Piedmont Natural Gas announced results for its first fiscal quarter ended January 31, 2016. Net income was $97.8 million, or $1.20 per diluted share.
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This compares to net income of $93 million, or $1.18 per diluted share for the same period in 2015.
Adjusted for merger-related expenses incurred during the Piedmont Natural Gas' first quarter, net income was $104.8 million, or $1.29 per diluted share, increases of 13% and 9%, respectively, over the prior year.
Margin for the three months ended January 31, 2016 was $286.2 million, an increase of $16.2 million from the prior year's quarter.
The increase in margin is primarily attributable to integrity management rider rate adjustments in North Carolina and Tennessee, as well as customer growth in all three states.
Operations and maintenance (O&M) expenses totaled $71.3 million during the three months ended January 31, 2016, an increase of $5.2 million from the same period in 2015.
The increase in O&M expenses for the three month period is primarily due to higher equity incentive plan accruals, including $4.3 million incremental expense from the acceleration and payment of certain equity incentive awards in connection with the Duke Energy acquisition, additional employees and merit increases, and $1.5 million in integration expenses related to the proposed Duke Energy acquisition.
Piedmont Natural Gas Chairman, president and CEO, Thomas E. Skains, said, "We are pleased with our operating fundamentals and financial results for the first quarter of the new year, even as we experienced winter weather that was 21 percent warmer than normal and 25 percent warmer than last year. Adjusted for after-tax merger-related expenses, net income increased 13 percent compared to the same period last year.
"The margin stabilizing features of our retail natural gas tariffs have proven once again to be beneficial to both our customers and our shareholders.
"In addition, our customer growth remains healthy with 4,700 gross customer additions during the first quarter and our employees are focused on profitable investments and disciplined expense control. All in all, we are off to a good start in fiscal year 2016." ■