Global Water Resources (NASDAQ:GWRS) released first-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Thursday. Read the complete transcript below.
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View the webcast at https://viavid.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1759123&tp_key=19cb4393fe
Summary
Global Water Resources reported a 6.7% increase in total revenue for Q1 2026, reaching $13.3 million, primarily due to the acquisition of water systems and organic growth.
Operating expenses increased by 15.1% to $12.9 million, driven by higher depreciation, amortization, and accretion expenses due to recent capital investments.
The company reported a net loss of $0.4 million or $0.01 per diluted share in Q1 2026, compared to net income of $0.6 million in Q1 2025.
Strategically, the company emphasized its focus on obtaining rate increases to support earnings growth and has slowed the pace of capital investments to control expenses.
Operationally, active service connections grew by 5.7% year-over-year, with notable infrastructure investments totaling $6.3 million in 2026.
The company reached a settlement in pending rate reviews, anticipating a water revenue increase for GW Santa Cruz and a wastewater decrease for GW Palo Verde.
Future outlook includes continued efforts to secure rate increases and organic growth, with plans for additional rate review filings in upcoming quarters.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Greetings ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Global Water Resources Inc. 2026 first quarter conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time for you to queue for questions. If anyone has any difficulties hearing the conference, please press Star zero for operator assistance at any time. I would like to remind everyone that this call is being recorded on May 14, 2026 at 1:00pm Eastern Time. I would now like to turn the conference over to Kyle Upchurch, Controller. Please go ahead.
Kyle Upchurch (Controller)
Thank you Operator and welcome everybody. Thank you for joining us on today’s call. Yesterday we issued our 2026 first quarter financial results by press release, a copy of which is available on our website at gwresources.com speaking today is Ron Fleming, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mike Liebman, Chief Financial Officer and Chris Krieger, Chief Operating Officer. Ron will summarize the key operational events of the quarter. Mike will review the financial results for the first quarter and Chris will review Arizona Corporation Commission activities. Ron, Mike and Chris will be available for questions at the end of the call. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that certain information presented today may include forward looking statements. Such statements reflect the Company’s current expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions regarding future events. These forward looking statements involve a number of assumptions, risks, uncertainties, estimates and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward looking statements. Accordingly, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward looking statements which reflect management’s views as of the date here and are not guarantees of future performance. For additional information regarding factors that may affect future results, please read the Risk Factors and MD&A sections of our periodic SEC filings. Additionally, certain non GAAP measures may be included within today’s call for a reconciliation of those measures to the comparable GAAP measures. Please see the tables included in yesterday’s earnings release which is available on our website. I will now turn the call over to Ron.
Ron Fleming (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you Kyle. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us today. First, before jumping to normal operating highlights, I’d like to emphasize our focus on earnings growth. While most elements of our business have experienced growth, our goal is to achieve long term earnings growth and we are committed to this objective which we believe will allow us to enhance shareholder value. As we reported last quarter, as part of our year end reporting for 2025, we had a near record year for capital investments that were critical to complete. This included the investment necessary to recommission our Southwest Plant water reclamation facility, which was originally constructed 20 years ago …
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