Piedmont Natural Gas 2015 earnings drop

Piedmont Natural Gas reported Wednesday that its $137 million in profits for 2015 were down 5 percent from the previous year’s $143.8 million. Earnings per share of $1.73 compared to the $1.84 for 2014.

Fourth-quarter costs from Piedmont’s upcoming merger with Duke Energy ate up some earnings. Adjusted for those expenses, Piedmont had net income of $148 million for the fiscal year that ended Oct. 31, up 2.9 percent from 2014, and $1.87 a share.

Duke’s $4.9 billion acquisition of Piedmont, announced in October, is expected to close in late 2016.

Chief Executive Tom Skains called the results a “solid financial and operating performance” for the year.

Piedmont added 17,000 new customers, a 5 percent increase over the prior year. It invested $485 million to support the growing customer base and infrastructure, pipeline safety programs and joint ventures such as the Constitution pipeline.

The company moved 15 percent more natural gas through its system in 2015 than in the previous year, driven largely by increased deliveries to power plants. Margin, or revenues minus the cost of gas, went up 5 percent, largely due to rate adjustments to pipeline safety riders.

Piedmont reaffirmed its fiscal 2016 earnings guidance of $1.92 to $2.02 a share before merger-related expenses.

This story was originally published December 23, 2015 at 10:24 AM with the headline "Piedmont Natural Gas 2015 earnings drop."