Essent Group Ltd.

turn the conference over to Phil Stefano. You may begin.

Thank you, Abby. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our call. Joining me today are Mark Casale, Chairman and CEO, and David Weinstock, Chief Financial Officer. Also on hand for the Q&A portion of the call is Chris Curran, President of Essent Guarantee. Our press release, which contains Essent's financial results for the third quarter of 2024, was issued earlier today and is available on our website at EssentGroup.com. Our press release includes non-GAAP financial measures that may be discussed during today's call. A complete description of these measures and the reconciliation to GAAP may be found in Exhibit O of our press release. Prior to getting started, I would like to remind participants that today's discussions are being recorded and will include the use of forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, projections, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially. For discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please review the cautionary language regarding forward-looking statements in today's press release, the risk factors included in our Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 16, 2024, and any other reports and registration statements filed with the SEC, which are also available on our website. Now let me turn the call over to Mark.

Thanks, Bill, and good morning, everyone. Earlier today, we released our third quarter 2024 financial results, which continue to benefit from our high-quality portfolio and the impact of higher interest rates on persistency and investment income. While higher mortgage interest rates have reduced overall mortgage originations, as a portfolio business, we are less reliant on transaction activity than other sectors of the housing ecosystem. As such, our results for the quarter continue to demonstrate the strength of our business model in generating high-quality earnings. Our long-term outlook for housing remains constructive, as the supply-demand imbalance and favorable demographic trends should provide foundational support to home prices. At the same time, the U.S. labor market and consumers continue to exhibit resilience, which has supported economic growth and credit performance. And now for our results. For the third quarter of 2024, we reported net income of $176 million, compared to $178 million a year ago. On a diluted per share basis, we earned $1.65 for the third quarter compared to $1.66 a year ago. On an annualized basis, our return on average equity was 13% in the third quarter. As of September 30th, our U.S. mortgage insurance and force was $243 billion, a 2% increase from a year ago. our 12-month persistency was approximately 87%, relatively flat compared to last quarter, with nearly 65% of our enforced portfolio having a note rate of 5.5% or lower. While persistency has likely peaked, we expect that the current level of mortgage rates should continue to support elevated levels. The credit quality of our insurance and force remains strong, with a weighted average FICO of 746 and a weighted average original LTV of 93%. Credit performance in the third quarter reflected both the aging of our portfolio and the typical seasonality of default behavior. Our 2021 and prior vintages represent about half our portfolio, and home price appreciation should continue to mitigate ultimate claim experience for those cohorts. Newer vintages continue to perform in line with our expectations. On the business front, we are monitoring the potential fallout from Hurricanes Helene and Milton that impacted the southeast region of the country. Like Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in the second half of 2017, these storms have the potential to cause an uptick in delinquencies for the affected areas. While delinquencies may be higher, we remind you that mortgage insurance policies have an exclusion for claims if property damage is the principal cause for borrower default, and therefore the ultimate P&L impact may be mute. During the third quarter, we closed our 10th Radnor Re ILN transaction, providing us with $363 million of fully collateralized excess of loss coverage. We were pleased with the execution and continue to be encouraged by the strong demand from investors in our program. We remain committed to a programmatic reinsurance strategy, which helps to diversify our capital resources while ceding a meaningful portion of our mezzanine credit risk. Cash-in investments as of September 30th were $6.4 billion, and our new money yield in the third quarter was nearly 5%. The annualized yield for investments available for sale in the third quarter was 3.8%. up from 3.6% a year ago, and we'd note that higher yields and a growing investment portfolio generate incremental revenues for our business model. We continue to operate from a position of strength with $5.6 billion in gap equity, access to $1.7 billion in excess of loss reinsurance, and a PMIR sufficiency ratio of 186%. Given our strong financial performance and capital position, we continue to take a measured approach to capital management. Our objectives remain the same relative to maintaining a conservative balance sheet, preserving optionality for strategic growth opportunities, and optimizing shareholder returns over the longer term. Now let me turn the call over to Dave.