Spire Q2 2025 Earnings Report

Spire EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $3.60
• Consensus EPS: $3.70
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$0.10
• One Year Ago EPS: $3.45

Spire Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $1.05 billion
• Expected Revenue: $1.15 billion
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$99.35 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: -6.80%

Spire Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2025
• Date: 4/30/2025
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, April 30, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 10:00AM ET

Spire (NYSE:SR), together with its subsidiaries, engages in the purchase, retail distribution, and sale of natural gas to residential, commercial, industrial, and other end-users of natural gas in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Gas Utility, Gas Marketing, and Midstream. It is also involved in the marketing of natural gas and related services; and transportation and storage of natural gas. In addition, the company engages in the operation of propane through its propane pipeline, risk management, and other activities. The company was formerly known as The Laclede Group, Inc. and changed its name to Spire Inc. in April 2016. Spire Inc. was founded in 1857 and is based in Saint Louis, Missouri.

Spire Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Scott Doyle assumed the role of President and CEO with a seamless transition from Steve Lindsey and reaffirmed Spire’s strategy of organic growth, infrastructure investment and safety.
• Adjusted EPS rose to $3.60 in Q2 FY25 versus $3.45 last year, driven by strong utility and midstream segment growth partially offset by slightly lower gas marketing results.
• Missouri rate case advanced as PSC staff recommended a $19 million ISRS revenue increase, and Senate Bill 4 was signed to allow future test-year rate filings from July 2026.
• Year-to-date capital expenditures reached $479 million, leading to an increase in CapEx guidance to $840 million for FY25 to modernize distribution infrastructure and complete the Spire Storage West expansion.
• Reaffirmed a long-term EPS growth target of 5%–7% and FY25 adjusted earnings guidance of $4.40–$4.60 per share, supported by a $7.4 billion ten-year investment plan.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day, and welcome to the Spire Inc. Q2 FY twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded.

[Operator]

I would now like to turn the conference over to Megan McPhail, Managing Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

[Megan McPhail, Managing Director of Investor Relations at Spire Inc]

Good morning and welcome to Spire's fiscal twenty twenty five second quarter earnings call. On the call with me today is Scott Doyle, President and CEO and Adam Woodard, Executive Vice President and CFO. We issued an earnings news release this morning and you may access it on our website at spireenergy.com under Newsroom. Is a slide presentation that accompanies our webcast, which can be downloaded from our website under Investors and then Events and Presentations. Before we begin, let me cover our Safe Harbor statement and use of non GAAP earnings measures.

[Megan McPhail, Managing Director of Investor Relations at Spire Inc]

Today's call, including responses to questions, may contain forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although our forward looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, there are various uncertainties and risk factors that may cause future performance or results to be different than those anticipated. These risks and uncertainties are outlined in our quarterly and annual filings with the SEC. In our comments, we will be discussing non GAAP measures used by management when evaluating performance and results of operations. Explanations and reconciliations of these measures to their GAAP counterparts are contained in both our news release and slide presentation.

[Megan McPhail, Managing Director of Investor Relations at Spire Inc]

Now here's Scott, who will start on Page four of the presentation.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

Thank you, Megan. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for our fiscal second quarter earnings conference call. I'm honored to address you today as the newly appointed President and CEO of Spire. I'd like to express my gratitude to Steve Lindsey for his dedicated service and commitment to Spire over the years. Under his leadership, the company made significant strides and built a strong foundation for the future.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

Steve is assisting me over the next several months ensuring we have a seamless transition. I want to assure you our strategy remains unchanged. We'll continue to focus on organic growth, infrastructure investment and continuous improvement. This includes modernizing our systems to benefit our customers, advancing our regulatory engagement and maximizing value for our customers and other stakeholders while keeping the safety of our employees, customers and communities at the center of it all. Before I dive into results, I would like to express my gratitude to our employees for their dedication to providing safe and reliable gas service for our customers.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

Despite challenges of extreme cold at times throughout the winter, our natural gas system performed exceptionally well, thanks to their hard work and commitment. Turning to our performance for the quarter. This morning we announced adjusted earnings of $3.6 per share compared to $3.45 per share a year ago. The year over year increase reflects strong growth in our utility and midstream segments partially offset by slightly lower results in gas marketing. Our performance is driven by strategic infrastructure investments to modernize our natural systems coupled with our ongoing commitment to disciplined cost management.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

Adam will provide a more detailed breakdown of our results and share insights into our outlook. Now for an update on regulatory matters. Since our last earnings call, we have worked closely with key stakeholders in our ongoing Missouri rate case. We will continue to collaborate in the coming months to ensure a constructive outcome. In addition, earlier this month, the Missouri Public Service Commission staff recommended a $19,000,000 revenue increase in our infrastructure system replacement surcharge or ISRS request.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

This is our fifth such request since our last general rate case and if approved would bring our revenues in the rider to an annualized rate of $72,600,000 On the legislative front, we are pleased that Missouri Governor Kehoe signed Senate Bill four into law marking a significant advancement for the state's utilities. This constructive legislation introduces a future test year rate setting model that is forward looking allowing natural gas and water utilities to set rates based on projected costs rather than historical expenses. By attracting investment in energy infrastructure the bill aims to enhance system reliability and drive economic growth across Missouri. The bill allows utilities to file a rate case based on a future test year starting in July of twenty twenty six. We continue to be focused on achieving consistent and constructive regulatory outcomes jurisdictions leading to a more sustainable financial performance trajectory.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

Looking ahead, we are reaffirming our long term EPS growth target of 5% to 7%. This is supported by our ten year seven point four billion dollars capital investment plan and we expect to deliver within our fiscal twenty twenty five earnings guidance of $4.4 to $4.6 per share. We are committed to delivering strong results in the second half of the year and beyond with a focus on executing our capital investment plan, driving operational excellence and strengthening the performance of our utilities and gas related businesses. Spire is poised for sustainable growth. In St.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

Louis, we're excited about the growth opportunities ahead. The labor market has now fully recovered reaching pre pandemic employment levels. In addition, Boeing recently was selected to build the next generation fighter aircraft for the United States Air driving growth of high quality jobs in the St. Louis area strengthening Missouri's economy and securing a prosperous future for our community. I would also like to highlight that last week we renewed our labor agreement with our local five forty eight union representing employees in our Alabama service territory.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

This three year agreement is a win win as it provides stability to our workforce and allows us to focus operational excellence. We are well positioned to achieve our financial and operational goals as we execute our strategy to grow organically, invest in infrastructure and drive continuous improvement. Turning to page five. We continue to make capital investments to improve reliability, resiliency and safety for the benefit of our customers. Year to date our CapEx totaled $479,000,000 with the majority of the spend taking place at our gas utilities.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

Year over year utility CapEx increased nearly 27% as we focus on upgrading distribution infrastructure and connecting more homes and businesses to safe reliable and affordable natural gas. Investment in our midstream segment totaled $84,000,000 year to date largely for the expansion of Spire Storage West. The expansion is now substantially complete and we are pleased with the returns on the project. We expect to have the final components placed in service by the end of this summer. Looking ahead, we are increasing our fiscal twenty twenty five capital investment target by $50,000,000 to $840,000,000 The higher CapEx includes a $15,000,000 increase at Spire Missouri and the $35,000,000 increase at Midstream primarily for the storage expansion project.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

As a reminder, our long term investment plan is focused on organic growth utilities. Approximately 98% of our ten year capital expenditure plan is targeted utility spend driving our growth in rate base. Moving to page six for a Missouri rate case update. Last week the PSC staff proposed a $246,000,000 annual revenue increase in our Spire Missouri rate case. This increase amount is made up of two parts approximately $2.00 $5,000,000 included in the staff's direct testimony and staff's estimated 42,000,000 true up through 05/31/2025.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

The proposed revenue increase differs from our requested increase of $290,000,000 primarily due to staff's proposed 9.63% return on equity and 53.19% equity layer compared to our requested return on equity of 10.555% equity layer in discrete adjustments which we expect to be addressed in subsequent testimony. You may recall our requested increase reflects an estimated rate base of $4,400,000,000 inclusive of discrete adjustments. We expect future testimony to address the weather mechanism and other elements of the case. Evidentiary hearings are scheduled to begin on August 4 and an order from the commission and new rates expected to be effective by October. We appreciate the constructive engagement thus far and remain committed to working closely with stakeholders throughout the remainder of the process.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

I'll now turn the call over to Adam for a financial review and update on guidance and outlook. Adam?

[Adam Woodard, EVP & CFO at Spire Inc]

Thanks Scott and good morning everyone. I'll start with a review of our quarterly results which are detailed on pages seven and eight of our presentation. During the second quarter, we reported adjusted earnings of over $214,000,000 an increase of almost $18,000,000 compared to last year.

[Adam Woodard, EVP & CFO at Spire Inc]

The Gas Utilities segment had earnings of approximately $195,000,000 in the second quarter, over $7,000,000 higher than last year. The increased results reflect higher contribution margin at Spire Missouri driven by an increase in ISRS revenues and usage net of weather mitigation as well as new rates at Spire Alabama. These favorable items were partially offset by lower Spire Alabama usage net of weather mitigation. Excluding bad debt, utility earnings also reflected lower run rate O and M expense and higher depreciation expense. During the quarter, we continue to see strong earnings growth in our Midstream segment driven by new contracts on additional capacity, higher rates on contract renewals and asset optimization at Spire Storage.

[Adam Woodard, EVP & CFO at Spire Inc]

Earnings in our Marketing segment were strong, but slightly lower than the prior year due to reduced market volatility. Lastly, other corporate costs were higher primarily due to higher borrowing balances. In both Missouri and Alabama, we experienced colder temperatures than last year and slightly colder than normal temperatures. Our volumetric margins in Missouri for the quarter were higher by nearly $7,000,000 but short of our expectations. This adjustment is highly dependent on the relationship between heating degree days and customer usage set in the previous rate proceeding.

[Adam Woodard, EVP & CFO at Spire Inc]

The weather mitigation adjustment in Missouri was not effective as revenues were not aligned with usage over the course of the quarter. Looking out at Alabama, while we experienced a higher than anticipated adjustment under the weather mitigation mechanism during the quarter, the year to date results are largely in line with expectations. We are focused on cost management and continue to expect run rate O and M expense at the gas utility to be flat relative to fiscal twenty twenty four levels. During the quarter, utility run rate O and M expense was lower by $800,000 when compared to last year. Turning now to our growth outlook on Page nine.

[Adam Woodard, EVP & CFO at Spire Inc]

We are confident that our long term adjusted earnings per share growth target of 5% to 7%. This is reinforced by 7% to 8% rate base growth at Spire Missouri and steady sustained equity growth at Spire Alabama coupled with efficient recovery mechanisms. We remain committed to executing on our strategy and are affirming our FY twenty twenty five adjusted earnings guidance range of $4.4 to 4.6 per share. Weighted average shares for FY '20 '20 '5 are expected to be approximately $58,500,000 slightly lower than our previously anticipated 59,000,000 shares, providing the benefit in expected adjusted earnings per share for the year. We are updating our adjusted earnings targets by business segment to reflect first half results and expectations for the remainder of the year.

[Adam Woodard, EVP & CFO at Spire Inc]

We're lowering the gas utility range by $11,000,000 primarily due to weather related margin headwinds experienced year to date. As a result of the ineffectiveness of the weather adjustment and usage, we anticipate approximately $9,000,000 of lower margins from residential customers. We are raising the range for gas marketing by $4,000,000 on stronger than expected earnings in the first half of the year and we are increasing our midstream earnings outlook by $8,000,000 to reflect the realization of higher rates and capacity and optimization of our storage assets during the first half of the year. The range for corporate and others loss was increased by $4,000,000 primarily due to higher interest expense from higher short term balances. Moving to slide 10 for a financing update.

[Adam Woodard, EVP & CFO at Spire Inc]

Our three year financing plan is unchanged. To support our equity needs, we settled approximately 43,000,000 of forward sales during the quarter. Looking ahead, we anticipate using our ATM program for planned equity issuances through 2027. In April, we priced $150,000,000 of Spire Missouri first mortgage bonds that we expect to fund on May 1. Our financing plan includes additional issuances in 2026 and 2027 to refinance maturities and incremental debt of approximately $500,000,000 to fund our capital plan.

[Adam Woodard, EVP & CFO at Spire Inc]

Our FFO to debt target remains at 15% to 16%. In summary, we are executing our financing plan effectively and are confident in our financial position going forward. With that, let me turn it back over to you, Scott.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

Thanks Adam. As you've heard today, we have made significant progress towards achieving our priorities for the year, strengthening our position as a more resilient, efficient and sustainable company that creates value for both customers and shareholders.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

Our unwavering commitment to delivering natural gas safely and reliably remains at the core of our efforts. We are executing on our capital investment plan while actively collaborating with key stakeholders to secure constructive regulatory outcomes that benefit both our customers and shareholders. Additionally, we are focused on meeting our fiscal twenty twenty five adjusted earnings per share guidance range and preserving the strength of our balance sheet. Executing on these objectives is not just a focus for FY 2025, but a long term commitment to driving success and delivering meaningful results in the years to come. Thank you for your ongoing support of Spire and we look forward to seeing many of you at the AGA Financial Forum in a few weeks.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

We're now ready to take questions.

[Operator]

Yes. Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. And the first question comes from Richard Sunderland with JPMorgan.

[Richard Sunderland, Equity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan]

Hey, good morning. And Scott, congrats on your new leadership of the company.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

Good morning, Rich. Thank you.

[Richard Sunderland, Equity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan]

Digging into the results a little bit in finer detail, some moving pieces on the segment guidance. I realize share count is tweaked as well. Can you speak a little bit about 1H trends and then where you're trending on a full year basis, giving all these moving pieces?

[Adam Woodard, EVP & CFO at Spire Inc]

Hey, Rich, it's Adam. We wanted to take stop and take a minute and really took we saw the margin weakness in Missouri and had elected to take that guidance down. Now, fortunately, the midstream had exceeded our expectations and we're able to move that up. So I mean, from a trend line perspective, obviously, we're moving into the summer months and you won't we won't see a lot of performance out of the gas utilities, but we do the midstream turning well into the end of the year. And as I mentioned on the last call, marketing, we feel very good about where they're at and where they're going for the year.

[Richard Sunderland, Equity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan]

Understood. So it sounds like the sort of weather at the utility is obviously unfortunate. Is that really the sole deviation on the utility side? I think you referenced 9,000,000 of customer margin. So it looks like there should be a few other small pieces in there too.

[Richard Sunderland, Equity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan]

Just trying to understand the weather versus where else you're having difficulty forecasting the utility.

[Adam Woodard, EVP & CFO at Spire Inc]

That's the main driver. There's a as you mentioned, there's a few other pieces, but the main driver really is the weather related margin.

[Richard Sunderland, Equity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan]

Okay. Okay, understood. And then with the midstream guidance, that $8,000,000 increase, is it solely a one off for 2025? Or are you seeing a higher run rate for the business going forward?

[Adam Woodard, EVP & CFO at Spire Inc]

That's a great question. There's a little bit of we mentioned optimization there. There's One, we are seeing relative to where we started the year, feeling better about kind of where we're at on capacity and pricing. But a piece of that's optimization. So this would indicate some run rate lift over time, but I want to stress that it's not complete a complete lift on run rate.

[Adam Woodard, EVP & CFO at Spire Inc]

There is some optimization in there around circumstances or volatility that we saw in the first couple of quarters.

[Richard Sunderland, Equity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan]

Okay. Understood. And sorry, just one last one on midstream, while we're on that. The higher CapEx for midstream, is that impacting your return expectations for the storage expansion project?

[Adam Woodard, EVP & CFO at Spire Inc]

Yes, it's Adam again. No, it's not. We did see some higher capital costs going into that and really it continues to exceed our return expectations.

[Richard Sunderland, Equity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan]

Great. I'll leave it there. Thank

[Richard Sunderland, Equity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan]

you.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

You bet.

[Operator]

Thank you. And the next question comes from David Arcado with Morgan Stanley.

[David Arcaro, Executive Director, Equity Research at Morgan Stanley]

Hey, good morning. Thanks so much. Hey, best wishes to Steve and congratulations, Scott.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

Thank you, David. Appreciate that.

[David Arcaro, Executive Director, Equity Research at Morgan Stanley]

Yes, absolutely. I was curious just maybe on the weather mechanism. Could you elaborate a bit more on kind of what you see as the path forward here within the rate case, just prospects and where that could go?

[Adam Woodard, EVP & CFO at Spire Inc]

Yes. Thanks, David. It's Adam. We obviously, it's front and center in the rate case and it's something beyond the normal kind of cost of service, cost of capital reviews that we're going through is really the one of the main issues for us. And we do feel like we're in a good position to have that conversation with staff and the commission and other stakeholders.

[Adam Woodard, EVP & CFO at Spire Inc]

But there clearly, we need to there's something that we need to get fixed here. We realize that, and it's a big focus for us.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

Yes. And David, I'll just add. We proposed in this current case a couple of different options that we want to work with commission staff on and all the stakeholders as we get into the next elements of this case.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

And it ranges from decoupling to updating the weather time horizon that uses the comparison as well. So a lot of detail that we've got provided in the case, but clearly some work to be done there and we look forward to those discussions going forward.

[David Arcaro, Executive Director, Equity Research at Morgan Stanley]

Yes. Got it. Makes sense. Thanks. And then I was just curious your latest thinking on the prospects for a settlement within the rate case?

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

Yes. Hey, great question. And we still have a lot of work to do. So we're that's a little early in the process. Maybe just kind of lay out the process where we are in these stages.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

We do have the community meetings that take place that are coming up here very shortly. Then we have the public hearing or the commission hearing later this summer. There'll be opportunity that's built into the schedule for settlement discussions and those settlement talks can take place both prior to and after the commission hearing as well. The commission, at least if we're just watching over the last twelve to eighteen months has appears to be working towards settlement. So we're certainly willing to entertain those types of discussions as well.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

So look forward to collective and collaborative discussions going forward.

[David Arcaro, Executive Director, Equity Research at Morgan Stanley]

Okay. Excellent. I appreciate the color. Thanks.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

Thank you. Thanks, David.

[Operator]

Thank you. And the next question comes from Gabe Moreen with Mizuho.

[Gabriel Moreen, Managing Director at Mizuho Financial Group, Inc.]

Hey, good morning and congrats Scott as well. I would just ask, I know it's a little premature to ask about subsequent race cases in Missouri given that you're still involved in the midst of one right now. But as far as SB6 in its passage, can you talk about timing on future rate cases? Do you have to wait until that's implemented before you even start another rate case? So I'm just curious in terms of timing and how that may or may not influence your thoughts about future regulatory activity in Missouri?

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

Yes. Hey, Dave. Good morning and thank you for the question. Yes, maybe best and you set it up very well. Clearly, our focus is this case right now and that's where our mind's attention is.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

If you look at Senate Bill four and see what's laid out there, July of twenty six is the first time that either a gas or water utility can file based on a future test year basis for their rate case. And so it won't be until that time before we clearly would be able to file. But we have an interest in working under that new paradigm for Missouri. And so more to come in that space as we move forward. But clearly our efforts right now are focused on this case, and getting it to conclusion.

[Gabriel Moreen, Managing Director at Mizuho Financial Group, Inc.]

Thanks, Scott. Maybe if I could just add a follow on Missouri regulation. I know you're trying to reform the weather mechanism in this rate case here. And I think staff is going to opine sometime soon on that. Is that a negotiation?

[Gabriel Moreen, Managing Director at Mizuho Financial Group, Inc.]

Is it sort of a thumbs up, thumbs down? I'm just curious how you envision that sort of shaking out within the rate case?

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

Yes. Good question. I think as in all cases these are things that both parties clearly take sides and then work together and it's something that could be worked on together to get to the right solution that addresses both the needs of the customer but as well as the company as well. And I think that's the posture we're going to take as we work through this as well. So just like in all cases, there's opportunity for both sides to bring the issues to the table and work together to get to a constructive solution.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

That's what we're working towards.

[Gabriel Moreen, Managing Director at Mizuho Financial Group, Inc.]

Understood. Thanks, Scott. Appreciate it.

[Operator]

Thank you. And the next question comes from Steven D'Ambrizi with Ladenburg Thalmann.

[Stephen D'Ambrisi, Managing Director at Ladenburg Thalmann]

Hey guys, thanks very much for taking my question. Scott, congratulations on the new role and best of luck leaving the company.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

You, sir. Good morning.

[Stephen D'Ambrisi, Managing Director at Ladenburg Thalmann]

Morning. Just, I guess my question would be just on the guidance modification. Guess listening to some of the answers in the earlier questions, it kind of sounds like the takeaway is that to the extent you can fix the weather norm mechanism in this the context of this rate case, the earnings power of the business of the utility business hasn't really changed. And then maybe you're seeing some slight structural uplift in the marketing and midstream businesses. So can you just am I reading that right?

[Stephen D'Ambrisi, Managing Director at Ladenburg Thalmann]

Or just how are you framing this guidance revision?

[Adam Woodard, EVP & CFO at Spire Inc]

Yes. Steve, it's Adam. And I'll my point of view and let Scott chime in as well. I think that's a fair assumption. It is.

[Adam Woodard, EVP & CFO at Spire Inc]

We are we do expect to get to a constructive outcome on the weather mechanism, weather mitigation mechanism and we do see some, obviously with how I characterize the midstream guidance revision, we do see some structural uplift there relative to our earlier expectations. So I think that's a fair assumption.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

Yes. And Stephen, I think what I'd add, maybe just take it up a level, is just think about what's happening at the macro level within our company and it's the things we laid out in the script and also just kind of what's been happening in particular as we've been working through this case. But it really is about building momentum as we are finishing out this fiscal year going into 2026.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

Clearly, we have you can see the pull through of our customer affordability project that we implemented last year. Those expenses are we're seeing the benefit of those expenses staying where they need to be in the right places. I think if you look a little deeper into the numbers, you can see we're down in administrative in general, but slightly up in our field activities and that means we're putting the money to the places that benefit our customers. So then coming out of that, if you think about the pull through of capital across both midstream and our utilities, that's what we're working on right now. You're seeing the project the storage projects coming to life and we're seeing the pull through of the returns there.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

And then as we're updating our capital recovery in this instant case that we have before the commission right now, those are things that are providing momentum to us to get us back to the returns that we expect in this business. So we feel good about the future and that's what we're focused on right now.

[Stephen D'Ambrisi, Managing Director at Ladenburg Thalmann]

Okay. That sounds great. Thank you. And then just one follow-up just on implementation, I guess, that's before. I know you guys have a rate case that you're prosecuting and there's some time here.

[Stephen D'Ambrisi, Managing Director at Ladenburg Thalmann]

But do you expect the commission do they need to do a rulemaking? Or will there be some type of process that gets done? And does that go concurrently? Or is there anything that needs to get done from a regulatory perspective before you guys are actually able to file with a future test year? Thanks.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

Yes. So maybe just I'll just point to the bill, how it's laid out in the bill. The bill does allow for a case to be filed after or in July of twenty six or later. It speaks to some rulemaking that has to be completed by a certain date, which is July of the following year. But what we anticipate and I don't want to get ahead of our commission or kind of how they're thinking on it is, once they start up the rulemaking we'll be active in that and we'll certainly work within the confines of the legislation as we think about the timing of our next case.

[Stephen D'Ambrisi, Managing Director at Ladenburg Thalmann]

Okay. That's great. Thank you very much for the time. Appreciate it.

[Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director at Spire Inc]

Thanks, Steve.

[Operator]

Thank you. Well, this does conclude our question and answer session. So I would like to turn the floor back over to Megan McPhail for any closing comments.

[Megan McPhail, Managing Director of Investor Relations at Spire Inc]

I'd to thank you for joining the call today. Have a great day.

[Operator]

Thank you so much. Thank you for attending today's presentation. The conference has now concluded. You may now disconnect your lines.

Participants

Executives

• Megan McPhail, Managing Director of Investor Relations
• Scott Doyle, President, CEO & Director
• Adam Woodard, EVP & CFO

Analysts

• Richard Sunderland, Equity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan
• David Arcaro, Executive Director, Equity Research at Morgan Stanley
• Gabriel Moreen, Managing Director at Mizuho Financial Group, Inc.
• Stephen D'Ambrisi, Managing Director at Ladenburg Thalmann