LendingTree, Inc.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the LendingTree, Inc. First Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session, and instructions will follow at that time. If anyone should require assistance during the conference, please press star, then zero on your touchtone telephone. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Trent Ziegler, Vice President of Investor Relations.

Great. Thanks, Operator, and thanks to everyone for joining the call this morning to discuss LendingTree's first quarter 2021 financial results. On the phone with me today are Doug Lebda, LendingTree's Chairman and CEO, and J.D. Moriarty, currently our CFO. Hello. As a reminder to everyone, we posted a detailed letter to shareholders on our investor relations website earlier today. And for purposes of today's call, we'll assume that listeners have read that letter and we'll spend most of our time on Q&A. Before I hand the call over to Doug, I also want to remind everyone that during today's call, we may discuss LendingTree's expectations for future performance. Any forward-looking statements we make are subject to risks and uncertainties, and LendingTree's actual results could differ materially from the views expressed today. Many but not all of the risks we face are described in our periodic reports followed by the SEC. We will also discuss a variety of non-GAAP measures on the call today, and I refer you to today's press release and shareholder letter, both available on our website at investors.lendingtree.com, for the comparable GAAP measures, definitions, and full reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to GAAP. And with that, go ahead, Doug.

Thanks, Trent, and thanks to everyone for joining the call today. The first quarter's results demonstrate the core strength of our business and the continued momentum we're seeing across all of our segments. We once again substantially exceeded our prior guidance and our perspective on the remainder of the year is improving as the economy continues to gradually reopen. Our home segment posted record revenue in Q1 as consumers and lenders increasingly turned to the LendingTree network to fulfill their mortgage needs. Our deep lender network, world-class marketing machine, and product evolution have enabled us to continue to scale our mortgage business throughout market cycles. Our insurance business continues to perform consistently well as a market leader at scale and is clearly less susceptible to macroeconomic conditions. We continue to diversify and strengthen our insurance business by expanding into new traffic acquisition channels, expanding our carrier network, and growing into adjacent categories such further adding to the durability of our business model as a whole. And our consumer segment continues to show tangible signs of recovery one quarter after another. We see clear signs of returning demand from our network of lenders, and it's only a matter of time before consumer demand begins to return to pre-pandemic levels. The economy is reopening. Consumers are beginning to borrow and spend more. And we're confident that our consumer businesses will continue to accelerate throughout the remainder of the year. In aggregate, we feel really good about the overall health of our business. In addition to the quarter's results, we are also announcing this morning a realignment of our executive team to further propel the business forward. And I'd like to just touch on that briefly. The breadth and scale of our marketplace across categories is an undeniable asset and a core competitive advantage for LendingTree. And it's also become clear over the last several months that in order to sustain the levels of growth that we've historically delivered, certain aspects of our business deserve more focus and we're organizing the company accordingly. You can all read about this in this morning's press release, so I won't spell it out in too much great detail. But here's essentially what we're doing. Neil Salvage is going to continue to lead the core lending tree business and will endeavor to streamline those key assets. Scott Pyree, who founded Quote Wizard, will continue to oversee all things insurance, which has different and unique end market dynamics than our other businesses. Scott will begin reporting directly to me. And I'm thrilled to announce that J.D. Moriarty will be moving into a bigger operational business. leading what we are calling LendingTree Next. This division of the company will encompass our more strategic initiatives, including our evolving consumer experience, MyLendingTree, strategic partnerships, enterprise sales, corporate development, and broader operations management. And finally, with JD's transition, Trent Ziegler, who you all know very, very well, will be assuming the role of CFO. Trent has held leadership positions throughout our finance team in FD&A, investor relations, and treasury for the last eight years, and this is a natural and well-deserved progression for him. These moves should signal our commitment to investing in this company for the long haul. While our core business is incredibly solid, we recognize the need to focus on continued innovation, and we are aligning our people to support those efforts. I'd like to personally congratulate each of these leaders on their new roles. I'd also like to thank our HR team, our board of directors, who provided a great deal of thought leadership throughout our decision-making process. And with renewed energy, focus, and support, I am incredibly confident in our ability to scale this company very long into the future. And with that, operator, let's open it for questions.