Good morning, and thank you for joining the New Jersey Resources 2026 Annual Shareholders Meeting. We will begin with a short video, followed by the business of the meeting and Q&A. After a period of about 13 minutes, you'll be placed immediately into the live portion of the meeting. Thank you. We will now get started.
Good morning. I'd like to thank everyone for joining us for today's annual New Jersey Resources Annual Shareholders Meeting. I'll now turn to the business matters to be decided at the meeting. Consistent with our practice, I'll waive the reading of the minutes of last year's annual meeting and ask Tejal to provide the required information regarding today's meeting.
Thanks, Steve. Good morning, everyone. My name is Tejal Mehta, and I'm the Corporate Secretary and Assistant General Counsel of NJR. I have certified copies of resolutions adopted by the Board of Directors at the meeting held on November 5, 2025, determining the issues to be submitted for shareholder approval and setting the close of business on November 25, 2025, as the record date for shareholders entitled to notice of and to vote at this meeting. I also have an affidavit from Broadridge, our proxy services agent, regarding the mailing of the notice of meeting and the proxy statement. Available for inspection for shareholders through the meeting portal is a list of the company shareholders as of November 25, 2025, showing names, addresses, and number of shares held by each shareholder.
The list shows that as of that day, there were 100,745,880 shares of common stock issued and outstanding and entitled to vote at this meeting. A certified copy of the resolutions fixing the record date of this meeting, the affidavit regarding mailing the notice of meeting, and the proxy statement will be filed with the records of this meeting. Linda Piscatello of Broadridge and Mary Pat Bolan of NJR have been duly appointed as the inspectors of elections. Each has taken her oath of office prior to the meeting. Proxies of shareholders solicited by the board, along with the shareholders present at today's virtual meeting, represent a majority of the stock entitled to vote at this meeting. Therefore, we have reached a quorum for the meeting.
The minutes of the January 21, 2025, annual meeting are available through the meeting portal for inspection by any shareholder who would like to do so. Aaron Abreu, a partner from Deloitte and Touche LLP, our external auditor, is also in attendance at this meeting. Any verified shareholder may submit a question for Deloitte using the question box located at the bottom of the screen. Questions to Deloitte will be read aloud and responded to by Aaron during the question and answer section of this meeting.
Thanks, Tejal. The polls are open for voting. Now let's move to the items requiring action at today's meeting. The first item of business is the election of directors. We will elect five directors today. The Board of Directors has nominated Jane M. Kenny, Sharon C. Taylor, myself, Stephen D. Westhoven, William T. Yardley, and Amy B. Mansue, each for a three-year term that will expire in 2029. Based on the advanced notice provision in our bylaws, the nominations are closed. The second item on our agenda is the approval of a non-binding advisory resolution approving the compensation of our named executive officers. The third item is the approval of New Jersey Resources 2026 Stock Award and Incentive Plan. And the final agenda item is the ratification of the audit committee's appointment of Deloitte and Touche LLP as our company's independent registered public accounting firm.
If you've already voted, you do not need to take any action. If you've not yet voted or wish to change your vote, please do so now by using the vote button on the screen. Since all matters of business to be acted upon have been presented, I declare the polls closed and ask the inspectors of election to tabulate the results. Tejal, will you please read the preliminary report of the inspectors?
The preliminary results from the inspectors of the election will be made part of the records of today's meeting. The results indicate that Jane Kenny, Sharon Taylor, Steve Westhoven, Bill Yardley, and Amy Mansue have been re-elected to the board. The board's recommendations regarding the non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation and the 2026 Stock Award and Incentive Plan have been approved. And finally, the selection of Deloitte and Touche LLP as our independent registered accounting firm for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2026, has been ratified.
Thanks, Tejal. This completes the formal business of today's annual shareholders meeting. Before we move to questions, I would like to take a moment to recognize the chair of our board, Don Correll, who's retiring today. There are few people in the utility space as accomplished and respected as Don. When he joined our board of directors in 2008, he had an immediate impact with his thoughtful perspective, deep insights developed over years of a distinguished career in the water utility and private equity fields. As chair, his steady leadership has been central to an effective board oversight and has meaningfully contributed to the growth of our business. On behalf of everyone at NJR, I want to thank Don for his contributions that have elevated our board, our company, our customers, our shareholders, and me personally. Please join me in giving him a much-deserved round of applause.
I'd also like to acknowledge our two newest directors, Amy Mansue and Bill Yardley. Amy currently serves as the president and CEO of Inspira Health, based in Southern New Jersey, and Bill most recently served as the CEO of Portland Natural Gas Transmission System. With her wide breadth of experience, Amy and Bill are valued additions to our board, and finally, I'd like to congratulate Tom O'Connor, who will succeed Don as chair of the board. Tom has been an outstanding member of the board since he was elected in 2017, and as a long-standing member of our audit and leadership development compensation committees, he brings deep experience and valuable insight to every discussion. I'd like to thank Tom for taking on this important role in our board and our company. I look forward to our work together as we continue to grow our business for the future.
Now let's turn to the question and answer period of today's meeting. Tejal, will you review the guidelines for shareholder questions?
Please direct your attention to the rules of conduct for this annual shareholders meeting, which can be accessed via the meeting material section on your screen. Since this is our annual shareholders meeting, we will take questions only from our verified shareholders using the question box located at the bottom of your screen. If you are a guest, you will not be permitted to ask a question. We will begin with the questions we received in advance of today's meeting and then take shareholder questions that have been submitted on the web portal used to access this meeting. All submissions will be gathered by Kevin Roberts of NJR, who will then facilitate the Q&A portion of the meeting.
Please note that we will attempt to answer as many questions as time allows, but as set forth in the rules of conduct, only questions that are germane to the meeting will be addressed. As a courtesy to others, we ask that you limit your questions or comments to two. Matters of personal business, grievances, or other issues that do not relate to shareholders will be provided to our employees, who will address them after the meeting. Now I'd like to turn the meeting back over to Steve.
Thanks, Tejal, and thank you for all the questions you submitted during the meeting. Let's get started.
Thanks, Steve. Our first question is about affordability. It reads, "Affordability seems to be the top issue in New Jersey and across the country. How are you managing energy costs for your customers?
Thank you for the question. Natural gas continues to be the most affordable way to heat your home and businesses in New Jersey. To give you some statistics on that, natural gas is four times cheaper than electricity, and residential natural gas is nearly 30% less expensive in New Jersey than the national averages. You can see today we're experiencing cold weather. That cold weather year- over- year has been much colder than normal, and that's going to translate to increased consumption, and that should be reflected in bills being a little bit higher. But we do have some programs to help mitigate that. We have energy efficiency programs, and these are rebates and incentives that reduce bills by helping lower your usage. In fact, most customers that participate in this program see a savings up to 30% on their whole home bills.
There's also a wide range of bill payment assistance programs to ensure that their energy needs are met as well. So even though we're seeing a continuing increase for demand, it's clear that we need new supply too, and that new supply will support economic growth and certainly will continue to provide reliability and affordability to our customers. We feel NJR is in a good position to support all these efforts as well. So thanks again for your question.
Thanks, Steve. Our next question is on the topic of the dividends. Is NJR's dividend growth safe and sustainable?
Yeah, thank you for the question. Absolutely. Dividends are very secure. We've paid it out continuously since 1952, and we've increased it over 30 consecutive years every year. We balance our shareholder returns with reinvestment for growth, and that helps maintain a consistent payout ratio of about 60%. The dividend is supported by strong financial discipline, which is a core financial priority for NJR, and it's really a fundamental part of our growth strategy, and over the last several years, we've consistently maintained strong credit metrics and a strong balance sheet, so all in all, yeah, pretty safe.
Thanks, Steve. Our next question reads, "Outside of New Jersey Natural Gas, what role do NJR's solar and midstream businesses play in the company's long-term strategy?
Yeah, another good question, especially in today's market where energy needs are growing. The gas company is the largest business and the foundation of our company. Our growth strategy is supported by our broader portfolio of complementary businesses. Each one of those businesses has a distinct role, but together, they provide the energy that we all need, and our non-utility businesses, they share a common theme. They leverage the core strengths of our company, and those core strengths of market expertise and insights, operational flexibility, they provide the growth opportunities that complement the work that we do at the utility, so we see strong prospects ahead, a lot of growth in this market. There's a large demand for clean energy solutions, infrastructure needs, and customers continue to be interested in affordable and reliable energy.
As we outlined in our last earnings call, CEV is on track to increase their service capacity by over 50% in the next two years, and at our storage and transport business, we expect more than double that NFE over the next two years, so we look across our portfolio, we see a number of businesses that really fit together, that complement the core utility, and they position and drive long-term sustainable growth here at NJR.
Great. Thank you, Steve. Our next question is a local question, and it reads, "Since a lot of roads in Brick Township were torn up and patched recently, when will they be repaved?
So I'll have to get back to you on exactly when they'll be repaved. I'm sure the snow is going to probably delay a little bit of that currently. But taking care of our customers and certainly taking care of the area of our service territory where many of us reside is important to us. So we'll have someone take a look at what roads you're talking about and reach out to you. But rest assured, we'll maintain the areas in which we've impacted and certainly have an interest in making sure that everything is safe.
Thanks, Steve. Just one final check here, and that concludes our questions.
All right, we're good. So since there are no further questions, I'll conclude today's meeting by saying thanks for being part of our annual shareholders meeting. Thank you for your investment in New Jersey Resources. We're committed to executing our strategy, delivering performance, and rewarding your confidence in us. So on behalf of the board of directors and the entire company, I wish you a safe and healthy new year. Thank you.
This concludes New Jersey Resources' annual shareholders meeting. Thank you and enjoy the rest of your day.