Sempra (NYSE:SRE) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Jeff Martin: Yes. I appreciate the question. I would remind folks that we brought back our 5-year forecast back in 2021. The convention we’ve adopted over the last several years has been to work off the midpoint of our current year guidance, which we announced today we feel very solid about our 6% to 8% growth rate. And really, that’s looking at the roll forward capital plan from last year of about $36 billion. I think what’s exciting for us is we have the opportunity to improve that forecast. Certainly, Phase 1 of Port Arthur is important. And Allen and his team are doing a really good job of managing our rate case outcomes in Texas. So I would just say that, that 6% to 8% growth rate is something that looks conservative relative to our past performance.

And I will tell you that one of the things we talked a little bit in my prepared remarks about how we have repositioned the business over the last 5 years, what’s unique today is our visibility into future growth is better than it has been in the past. So, we want to get through a couple of big events here in the spring and come back with a more robust capital plan by our May call, and we look forward to having that conversation in greater detail.

Nicholas Campanella: Okay. Thanks a lot for that. And then I just wanted to ask just capital allocation question. The dividend increase is 3.9%. We just noticed that maybe a little light compared to what you kind of executed on historically. Can you just give us a sense of what’s driving that? How you are thinking about capital allocation regarding the dividend? And then also the buyback that you outlined last year, just given you have all these new growth opportunities in front of you that would be great. Thank you.

Jeff Martin: Yes. That’s a great question. I will tell you, one of the things that really differentiates good companies from average companies is how disciplined you are in capital allocation. And I will tell you, we certainly understand the importance of dividend to our investors, and that’s why we have consistently grown it over the last 12 years. Our Board has established a projected payout ratio for us between 50% and 60%. What we announced today falls in the 53% range. And I would make a comment that over the last 10 years, we have averaged roughly a 7% increase to our dividend, which we feel great about. But remember, too, that we are investing in our businesses to support organic growth, and that is our most important initiative.

And over our history, I think most people would say our focus has been on investing in opportunities to grow our business while balancing that with returning capital to shareholders, just like you talked about. So, you have seen us return capital in the form of share repurchases, and we have also been fairly aggressive about returning capital in the form of a dividend. So, I guess my concluding point would be in combination, that dividend growth and the planned growth we have in front of the company, we think this strategy has resulted in the relative outperformance of Sempra stock over the last 1-year, 5-year, 10-year and 20-year period relative to our index. We are committed to disciplined capital allocation in a strategic manner that results in increase in shareholder value.

It is certainly a priority to our management team.

Nicholas Campanella: Okay. And then if I could just sneak one last one in. Just the NCI sale around Port Arthur, can you just kind of give us a sense of how we should think about that timeline? Do you have to take FID first and then pursue it? Just how should investors think about that?