Good afternoon, fellow stockholders. Welcome to MDU Resources 2026 annual meeting. I'm Nicole Kivisto, President and CEO of MDU Resources. It's my pleasure to welcome you to today's meeting and to introduce Darrel T. Anderson, Chair of MDU Resources' Board of Directors. Darrel, I'll turn it over to you.
Thanks, Nicole, welcome everyone. We appreciate you joining us today. Before I call this meeting to order, I would like to recognize several people who have joined Nicole and me for today's meeting. From management, we are joined by Jason Vollmer, the company's chief financial officer, and Anthony Foti, the company's chief legal officer and corporate secretary. Anthony will act as Corporate Secretary of today's meeting. From Deloitte, the company's independent auditors, we are joined by Amanda Guanzini, the company's lead audit partner. Deloitte has no formal statement today, but Miss Guanzini will be available during the Q&A session to respond to appropriate questions and comments from stockholders. From Broadridge, Tracy Oats will serve as our independent inspector of election and certify the vote results. I would now like to invite Nicole to make some opening remarks about our business.
Thanks, Darrel. Because we just reported our first quarter financial results this past Thursday, May seventh, and hosted a conference call the same day covering these results and other business developments, I will not get into the details of the quarter. I would like to share a few themes about our business and the company's direction. Before I do, please see the disclosure statement regarding forward-looking statements found in the meeting procedures presented on your screen. More details can also be found in our most recently filed Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. Much has changed at MDU Resources, but our core principles remain. Since becoming a pure-play regulated energy company, our team has executed our core strategy focused on customers and communities, operational excellence, returns-focused, and employee-driven. Customers look to our companies for safe, reliable, and affordable energy that strengthens local economies, and we deliver.
We're committed to helping those in need through energy assistance and efficiency programs and our foundation. These efforts reflect our enduring philosophy that when communities thrive, we thrive. Our commitment to operational excellence is evident across all business segments. We advance electric generation and transmission projects designed to enhance reliability and serve growing customer needs, while continued maintenance and modernization investments ensure long-term safe operations. Our natural gas distribution segment advanced infrastructure replacement and safety initiatives, and our pipeline segment delivered reliable transportation and storage services that support industrial and community growth across the Northern Plains. We have built a reputation for delivering consistent stockholder returns. The dividend increase approved in 2025, our 88th consecutive year of uninterrupted dividends, reflects confidence in our operations and long-term growth.
We are executing our multi-year capital plan to invest approximately $3.1 billion over the next five years to strengthen our energy infrastructure while supporting reliability and affordability. Our people are the heart of MDU Resources. From field crews maintaining infrastructure in challenging weather to engineers advancing infrastructure projects to customer service teams providing exceptional care, our employees embody the values that define us: integrity, safety, respect, excellence, and stewardship. We will turn back to this afternoon's agenda, and I will turn it to you, Darrel.
Thanks, Nicole. Appreciate that. This meeting is officially called to order. We will first conduct the business of the meeting, followed by a Q&A session. A copy of the order of business is presented on your screen. Stockholders may submit questions and comments through the text box provided on the site until the end of the Q&A session. Notice of the 2026 Annual Meeting of Stockholders and Proxy Statement, as well as the 2025 Annual Report, were first made available to all stockholders of record as of March 12, beginning April 1st, and the company has received an affidavit of distribution from Broadridge attesting to the same. The company's transfer agent has also certified a list of the names, addresses, and holdings of the stockholders of record entitled to vote at this meeting.
We have been informed by Ms. Oats that a quorum is present. I declare this meeting duly organized, and we may now proceed with the business of the meeting. The polls are now open. Stockholders who have not voted or wish to change their votes may do so online now through the closing of the polls by clicking the voting button on their screen and following the instructions. Stockholders who already voted and do not wish to change their vote do not need to take any further action.
Stockholders have been asked to consider and approve four proposals, each described in detail in the company's proxy statement. The first proposal is to elect eight directors to the board. Vernon A. Dosch, Marian M. Durkin, Douglas W. Jaeger, Charles M. Kelley, Nicole Kivisto, Tammy J. Miller, Priti R. Patel, and myself. The second proposal is the company's annual Say on Pay vote.
The third proposal is to approve the MDU Resources Long-Term Performance-Based Incentive Plan as amended and restated. The fourth proposal is to ratify the appointment of Deloitte as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for fiscal 2026. Unless otherwise specified, the proxies received by the company will be voted in accordance with the board's recommendations. Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, I declare the polls are closed. Anthony, would you please report on the preliminary voting?
Mr. Chairman, I have been advised by Tracy Oats that sufficient affirmative votes have been received in favor of each of the director nominees and the other three proposals. While all votes are subject to a final count to be certified by Tracy Oats, each of the eight director nominees has been duly elected. The Say -on-Pay vote has been approved. The MDU Resources Long-Term Performance-Based Incentive Plan, as amended and restated, has been approved, and the appointment of Deloitte has been ratified. After the final count is certified by Tracy Oats, the company will report the final vote results on a Form 8-K to be filed with the SEC within four business days of today's meeting.
Thank you, Anthony. There being no further business to come before the meeting, the formal portion of the meeting is now adjourned, and the meeting is open for questions or comments from stockholders. Anthony, are there any questions from stockholders?
Mr. Chairman, we have two questions from stockholders. The first question is from Pam Merrick. Her question is, has the Iran war affected MDU Resources' business?
Yeah, I can take that, Anthony. Pam, certainly thank you for being a shareholder of MDU Resources , and I appreciate the question. As we think about the overall impact to MDU Resources businesses, I would say it has not had a material impact thus far. We are seeing some, obviously, effects due to changing pricing as it relates to energy pricing, not an overall impact to our business today.
The second question is also from Pam Merrick. Her question is: What kind of dividend increases can shareholders count on in the future?
Yeah, appreciate the question here as well. I guess I would like to start with saying that we are certainly proud, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, of our 88th consecutive year of dividend payments. As we think about future increases, which is what your direct question is related to, that, of course, is a conversation that we have with our board on a regular basis. I would say that we are publicly talking about with investors our target dividend payout ratio, and that target is in a range of 60%-70% from a dividend payout ratio perspective.
There are no further questions from stockholders. That concludes the stockholder question and comments that we have received.
Thank you, Anthony, thank you certainly to all of our stockholders for joining today's meeting and for your continued support as we execute our core strategy. I believe the opportunities before us are significant, and I am confident that our long-term strategy positions us for sustainable success. I believe the future of MDU Resources is bright. With that, Darrel, I'll hand it back over to you.
Thank you, Nicole, and thank you to all of our stockholders for joining today's meeting and your continued interest in MDU Resources. This concludes our meeting. We appreciate your continued support.
This concludes today's annual meeting. You may now disconnect.