Essent Group Ltd.

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 would like to ask a question during this time, simply press the star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press the star one again. Thank you. I would now like to hand the conference over to Phil Stefano, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Prila. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our call. Joining me today are Mark Gasol, 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 second quarter of 2025, was issued earlier today and is available on our website at EssentGroup.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 19, 2025, are 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 second quarter 2025 financial results, which continue to benefit from favorable credit performance and the impact of higher interest rates on persistency and investment income. Our second quarter performance demonstrates the strength of our business model in the current macroeconomic environment. We believe that our buy, manage, and distribute operating model uniquely positions Essent within a range of economic scenarios to generate high-quality earnings. Our outlook on housing remains constructive over the longer term as we believe that demographics will continue to drive demand and provide home price support. Over the last several years, demand has exceeded supply, resulting in meaningful home price appreciation and affordability challenges. A byproduct of these affordability issues is that higher credit worthy borrowers are being qualified for mortgages, as evidenced by the weighted average credit score of our new business. Also, the increase in home values has resulted in further embedded equity within our insured portfolio, which provides a level of protection in reducing the probability of loans transitioning from default to claim. And now for our results. For the second quarter of 2025, we reported net income of $195 million, compared to $204 million a year ago. On a diluted per share basis, we earned $1.93 for the second quarter, compared to $1.91 a year ago. On an annualized basis, our return on average equity was 14% in the quarter. As of June 30th, our U.S. mortgage insurance and force was $247 billion, a 3% increase versus a year ago. The credit quality of our insurance in force remains strong, with a weighted average FICO of 746 and a weighted average original LTV of 93%. Our 12-month persistency on June 30th was 86%, flat from last quarter. While nearly 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. On the Washington front, our industry continues to play a vital role in supporting a well functioning and sustainable housing finance system. We believe that access and affordability will continue to be the primary focus in DC. Essendon is supportive and believes that our industry is very effective in enabling home ownership for low down payment borrowers, while also reducing taxpayer risk. During the quarter, S&RE continued writing high-quality GSE risk share business and earning advisory fees through its MGA business with a panel of reinsurer clients. As of June 30th, S&RE had risk and force of $2.3 billion for GSE and other risk share. S&RE achieves both capital and tax efficiencies through its affiliate quota share with S&Garantee and allows us to leverage S&C's credit expertise beyond primary MIs. It also provides a valuable platform for potential long-term growth and diversification of the Essent franchise. Essent Title remains focused on expanding our client-based footprint and production capabilities in key markets. We continue to maintain a long-term horizon for this business, and given persistent headwinds of high rates, we do not expect Title to have any material impact on our earnings over the near term. Our consolidated cash and investments as of June 30th total $6.4 billion, with an annualized investment yield in the second quarter of 3.9%. Our new money yield in the second quarter was nearly 5%, holding largely stable over the past several quarters. We continue to operate from a position of strength, with $5.7 billion in gap equity, access to $1.4 billion in excess of loss reinsurance, and a P. Meyer sufficiency ratio of 176%. With a trailing 12-month operating cash flow of $867 million, our franchise remains well-positioned from an earnings, cash flow, and balance sheet perspective. Earlier this week, we were pleased that Moody's upgraded Essin Guarantee's insurance financial strength rating to A2 and Essin Group's senior unsecured debt rating to be AA2. We believe these actions reflect our consistent, strong results, high-quality insured portfolio, financial flexibility, and the benefits of our comprehensive reinsurance program. Our capital strategy is to maintain a conservative balance sheet, withstand a severe stress, and preserve optionality for strategic growth opportunities. We continue to believe that success in our business is best measured by growth in book value per share as we look to optimize returns over the long term. In addition, our strong capital position and slowdown in portfolio growth allows us to be active in returning capital to shareholders. With that in mind, I am pleased to announce that our board has approved a common dividend of 31 cents for the third quarter of 2025. Further, year-to-date through July 31st, we were purchased nearly 7 million shares for approximately $390 million. Now, let me turn the call over to Dave.