Otter Tail Corporation Announces Third Quarter Earnings, Increases Annual Earnings Guidance and Uplifts Long-Term Financial Targets

Otter Tail Corporation (NASDAQ:OTTR) today announced financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2025.

SUMMARY

• Produced diluted earnings per share of $1.86 in the third quarter of 2025.
• Increased the midpoint of the 2025 earnings guidance by $0.21 to $6.47.
• Updated our electric utility's five-year rate base compounded annual growth rate to 10% from 9%.
• Increased our long-term earnings per share growth rate target to 7% to 9%.

CEO OVERVIEW

"We are pleased with our third quarter financial results," said President and CEO Chuck MacFarlane. "Our team members continue to execute well on our growth plan despite dynamic market conditions. Due to strong Plastics segment performance, and our revised expectations for the remainder of the year, we are increasing and tightening our 2025 diluted earnings per share guidance to a range of $6.32 to $6.62 from $6.06 to $6.46.

"Otter Tail Power continues to deliver on our significant rate base growth plan and regulatory priorities. In October, we filed a request with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to increase our rates by approximately $44.8 million, or 17.7 percent. The increase is largely driven by customer-focused infrastructure investments supporting immediate and long-term reliability, grid resilience efforts, accelerated recovery of Coyote Station and the impact of inflation since our last rate review five years ago. Even with the proposed increase, Otter Tail Power will continue to have some of the lowest electric rates in the region and country. We remain committed to providing safe, reliable and affordable electric service to our customers.

"Our Manufacturing segment businesses continue to face end market demand headwinds. Sales volumes remain below historic levels after sharply declining in the third quarter of 2024. Our cost structure is aligned with current business volumes and we remain well positioned to respond when industry conditions improve. Our quarterly financial results reflect our lower cost structure and improved productivity compared to the same time last year.

"Plastics segment performance exceeded expectations in the third quarter even as our product pricing continues to decline. We continue to benefit from lower input material costs and the new large diameter pipe capacity we added late last year. Additionally, the second phase of our Vinyltech expansion project is progressing well and we look forward to further increasing our capacity in early 2026.

"We are introducing our new five-year capital spending plan and revised long-term financial targets. Otter Tail Power's new investment plan totals $1.9 billion and is expected to produce a rate base compounded annual growth rate of 10 percent. Driven by our updated capital investment plan, we are updating our targeted long-term earnings per share growth rate to 7 to 9 percent, resulting in a targeted total shareholder return of 10 to 12 percent.

"We remain optimistic about the fundamentals of our business and confident in our ability to deliver on our growth plan. Our customer-focused investments position us to provide high-quality electric service and products to our customers while delivering on our investment targets over the long-term. The combination of a high-performing utility coupled with our strategic diversification continues to serve us and our stakeholders well."

QUARTERLY DIVIDEND

On November 3, 2025, the corporation's Board of Directors declared a quarterly common stock dividend of $0.525 per share. This dividend is payable December 10, 2025 to shareholders of record on November 14, 2025.

CASH FLOWS AND LIQUIDITY

Our consolidated cash provided by operating activities for the nine months ended September 30, 2025 was $288.9 million compared to $322.8 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2024. The decrease in cash provided by operating activities was primarily due to the timing of fuel cost and rider recoveries from our utility customers and a decrease in earnings.

Investing activities for the nine months ended September 30, 2025 included capital expenditures of $213.3 million. Capital expenditures during the period were largely within our Electric segment and included investments in our wind repowering and other projects.

Financing activities for the nine months ended September 30, 2025 included the issuance of $100.0 million of long-term debt at Otter Tail Power; the proceeds of which were used to repay short-term borrowings, fund capital investments, and support operating activities. Financing activities for the nine months ended September 30, 2025 also included net repayments of short-term borrowings totaling $69.6 million and dividend payments of $66.0 million.

As of September 30, 2025, we had $170.0 million and $209.5 million of available liquidity under our Otter Tail Corporation and Otter Tail Power credit facilities, respectively, along with $325.8 million of available cash and cash equivalents, for total available liquidity of $705.3 million.

SEGMENT PERFORMANCE

Electric Segment

The following table shows heating and cooling degree days as a percent of normal.

The following table summarizes the estimated effect on diluted earnings per share of the difference in retail kilowatt-hour (kwh) sales under actual weather conditions and expected retail kwh sales under normal weather conditions for the three months ended September 30, 2025 and 2024.

Operating Revenues increased $8.2 million primarily due to increased fuel recovery revenue, increased sales volumes excluding the impact of weather, and increased rider revenue, primarily driven by the recovery of our investments in our wind repowering projects. These increases were partially offset by the impact of seasonal rate differences between interim and final rates in North Dakota, which went into effect in March 2025. The impact of unfavorable weather compared to the same period last year also negatively impacted operating revenues.

Net Income decreased $1.2 million primarily due to the impacts of lower pension-related income and unfavorable weather, as well as increased depreciation expense associated with our rate base investments. The impact of these changes was partially offset by a decrease in operating and maintenance expenses.

Manufacturing Segment

Operating Revenues decreased $2.9 million primarily due to an 8% decrease in sales volumes, with declines experienced across several end markets, including lawn and garden, agriculture, and horticulture. Sales volumes were down due to continued soft demand and inventory management efforts by manufacturers and dealers amid continued challenging market conditions. The impact of lower sales volumes was partially offset by a 3% increase in steel costs, which are passed through to customers.

Net Income increased $1.7 million primarily due to improved production efficiencies, as our cost structure is aligned with the current demand environment. The timing of pass-through steel cost fluctuations and increased labor productivity resulted in increased margins compared to the same period last year. Lower sales volumes, as described above, and an increase in general and administrative and income tax expenses, partially offset the impact of increased profit margins.

Plastics Segment

Operating Revenues decreased $17.7 million primarily due to a 17% decrease in sales prices compared to the same period last year, continuing the decline in product pricing from peak levels in late 2022. The impact of decreased sales prices was partially offset by a 4% increase in sales volumes, primarily driven by increased production capacity following the completion of our expansion project at Vinyltech in late 2024.

Net Income decreased $11.0 million primarily due to decreased sales prices, as described above, partially offset by a 16% decrease in PVC resin and other input material costs and the 4% increase in sales volumes.

Corporate

Net Income increased $3.3 million primarily due to decreases in costs associated with workers' compensation and employee health insurance claims, as well as an increase in income tax benefits compared to the same period last year.

2025 OUTLOOK

We are increasing our 2025 diluted earnings per share guidance to a range of $6.32 to $6.62. We expect our earnings mix in 2025 to be approximately 36% from our Electric segment and 64% from our Manufacturing and Plastics segments, net of corporate costs. Our anticipated earnings mix in 2025 deviates from our long-term expected earnings mix of 70% Electric / 30% Non-Electric as we expect Plastics segment earnings to remain elevated in 2025 compared to our long-term view of normal earnings for this segment.

The segment components of our 2025 diluted earnings per share guidance compared with actual earnings for 2024 are as follows:

The following items contribute to our revised 2025 earnings guidance:

Electric Segment - We are increasing the midpoint of our earnings expectation and narrowed our guidance range. Our updated guidance is primarily based on better than expected financial results in the third quarter of 2025, largely driven by higher than anticipated sales volumes.

Manufacturing Segment - We are maintaining the midpoint of our earnings expectation but narrowing the range of our guidance.

Plastics Segment - We are increasing our earnings expectation and narrowing the range of our guidance based on:

• Better than expected financial results in the third quarter of 2025, and

• Lower material costs anticipated for the remainder of the year, as the forecasted price of PVC resin has declined.

Corporate Costs - We are narrowing our guidance range based on year-to-date results and expectations for the remainder of the year.

CAPITAL EXPENDITURES

The following provides a summary of actual capital expenditures for the year ended December 31, 2024, as well as anticipated annual capital expenditures for the current year ending December 31, 2025, and the subsequent five years, along with electric utility average rate base and annual rate base growth:

Our capital expenditure plan for the 2026 to 2030 time period includes Electric segment investments in transmission assets and solar generation resources. This plan produces a compounded annual growth rate in rate base of 10.0% from the end of 2025 to the end of 2030, and will serve as a key driver in Electric segment earnings growth over this timeframe. Our capital expenditure plan in our Manufacturing and Plastics segments includes investments to bring additional capacity to our operations, providing an opportunity for organic growth within these segments.

CONFERENCE CALL AND WEBCAST

The corporation will host a live webcast on Tuesday, November 4, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. CT to discuss its financial and operating performance.

The presentation will be posted on our website before the webcast. To access the live webcast, go to www.ottertail.com/presentations and select "Webcast." Please allow time prior to the call to visit the site and download any software needed to listen in. An archived copy of the webcast will be available on our website shortly after the call.

If you are interested in asking a question during the live webcast, visit and follow the link provided in the press release announcing the upcoming conference call.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Except for historical information contained here, the statements in this release are forward-looking and made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words "anticipate," "believe," "can," "confident," "could," "estimate," "expect," "future," "goal," "intend," "likely," "may," "optimistic," "opportunity," "outlook," "plan," "possible," "potential," "predict," "probable," "projected," "should," "target," "will," "would" and similar words and expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of management. Forward-looking statements made herein, which may include statements regarding 2025 earnings and earnings per share, long-term earnings, earnings per share growth and earnings mix, anticipated levels of energy generation from renewable resources, anticipated reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, future investments and capital expenditures, rate base levels and rate base growth, future raw materials costs, future raw materials availability and supply constraints, future operating revenues and operating results, and expectations regarding regulatory proceedings, as well as other assumptions and statements, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results in current or future periods to differ materially from the forecasted assumptions and expected results. The Company's risks and uncertainties include, among other things, uncertainty of future investments and capital expenditures; rate base levels and rate base growth; risks associated with energy markets; the availability and pricing of resource materials; inflationary cost pressures; attracting and maintaining a qualified and stable workforce; changing macroeconomic and industry conditions that impact the demand for our products, pricing and margin; long-term investment risk; seasonal weather patterns and extreme weather events; future business volumes with key customers; reductions in our credit ratings; our ability to access capital markets on favorable terms; assumptions and costs relating to funding our employee benefit plans; our subsidiaries' ability to make dividend payments; cybersecurity threats or data breaches; the impact of government executive orders, legislation and regulation including foreign trade policy and environmental; health and safety laws and regulations; changes in tax laws and regulations; the impact of climate change including compliance with legislative and regulatory changes to address climate change; expectations regarding regulatory proceedings, assigned service areas, the construction of major facilities, capital structure, and allowed customer rates; actual and threatened claims or litigation; and operational and economic risks associated with our electric generating and manufacturing facilities. These and other risks are more fully described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, as updated in subsequently filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, as applicable. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and we expressly disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking information.

Category: Earnings

About the Corporation: Otter Tail Corporation, a member of the S&P SmallCap 600 Index, has interests in diversified operations that include an electric utility and manufacturing businesses. Otter Tail Corporation stock trades on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol OTTR. The latest investor and corporate information is available at www.ottertail.com. Corporate offices are in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, and Fargo, North Dakota.

OTTER TAIL CORPORATION

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME (unaudited)

OTTER TAIL CORPORATION

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (unaudited)

OTTER TAIL CORPORATION

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (unaudited)

OTTER TAIL CORPORATION

SEGMENT RESULTS (unaudited)

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Investor Contacts: Beth Eiken, Manager of Investor Relations, (701) 451-3571

Media Contact: Stephanie Hoff, Director of Corporate Communications, (218) 739-8535