Mini-conglomerate Otter Tail
That's what happened in the third quarter, as Otter Tail reported strong sales but truly feeble earnings. Revenue jumped 9% year over year to $281 million, but earnings per share fell precipitously from $0.29 to $0.16. The core electric power division and the somewhat ironic "Other" segment pulled their weight with respectable results, but pretty much everything else is trending down.
Particularly problematic is the manufacturing operation, which saw lower productivity and smaller sales due to a lengthy design process on a wind tower project with a picky customer. In other lowlights, sales swooned slightly in the plastics division, but operating profits there were cut down to one-third of the year-ago period's. Health services pulled a neat trick by dropping sales but reversing a small operating loss to positive figures. The food ingredient outfit held pretty steady.
Now do you see why the "Other" division is so ironically named?
The main idea is to set Otter Tail apart from other regional power utilities such as CH Energy Group
Otter Tail is still a five-star CAPS stock out of five, so a lot of your fellow investors clearly love this quirky Motley Fool Hidden Gems veteran, perhaps thanks to its generous dividend yield. I'd love to see exactly why you like it so much -- the comments box is lurking below the article and dying to hear from you.