Perdoceo Education Corporation

Hello, and thank you for standing by. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Produccio Education Corporation fourth quarter and full year 2025 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 Nick Nelson, Alpha IR Group. Nick, please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our fourth quarter 2025 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 of the company's website at pronocioed.com. A webcast replay will also be available on our site for 90 days following the call, and you can always contact the Alpha IRA 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 as amended. These statements are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to Prodorcio Education Corporation, 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 forward-looking 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 filed today 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 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 released that accompanies today's call contains financial and other quantitative information to be discussed today. as well as the reconciliations of the GAAP to non-GAAP financial 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 2025 earnings call. Today, I look forward to discussing the academic, operational, and financial successes we achieved in 2025. successes that reinforce our strategy of prioritizing student experience and academic outcomes, which we will believe drives sustainable and responsible growth. Our academic institutions share a common mission of transforming lives through education by equipping primarily adult learners with the practical skills required to succeed in today's dynamic workforce. TTU and AIUS provide diverse career-focused degree programs designed to help students excel in a rapidly changing job environment. University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences operates in the graduate health sciences field and develops medical professionals to deliver quality healthcare services to communities nationwide. I'll start by discussing some key highlights for the quarter and full year. Ashish will then provide more details on our operating and financial performance and discuss the 2026 outlook. As always, I would like to thank our faculty, student support staff, and all other employees for their outstanding and ongoing commitment and hard work in serving and educating our students. We ended 2025 on a strong note with revenue, operating income, and total student enrollment growth ahead of management expectations. Across our portfolio of academic institutions, we remain focused on providing an outcome-driven education while aligning for academic programs with the current demands of the workforce. Student retention continues to trend near multi-year highs, and we made purposeful investments in marketing and admissions to effectively serve the prospective student interests that we are experiencing across our academic institutions. Fourth quarter operating performance exceeded our initial expectations with net income of $35.3 million or $0.54 per diluted share, while adjusted earnings per diluted share, which excludes certain non-cash items, increased 20% to $0.59 as compared to $0.49 in the prior year. With that context, let me share some highlights for the fourth quarter and full year. First, our academic institutions graduated approximately 15,000 students in 2025, and we wish them all the very best for their future. For 2026, we expect to graduate even more students as retention continues to trend near multi-year highs. Total student enrollments grew 7.3% versus the prior year end, driven by 11.2% growth at AIUS, 6.6% growth at CTU and 2.6% growth at St Augustine. At CTU, this marks the ninth consecutive quarter of total student enrollment growth, primarily due to continued progress within the corporate student program, as well as strong levels of interest from prospective students during 2025. And as expected, AIUS experienced double-digit total student enrollment growth for the quarter. St. Augustine has continued to be accretive to adjusted operating income since we completed the acquisition in December of 2024. St. Augustine ended the fall term with approximately 3,900 students, and spring term enrollments are trending in line with our growth expectations. Strategic investments in technology have also been supporting enrollment growth across our academic institutions. Concurrently, we continue to refine our marketing, advising, and admissions investments further optimizing the effectiveness of our student enrollment and student support processes. This approach is designed to further enhance student retention and engagement while maintaining discipline costs. Through our corporate student programs, we provide accredited degree opportunities to employees of our partner organizations and supporting their current advancement while helping corporate partners strengthen employee development and retention. We continue to invest strategically in technology and talent to expand the program and enhance academic outcomes across our institutions. Our balanced capital approach decisions throughout the year reflect, among other priorities, our continued commitment to returning capital to shareholders. During the year, we repurchased 4.1 million shares for a total of $120.8 million. and paid $36.9 million in dividends. In total, we returned $157.6 million of capital to shareholders in 2025, reflecting our balanced approach to capital allocation and our commitment to creating long-term shareholder value while continuing to invest in our academic institutions and student support processes. Finally, we are pleased to note that our board recently approved a new share repurchase authorization of up to $100 million, providing us with continued flexibility to return capital in a disciplined manner. Overall, I am pleased with 2025 operating performance. We achieved growth in total student enrollments alongside increases in revenue and operating income, and we are entering 2026 with positive momentum. Ashish will now provide more details on the financial results, our 2026 outlook, and student enrollment trends. Ashish?