Perdoceo Education Corporation

Hello everyone, thank you for attending today's Prodocio Education Corporation first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. My name is Sierra and I will be your moderator today. All lines are in a listen only mode. And I would now like to pass the conference over to our host, David Snyder with Prodocio Education. Please proceed.

Thank you, Sierra. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our first quarter 2023 earnings call. With me on the call today are Todd Nelson, Executive Chairman, Andrew Hurst, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Ashish Gia, Chief Financial Officer. This conference call has been webcast live within the Investor Relations section at ProdocioED.com. A webcast replay will also be available on our site, and you can always contact the Alpha IR Group for investor relations support. Let me remind you that this afternoon's earnings release And the remarks made today include forward-looking statements as defined in Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to Pro Docio 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 annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, and subsequent filings within 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 events, developments, or change circumstances or for any other reason. In addition, 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 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 CEO Andrew Hurst. Andrew?

Thank you, Davis, and good afternoon to everyone joining us on this call. I would like to begin by saying thank you to our faculty, student support staff, and all our other employees for their continued dedication in educating and serving our students. Our first quarter operating results came in at the high end of the outlook provided, and we continue to focus on improving student experiences and academic outcomes. Let me now touch upon some of the key operational highlights and updates from the quarter. First, we continue to see improvements in student retention at both CTU and AIUS as our academic and student support teams remain focused on serving and educating our students. This improvement, in part, has also been supported by various prospective student enrollment and student outreach changes. implemented in the last two years that focused on enrolling learners who we believe will be more successful at one of our academic institutions. Second, during the quarter, we continue to experience growth in our corporate partnership programs as our teams support corporations around the country in educating and training their employees. The benefits and success of these programs particularly at CTU, is something we are working to replicate and extend to our recent acquisitions. And we will continue to invest in these programs, including technology upgrades aimed to further streamline the overall processes related to these corporate partnership programs. Third, our recent acquisitions have continued to integrate into their respective academic institutions. Supported by these acquisitions, we are now able to offer our students a broader spectrum of academic courses to choose from as they plan their education at one of our academic institutions. Now let me provide further details regarding our operating results for the quarter. We reported first quarter net income of $34.5 million or 50 cents per diluted share. while adjusted earnings per diluted share, which excludes certain significant and non-cash items, was 58 cents. Total student enrollments as of March 31st, 2023 increased by 0.8%, primarily driven by a 2.1% increase at AIUS, while total student enrollments at CTU remained flat. Ashish will provide more color on these results in his prepared remarks. Finally, on the technology front, we remain committed to investing in and upgrading our technology to further enhance academic experiences for our students. We believe technology is an enabler and a differentiator for us and will continue to leverage data analytics and machine learning to provide our students with a more relevant and meaningful experience. Over the past two years, We have committed various investments in this area and we will continue to execute against those commitments throughout 2023. With that said, I will now turn the call over to Ashish for a deeper review of our operating performance for the quarter. Ashish.