Perdoceo Education Corporation

Good afternoon. Thank you for attending today's Prodocio Education Corporation fourth quarter and full year 2022 earnings conference call. My name is Hannah, and I will be your moderator for today's call. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call. I would now like to pass the conference over to our host, David Schneider, with Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our fourth quarter 2022 earnings call. With me on the call today is Todd Nelson, Executive Chairman, Andrew Hurst, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Ashish Gia, Chief Financial Officer. This conference call is being webcast live within the investor relations section at ProdocioED.com. A webcast replay will also be available on our website, and you can always contact the Alpha IR Group for investor relations support. Let me remind you that this afternoon's earnings release and remarks made today include forward-looking statements as defined in Section 21E, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to Prodocio Education and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual future results, performance, business prospects, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by these statements. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to those factors identified in Prodocio's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as expressly required by the securities laws, the company undertakes no obligation to update those factors or any forward-looking statements to reflect future results, developments, or change circumstances or for any other reasons. Today's remarks refer to non-GAAP financial measures, which are intended to supplement but not substitute for the most directly comparable GAAP measures. The earnings release that accompanies today's call contains financial and other quantitative information to be discussed today, as well as the reconciliation of the GAAP to non-GAAP measures, and is available within the investor relations page of the company's website. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Andrew Hurst. Andrew?

Thank you, Davis. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our fourth quarter and full year 2022 earnings call. I would like to begin by thanking our faculty, student support staff, and all other employees for their commitment and hard work while serving and educating our students. 2022 was another year of operational excellence during which we executed well against our primary objectives of enhancing student experiences, retention, and academic outcomes. Let's start with some of the key takeaways and highlights from the fourth quarter and full year 2022. We experienced meaningful improvements in student retention and engagement in the second half of 2022 as compared to the first half. We believe that the first half of 2022 was still being affected by the lagging impact of the pandemic and the related macroeconomic policies. Adjustments we've made to our marketing processes are now fully annualized and have allowed us to identify prospective students who are more likely to succeed at one of our academic institutions. We continue to make additional changes to our marketing processes to further enhance and support the improvements we have made on the student retention and engagement front. We saw continued growth within our corporate partnership program, especially at CTU. During 2022, we further increased the size of our corporate partnership team, and they are successfully engaging with employers to leverage their tuition assistance programs and provide a debt-free education to their employees. Finally, in December 2022, we completed the acquisition of CodingDojo. CodingDojo is focused on providing professional development, upskilling and reskilling opportunities within software and technology related areas. We are excited to welcome the CodingDojo team and Ashish will provide more details on this acquisition in his prepared remarks. Now to our financial results. Fourth quarter results came in ahead of our expectations. We reported net income of 16 million or 23 cents per diluted share, while adjusted earnings per diluted share, which excludes certain significant and non-cash items, was 31 cents. A quick note on total enrollments. At CTU, total enrollments increased by 2% as compared to the prior year end. At AIUS, Total student enrollments decreased by 10.8% as compared to prior year end. As expected, the rate of decline at AIUS moderated from the 16.1% decline we experienced at the end of the first quarter of 2022. For both our academic institutions, these enrollment metrics were partially supported by improved student engagement and retention, especially in the second half of 2022. A few other highlights before I turn the call over to Ashish. Prospective student interest has remained consistent, and we are further optimizing our enrollment processes to effectively manage the ever-changing environment of identifying prospective students. As discussed on previous calls, technology is an enabler and a differentiator for us. Leveraging data analytics and machine learnings Our student support staff have strived to provide current and prospective students with a more targeted, relevant, and meaningful experience throughout their academic journey, from admissions and enrollment to classroom learning and interaction, and ultimately through graduation. During the year, we also redesigned our learning management system, providing a more intuitive student experience. We continue to update our mobile app and have further optimized our chatbots, supporting a more effective, efficient, and round-the-clock interaction with our students. Overall, 2022 was a year marked with continued commitment to operational excellence, as our faculty and student support teams remained focused on delivering quality education to current and prospective students. With that said, I would now like to turn a call over to Ashish for a deeper review of our operating performance. Ashish?