Cohen & Steers Inc

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Cohen and Steers Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question and answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press the star followed by the one on your telephone keypad. If at any time during the conference you need to reach an operator, please press star zero. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded Thursday, October 17, 2024. I would now like to turn the conference over to Brian Heller, Senior Vice President and Corporate Counsel of Cohen and Steers. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and welcome to the Cohen and Steers Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me are Joe Harvey, our Chief Executive Officer, Raja Dhikori, our Chief Financial Officer, and John Che, our Chief Investment Officer. I want to remind you that some of our comments and answers to your questions may include forward-looking statements. We believe these statements are reasonable based on information currently available to us, but actual outcomes could differ materially due to a number of factors, including those described in our accompanying third quarter earnings release and presentation, our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, and our other SEC filings. We assume no duty to update any forward-looking statement. Further, none of our statements constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the securities of any fund or other investment vehicle. Our presentation also contains non-GAAP financial measures, referred to as as-adjusted financial measures, that we believe are meaningful in evaluating our performance. These non-GAAP financial measures should be read in conjunction with our GAAP results. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures is included in the earnings release and presentation to the extent reasonably available. The earnings release and presentation, as well as links to our SEC filings, are available in the investor relations section of our website at www.cohenandstiers.com. With that, I'll turn the call over to Raja.

Thank you, Brian, and good morning, everyone. My remarks today will focus on our as-adjusted results. A reconciliation of GAAP to as-adjusted results can be found in the earnings release and presentation. Yesterday, we reported earnings of 77 cents per share compared to 68 cents sequentially. Revenue was 133 million compared to 122 million sequentially. The increase in revenue from the prior quarter was primarily due to higher average AUF. Our effective fee rate during the quarter was 58 basis points, which is consistent with the prior quarter. Operating income was $47.6 million compared to $42.5 million sequentially, and our operating margin improved to 35.7%. Total expenses were higher compared to the prior quarter, primarily due to an increase in compensation and benefits, and to a lesser extent, an increase in our distribution and service fees. The increase in compensation and benefits was in line with the sequential increase in revenue, as the compensation ratio remained at 40.5%. The increase in distribution and service fees was due to higher AUM related to our open-end funds. Regarding taxes, our effective rate was 25.1% for the quarter. Our earnings presentation notes liquidity at the end of Q3 and prior quarters. Our liquidity totaled $348 million at quarter end, which represents an increase versus Q2. AUM was $91.8 billion at quarter end. This was an increase of over $11 billion from the prior quarter, primarily due to market appreciation. AUM was also impacted by net inflows during the period. Joe Harvey will provide an update on our flows and pipeline. Let me briefly touch on a few items to consider for the rest of the year. With respect to compensation and benefits, we maintain a measured approach. We would expect the compensation ratio to remain at 40.5% for the rest of the year. We still expect G&A to increase 6% to 7% for the year as compared to 2023. Most of the increase is related to investments in our technology and infrastructure. And finally, we expect our effective tax rate for Q4 to be in line with the year-to-date rate of 25.3%. I'll now turn it over to John Che, who will discuss our investment performance.