California Water Service Group (CWT) Earnings

Management highlights

### Quarter Results - Q1 results in line with expectations due to delayed 2024 general rate case. Proposed decision on 2024 California general rate case received, with revised proposed decision received yesterday and expected to be approved later. ### Infrastructure Investment - First quarter infrastructure investment up 17%. Total planned capital investments for 2026 are $627 million, reflecting amounts in revised proposed 2024 California rate case decision and estimated expenditures in other states. ### Business Development - Focused on Nexus acquisition deal and filing change of control in Texas for BVRT. ### Dividend - Declared 325th consecutive quarterly dividend and 59th annual dividend increase. ### Centennial Year - Officially kicked off centennial year of operations, with employee and customer celebrations in regions operated, having had over 41 thousand people visit centennial website.

Guidance

### Rate Case - Anticipates approval of revised proposed decision on 2024 California general rate case later today. Once approved, will implement results, including retroactive application back to January 1. ### M&A - Hopes to close Nexus acquisition of Nevada and Oregon operations as early as by the end of the year, and close the minority interest buyout in BVRT once applications are approved. ### Dividend - 2026 annual dividend of $1.34 per share declared, 8.1% higher than 2025.

Segment performance

In 2026, revenue was $214.6 million compared to $204 million in 2025. Net income for the quarter was $4 million, or $0.07 per diluted share, compared to the prior year first quarter of $13.3 million, or $0.22 per diluted share. Capital investments for the quarter were up 17.6% to $129.5 million. Total planned capital investments for 2026 are $627 million. As of 03/31/2026, there was $58.1 million in unrestricted cash and $45.6 million in restricted cash, along with approximately $470 million available on bank lines of credit. Declared a 325th consecutive quarterly dividend of $0.335 per share and 2026 annual dividend of $1.34 per share, 8.1% higher than 2025. The revised proposed decision on 2024 California general rate case provides clear visibility into revenue growth including approximately $91 million in 2026, $43 million in 2027, and $49 million in 2028. The Nexus acquisition deal has progressed with filing change of control applications in Oregon and Nevada, hoping to close by end of year, which would give almost 100 thousand connections outside California, about 20% of total. Filed change of control application with Texas Commission for BVRT, added 210 connections to existing system.

Risks & headwinds

### Regulatory Risks - The outcome of the rate case decision is subject to uncertainty as it goes through the Commission approval process. ### M&A Risks - Uncertainties around the timing and approval of the Nexus acquisition and BVRT change of control applications with the respective state commissions. ### Environmental Risks - Uncertainty regarding future regulations on microplastics and whether current PFAS treatment plans will be effective for treating microplastics, as per EPA's potential future regulations.

Analyst Q&A

• Q: Hey, good morning, Jim, Greg. Good morning, guys. Thank you so much for the time, and I appreciate all the information here. Two questions for me, maybe a PFAS question and then a balance sheet question. I will start with the EPA talking recently about microplastics and potentially regulating some other substances outside the initial PFAS guidelines. Do you have any early thoughts on this, and specifically, might these be treatable within your current plans, or would this require further capital investment beyond what you have already laid out?

  A: Good question, David. Some of you have heard me talk about UCMR, which is the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule list that the EPA publishes, and they update that list every so many years. If you really want to see what is coming down the pipe—no pun intended—on water regulation, you want to monitor that UCMR list, and microplastics have shown up and evolved on that list. It is certainly a hotter topic at the EPA right now, and it is something that is in water supply. You will likely see regulations established and an MCL to make sure there are no microplastics in the water. There is more to come from the EPA on that. Obviously, they go through a scientific process and come up with standards. Those standards get handed off to the states, and the state Departments of Health are responsible for implementing those standards at the state level. I believe we will ultimately have a standard on microplastics. I do, and I think as a society we have gotten a lot better at not putting microplastics into the ground or into the ocean. I think that part of it is improving, but I do think at some point we will have a standard that will evolve that we will have to treat for. As part of that process, the EPA will also talk about the appropriate methods and techniques to treat water that has microplastics in it. I think it is uncertain right now whether or not the current treatment that we are putting in place for PFAS will be effective for microplastics, and that will depend largely on the EPA.

• Q: Super helpful, thank you. Maybe then just turning to balance sheet. I appreciate all the comments on liquidity and available credit, but could you talk a bit about how you are thinking about equity issuance and capital needs more broadly throughout the balance of the year?

  A: I think—we feel very confident that we will be successful in closing both BVRT and the NexSys acquisitions in Nevada and Oregon. That will be incremental to our normal cadence of debt and equity issuances. We will take a look at the timing on when we anticipate that is going to occur and determine the most efficient way to approach the capital markets to fund those transactions when the time comes. There are some interesting instruments out there relative to forwards that will allow us to time it closer to minimize any dilution that could occur in terms of the difference between the time we raise the equity and the time we actually close the transactions, so we will be looking into that. We believe when the transactions close, it would likely occur towards the end of the year, and that is when我 would look to raise the capital for those. Otherwise, we would continue to rely on our ATM and our normal lines of credit taken out by longer-term debt as we work through our capital programs and fund our other capital needs. Once again, everyone— Martin A. Kropelnicki: Jim, if you do not mind me jumping in, Dave, it is probably worth mentioning too—as you recall, we have our PFAS program, which is fairly substantial, and we have a separate application before the Commission that we are waiting to hear on because that will add further pressure on Jim on the capital side. But the flip side is we have been very successful on the litigation side. Just last week, we received another $6.5 million gross from the polluters’ trusts that have been set up. We have recovered about $66.5 million in gross receipts in our recovery process going after polluters, which nets us just about $50 million. That $50 million will be a direct offset to our PFAS program and help keep those costs lower for our customers. So we are approaching 20–25% of those estimated PFAS costs being covered through our legal efforts, and our legal team continues to do a very good job leading our industry efforts at getting recovery on that. That will help a little bit. For some perspective, we initially anticipated two segments of the program: one is treatment and one is well replacement, with our objective to get the treatment in by 2028, and the well replacements will take longer. Of the total amount we plan to spend on PFAS, about $60 million is for the wells and the remainder is for treatment.