Good day everyone and welcome to the Perdoceo Education Corporation Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Davis Snyder with Investor Relations. Please go ahead sir.

Thank you, Lisa. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us for our fourth quarter 2023 earnings call. With me on the call today is Todd Nelson, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Ashish Ghia, Chief Financial Officer. This financial -- this conference call is being webcast live within the Investor Relations section at perdoceoed.com. A webcast replay will also be available on our site, and you can always contact the Alpha IR Group for Investor Relations support. Let me remind you that this afternoon's earnings release and remarks made today include forward-looking statements as defined in Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to Perdoceo Education and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual future results, performance, business prospects, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by these statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those factors identified in Perdoceo's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as expressly required by the securities laws, the company undertakes no obligation to update those factors or any forward-looking statements to reflect future events, developments or changed circumstances or for any other reason. In addition, today's remarks refer to non-GAAP financial measures, which are intended to supplement but not substitute for the most directly comparable GAAP measures. The earnings release that accompanies today's call contains financial and other quantitative information to be discussed today as well as a reconciliation of the GAAP to non-GAAP measures and is available within the Investor Relations page of the company's website. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Chief Executive Officer, Todd Nelson. Todd?

Thank you, Davis. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us for our fourth quarter 2023 earnings call. I'd like to begin by thanking our faculty, student support staff, and all other employees for their ongoing commitment in serving and educating our students. We ended 2023 on a strong note as it relates to student retention and engagement and I am proud of the entire Perdoceo team as they executed on our priorities and delivered on our commitment of further enhancing student experiences, retention, and academic outcomes. Before I go into some details for the fourth quarter and full year, here are some of the key observations and highlights. First, as we exit 2023, student retention and engagement are the highest that they have been over the past few years across both our academic institutions and we expect to operate at these improved levels through 2024. Additionally, short-term operational changes that were undertaken at AIUS during 2023 to comply with new regulations are now behind us, and we have mostly reverted to normalized levels of operations beginning in the fourth quarter of 2023. Next, 2023 ending total student enrollments reflected a 3.2% growth at CTU and as expected, a 39.3% decline at AIUS due to the operating changes undertaken. However, as Ashish will share with you shortly, we expect to mostly offset any lag impact of this planned decline on 2024 operating results. Next, marketing and admission spend and commensurately, prospective student inquiry generation was lower in 2023 as compared to 2022 due to the short-term operational changes made at AIUS as well as adjustments made to our processes around generating prospective student inquiries in order to comply with updated expectations from various federal agencies around prospective student outreach. This impact was partially offset by increased operating efficiency within…

Thank you, Todd. I will review the full year and fourth quarter results and then discuss our balance sheet and 2024 outlook before handing the call back to Todd for his closing remarks. Please note all comparisons I discuss are versus the comparative prior year period unless otherwise stated. Before I begin, a quick reminder about year-over-year comparability. Financial results for CTU reflect the acquisition that was completed in December of 2022, while AIU System results are now comparable versus the prior year quarter. Additionally, total enrollment numbers that I discussed or any enrollment trends that I refer to exclude learners pursuing non-degree-seeking professional development programs and degree-seeking non-title or self-paced programs at our universities. With that said, let us begin with an overview of our operating results. For the full year 2023, operating income increased 16.1% to $150.4 million. Adjusted operating income, which excludes certain significant and non-cash items, was $174.9 million or 6.7% higher as compared to the prior year. This increase in adjusted operating income was primarily due to lower marketing spend across our academic institutions as well as organic revenue growth at CTU. The lower marketing spend was due to; A, ongoing adjustments made to prospective student inquiry generation processes to comply with updated expectations from various federal agencies around prospective student outreach; and B, the necessary operational changes undertaken at AIU System. Please also note the full year adjusted operating income of $174.9 million exceeded our latest outlook range of $171 million to $174 million primarily due to better-than-expected student retention and engagement in the fourth quarter. Net income for the full year was $147.7 million or $2.18 per diluted share compared to $95.9 million or $1.39 per diluted share. Adjusted earnings per diluted share, which, again, we believe is more indicative of our underlying…

Thank you, Ashish. In closing, I am proud of the way our company executed throughout 2023 and I'm pleased with the progress we are bringing into the new year. Our academic institutions remain focused on serving and educating students, and our investments will continue to [Indiscernible] our student experiences and academic outcomes. I'd like to once again thank all of our students and staff with our hard work and education and thank you again for joining us today. End of Q&A: Thank you. And that does conclude today's presentation. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.