. The increase in electric margin reflects higher distribution rates and customer growth. You may recall that the decoupling structures approved in our recent New Hampshire rate cases allow us to retain revenue associated with customer growth. Effectively, all electric revenue is now under decoupled rates, removing variability from weather and changing usage patterns. Moving to gas operations, for the 12 months ended December 31, 2022, gas adjusted gross margin was $143.9 million, an increase of $10.8 million or 8.1% compared to the same period of 2021. The increase in gas margin reflects higher distribution rates, customer growth and colder winter weather. We added 855 gas customers compared to the same period of the prior year and in Maine our only non-decoupled service area, weather normalized unit sales were essentially unchanged year-over-year. Moving on to Slide 10, we provide an earnings bridge comparing fiscal year 2022 to 2021. As noted earlier, fiscal year 2022, adjusted gross margin increased to combined $12.2 million primarily as a result of higher distribution rates, customer growth and colder winter weather. Operating and maintenance expenses increased $5 million largely due to higher labor costs, professional fees and utility operating costs. Depreciation and amortization increased by $3.1 million…

Great. Thank you, Bob. Ending now on Slide 17, having wrapped-up fiscal year 2022, we are pleased with the progress the company has made, the opportunities ahead and our continued ability to navigate through challenging times. We delivered strong financial performance, industry-leading service and are better positioned and more resilient than ever before. We continue to execute on our strategic plan, and we look forward to contributing to the transformative changes taking shape in our industry. The company's prospects are strong, and we believe our plan will lead to exceptional value for all stakeholders. So with that, I'll turn it back to Todd.

Thanks, Tom. That wraps up the material in this call. Thank you for attending. I will now turn the call to the operator who will coordinate questions.

And our next question will come from James Adam. [Operator Instructions] And I'm showing no questions.

This will conclude today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.