Essent Group Ltd.

first quarter earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I would now like to turn the conference over to Phil Stefano, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Regina. 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 Caron, President of Essendon Guarantee. Our press release, which contains Essendon's financial results for the first quarter of 2025, was issued earlier today and is available on our website at EssendonGroup.com. 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 18th of 2025, 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, Phil, and good morning, everyone. Earlier today, we released our first quarter 2025 financial results, which continue to benefit from the impact of higher interest rates on the persistency of our insured portfolio and investment yields. We believe that our buy, manage, and distribute operating model uniquely positions us to operate in a variety of economic environments to generate attractive returns for our shareholders. Our outlook over the long term remains constructive, as we believe that favorable demographic trends, along with current affordability issues, are resulting in pent-up demand for housing. Even though we anticipate some headwinds to consumer spending and economic growth over the near term, given the high credit quality of our insured portfolio and the strength of our operating model, Essendon is positioned to navigate this environment. And now for our results. For the first quarter of 2025, we reported net income of $175 million compared to $182 million a year ago. On a diluted per share basis, we earned $1.69 for the first quarter compared to $1.70 a year ago. On an annualized basis, our return on average equity was 12% in the quarter. On the mortgage insurance front, lenders continue to be challenged by lower originations due to the impacts of higher rates, affordability, and overall lack of supply. This in turn also impacts the amount of new insurance written that our industry generates. While our industry is competitive in this environment, systematic credit guardrails established by the GSEs continue to mitigate credit box expansion. As such, we remain satisfied with the credit quality and unit economics of our new business. As of March 31st, our U.S. mortgage insurance in force was $245 billion, a 3% increase versus a year ago. 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%. Our 12-month persistency on March 31st was 86%, flat from last quarter, while half of our in-force portfolio has a note rate of 5% or lower. We continue to expect that the current level of mortgage rates will support elevated persistency in the near term. Our consolidated cash and investments as of March 31st were $6.4 billion, and our new money yield in the first quarter remained over 5%. The annualized investment yield for the first quarter is 3.8%, while new money rates have largely held stable over the past several quarters and remain a tailwind for investment income. We continue to operate from a position of strength with $5.7 billion in gap equity, access to $1.5 billion in excess of loss reinsurance, and a PMIR sufficiency ratio of 172%. With a trailing 12-month operating cash flow of $866 million, our franchise remains well-positioned from an earnings, cash flow, and balance sheet perspective. Our capital strategy seeks to balance a conservative balance sheet, preserving optionality for strategic growth opportunities and optimizing shareholder returns over the long term. With that in mind, I am pleased to announce that our board has approved a common dividend of 31 cents for the second quarter of 2025. At the same time, we recognize that our excess capital position and stock valuation present us with an opportunity to be proactive in returning capital to shareholders. As previously discussed, we are valuation sensitive when it comes to buying back shares believing this strategy will support our long-term goal of compounding book value per share growth. Year-to-date through April 30th, we repurchased nearly 4 million shares for over $200 million. Now let me turn the call over to Dave.