Northwest Natural Gas Reports Q4 and Annual Profit

Northwest Natural Gas Company (NYSE:NWN) announced its Q4 and full year results for 2014, with net earnings coming to US$28.5 million in the fourth quarter and $58.7 million for the fiscal year.

Some of the highlights of the press release include:

• Consolidated earnings were $2.16 per share on net income of $58.7 million for fiscal year 2014, compared to $2.24 per share and $60.5 million for 2013.
• Utility margin increased $12.2 million, or 3% over last year, with the customer growth rate increasing to 1.4% from 1.3% a year ago, and with the addition of our 700,000th customer in the fourth quarter.
• Utility ranked first in residential customer satisfaction ratings among large gas utilities in the West in the 2014 J.D. Power and Associates Study.
• Approached the completion of our bare steel replacement and announced a proposed gas storage expansion.
• Insurance settlement proceeds were received totaling $103 million in 2014 to be applied toward past and future environmental remediation costs.
• Dividend was increased to $0.465 per share, reflecting the 59th consecutive year of increasing dividends paid and an indicated annual rate of $1.86 per share.

President and CEO, Gregg Kantor, commented:

In 2014 we continued to operate safely, reliably, and efficiently while advancing several important longer term priorities. Our utility delivered solid margin growth, bare steel removal efforts left us with just three remaining miles system-wide, the Company’s annual customer growth rate increased for the third year in a row, and we advanced a potential expansion of Mist, our underground storage facility. Finally, we once again won honors in the J.D. Power Residential Customer Satisfaction Survey.

Click here to read the full Northwest Natural Gas Company (NYSE:NWN) press release.