Cohen & Steers Inc

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Cohen and Sears first quarter 2026 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. 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 Friday, April 17th, 2026. I would now like to turn the conference over to Brian Heller, Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of Cohen & Steers. Please go ahead.

Thank you and welcome to the Cohen & Steers First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me are Joe Harvey, our Chief Executive Officer, Mike Donahue, our Interim Chief Financial Officer, and John Shea, our President and 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 first 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 statements. 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.cohenandsteers.com. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mike.

Thank you, Brian, and good morning, everyone. My remarks today will focus on our as-adjusted results. The reconciliation of GAAP to as-adjusted results can be found in the earnings release and presentation. Yesterday, we reported earnings of 79 cents per share as compared to 81 cents sequentially. Revenue for Q1 increased from the prior quarter by 0.3% to 144.3 million. The change in revenue from the prior quarter was driven by higher average AUM partially offset by two less days in the quarter. In addition, and as we noted in last quarter's earnings call, there were 1.7 million of performance fees recognized in Q4 related to certain institutional accounts. We typically don't recognize such fees early in the year, and we have few performance fee accounts. Our effective tax rate during the quarter was 58.2 basis points, excluding non-recurring items Our fee rate was 58.4 basis points, which is slightly lower than the prior quarter. Operating income was 50.7 million during the quarter compared to 52.4 million sequentially. And our operating margin was 35.1% compared to 36.4% in the prior quarter. Ending AUM in Q1 was 93.1 billion, which was up from 90.5 billion at the end of Q4. This end of period change in AUM was driven by positive net inflows during Q1, primarily related to open-end funds. In addition, end of period AUM was positively impacted by market appreciation of $2.7 billion during the quarter. As a result, average AUM increased during Q1 to $94.4 billion as compared to $90.8 billion in the prior quarter. Joe Harvey will provide additional insights regarding our flows and pipeline shortly. Total expenses were higher compared to the prior quarter, primarily due to increased comp and benefits and distribution and service fees expense. Compensation and benefits was higher compared to prior quarter as a result of the year-to-date compensation accrual true up to actual that reduced compensation expense in Q4. The compensation ratio for the quarter was 40%, which was in line with the guidance we provided. Distribution and service fees expense was up due to the increase in average AUM, and G&A expense remained consistent with the prior quarter. Regarding taxes, our effective rate was 25.5% for the quarter on an as-adjusted basis. Our earnings material presents liquidity at the end of Q1 and prior quarters. Our liquidity totaled $343 million at quarter end, which represents a decrease of $60 million versus the prior period. This quarterly change in liquidity is in line with prior years and driven by the annual incentive compensation cycle for the firm, which occurs in Q1. Let me now touch on a few items regarding guidance for the remainder of 2026. With respect to compensation and benefits, We would expect our compensation ratio to remain at 40% as we experienced in Q1. We expect G&A to increase in the mid-single digits for the year as compared to the prior year. Lastly, regarding 2026 guidance, we expect our effective tax rate to remain consistent at 25.5% on an as-adjusted basis. I will now turn it over to John Che, who will lead discussion of our business performance.