Perdoceo Education Corporation

Good afternoon. My name is Sean, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the ProDosier Education Corporation fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Nick Nelson, Alpha IR. You may begin your conference.

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our fourth quarter 2024 earnings call. With me on the call today is Todd Nelson, 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 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 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 certainties 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 events, developments, or change circumstances, or for any other reason. 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 Todd Nelson. Todd?

Thank you, Nick. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us for our fourth quarter 2024 earnings call. Today I look forward to discussing the operating success we've experienced over the past year and how our academic institutions are furthering our goals of changing lives through education and preparing learners for essential skills needed in today's job market. The enrollment trends we are experiencing have reinforced and validated our strategy of optimizing and prioritizing student experiences and academic outcomes that we believe should ultimately support sustainable and responsible growth. Our acquisition of the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences adds a prestigious academic institution in the graduate health sciences field, offering clinical teaching excellence through its innovation, individualized, and quality clinical and distance education model. with a strong focus on retention and graduating students. St. Augustine prepares medical professionals to serve and provide quality medical care to communities across the country. Now to the results. I'll first discuss some key highlights for the quarter and full year. Ashish will then review the operating and financial performance and discuss our 2025 outlook. As always, I'd like to thank our faculty, student support staff, and all other employees for their understanding and ongoing commitment and hard work in serving and educating our students. 2024 was a year of operating efficiency as we experienced further improvement in student retention and engagement across our academic institutions. This, coupled with various federal student aid initiatives put in place by the Department of Education, supported total student enrollment growth through 2024. We are entering 2025 with student retention and engagement near multi-year highs and expect to operate at or near these levels through the next few quarters. The entire Prodocio team remains focused on continuing to enhance and support student retention and engagement while making selective investments in student technology, and leveraging data analytics to identify and engage with prospective students who are most likely to succeed at one of our academic institutions. Let me now review some other key observations and general highlights for the quarter and year. First, our academic institutions, including the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences, graduated over 12,000 students in 2024, and we wish them well with all their very best for the future. marketing and admissions investments, and, commensurately, prospective student inquiry generation grew in the second half of 2024, as we experienced an increase in interest from prospective students looking to pursue a degree at one of our academic institutions. Further, we have seen increased efficiency within our student enrollment and onboarding processes, supported by the use of data analytics and technology as well as our evolving marketing strategies that focus on identifying prospective students who are most likely to succeed at one of our universities. We have also increased training and development within our admissions and enrollment teams. While optimistic for 2025, we will continue to monitor the myriad of rules, orders, and updated expectations from various federal and state bodies around prospective student outreach. Our corporate engagement programs remain a focus and a priority. Both AIUS and CTU continue to make investments in staff and technology to further grow their programs in an efficient and effective manner. We used approximately $38.5 million for dividends and stock buybacks during 2024. Returning cash to shareholders via quarterly dividends is expected to be an integral and growing part of our capital allocation strategy. Now I'd like to take a minute to discuss the University of Saint Augustine for Health Sciences. In early December, we successfully completed the acquisition of Saint Augustine, which is a leader in graduate health science degrees, primarily in physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy, as well as nursing. Saint Augustine offers its academic programs through a network of ground campuses in California, Florida and Texas. This strategic acquisition allows us to diversify and significantly expand our academic offerings into the health sciences field, broadening our reach and community impact. We expect St. Augustine to be accreted to produce its operating income and adjusted operating income in 2025 and to provide further growth in operating income and adjusted operating income in 2026. Shifting now to our operating results. Fourth quarter and full year results surpassed our expectations. We reported fourth quarter net income of $31.5 million, or $0.47 per diluted share, while adjusted earnings per diluted share, which excludes certain significant and non-cash items, was $0.50. A quick note on total student enrollments. At CTU, total student enrollments increased by 8.1% compared to the prior year end, and as anticipated at AIU system, total student enrollments increased by 11.8%, as AIUS reverted to normalized operations in 2024. As mentioned earlier, since 2020, the Department of Education has implemented several student loan initiatives that, in addition to organic improvements, contributed to total enrollment growth in 2024. Some of these programs have ended and are expected to change or end in 2025. However, we believe that the underlying momentum in student retention and student engagement metrics coupled with increased levels of prospective student interest, should be able to offset any headwinds from loan program initiatives ending. Ashish will now provide more details on the quarter and full-year performance, 2025 outlook, and enrollment trends. With that said, I'd now like to turn the call over to Ashish for a deeper review of our performance. Ashish?