LendingTree, Inc.

Good day, and thank you for standing by, and welcome to the LendingTree, Inc. first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there'll be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Andrew Wessel, VP of Investor Relations and Corporate Development. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Justin, and good morning to everyone joining us on the call to discuss LendingTree's first quarter 2024 financial results. On the call today are Doug Lebda, LendingTree's Chairman and CEO, Scott Puri, COO and President of Marketplace, and Trent Ziegler, CFO. As a reminder to everyone, we posted a detailed letter to shareholders on our investor relations website earlier today. And for the purposes of today's call, we will assume the listeners have read that letter and will focus on Q&A. Before I hand the call over to Doug for his remarks, I remind everyone that during today's call, we may discuss LendingTree's expectations for future performance. Any forward-looking statements that 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 filed with 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, for the comparable GAAP definitions and full reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to GAAP.

And with that, Doug, please go ahead. Thank you, Andrew, and thank you to all who are with us on the call today. We are very excited to report first quarter adjusted EBITDA increased 48% from last year as our insurance segment produced very strong results with both revenue and VMD up double digits from a year ago. Many products in our consumer business generated strong sequential growth, a trend we expect to continue into the second quarter. The revenue outlook continues to improve into the second quarter, providing us confidence we are finally through the worst part of the cycle for our company. We forecast stable underwriting conditions at our lender partners combined with sizable demand growth from our insurance partners will return our business to revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth for the full year. Jumping into segment performance, our insurance business has generated 11% growth in both revenue and VMD over a difficult comp from last year. Terrier partners steadily increased spending with us to acquire new customers while a record volume of consumers again came to us looking for auto insurance policies following significant premium increases over the past year. The momentum has continued into the second quarter, and we are now forecasting record revenue in this segment. Our consumer segment performance was highlighted by 24% sequential growth in small business revenue. As we mentioned on last quarter's call, we made a strategic decision in 2023 to optimize operating margins given the uncertain demand trends at many of our lenders. We have been encouraged that underwriting conditions that most lender partners have remained stable for some time. And so we are leaning into this increased certainty with additional marketing investments aimed at driving higher revenue in VMD for the segment across multiple product categories. Our home segment continues to perform at trough levels given the backdrop of higher mortgage rates and low supply of homes for sale. Our home equity offering continues to provide most of the opportunity for us and our partners at home, and we expect that the trend will continue for the remainder of the year. Last but certainly not least, at the end of the quarter, we secured a new $175 million loan commitment from Apollo Funds. The proceeds from this financing, in combination with existing cash on our balance sheet and future free cash flow, provide us with ample liquidity to meet our remaining convertible note maturity next year. We would expect leverage of four times or less once we've retired the 2025 convertible notes, and we look to continue optimizing our capital structure thereafter. We are happy to have addressed this financing, which enables us to focus solely on improving our business and our financial results going forward. If we could take any questions.