Thank you for standing by. My name is Jail, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Perdoceo Education Corporation Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. I would now like to turn the conference over to Nick Nelson, Investor Relations. You may begin.

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on our third quarter 2024 earnings call. With me on the call today is Todd Nelson, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Ashish Ghia, Chief Financial Officer. This conference call is being webcast live within our 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 the 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 Todd Nelson. Todd?

Thank you, Nick. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our third quarter 2024 earnings call. I'll discuss some key highlights for the quarter. Ashish will then review our operating and financial performance and discuss our outlook for the year. However, before we begin, I'd like to thank our faculty, student support staff and all other employees for their ongoing commitment and hard work in serving and educating our students. We continue to experience strong levels of student retention and engagement across both our academic institutions. As a result, third quarter operating results came in ahead of our expectations discussed on the last earnings call. Let me now review some of the key observations and general highlights. We continue to experience high levels of student retention and engagement at both CTU and AIUS, with retention remaining at multiyear highs. Our faculty and student support teams remain dedicated to educating and serving our students while serving federal student aid initiatives have also had a positive impact on our retention. Marketing expenditures for the quarter were higher as compared to the prior year as operating -- operations within AIUS reverted to normalized levels as compared to the prior year quarter. We continue to leverage data analytics for various marketing strategies to further improve our focus on identifying prospective students who are more likely to succeed at one of our universities while also complying with and adapting to updated expectations from various federal agencies around prospective student outreach. Our commitment to enhancing students' academic experiences and student support services through technology remains a priority. We see technology as a key driver of our success and are dedicated to making targeted investments while exploring AI-based solutions across various student support processes. Lastly, a quick update on the pending acquisition of the…

Thank you, Todd. I will now review the third 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 discussed on this call are versus the comparative prior year period unless otherwise stated. Please also note that any total student enrollment numbers or any enrollment trends that are referred to on this call exclude learners pursuing non-degree-seeking professional development programs and degree-seeking non-Title IV self-paced programs at our universities. Let us begin with an overview of our operating results. Net income for the quarter was $38.3 million or $0.57 per diluted share compared to $41.3 million or $0.62 per diluted share. Adjusted earnings per diluted share, which we believe is more indicative of the underlying operating performance, were $0.59 as compared to $0.64. Please note that the prior quarter included a non-recurring federal income tax benefit of approximately $4.5 million, equating to $0.07 per share benefit to prior year EPS. Excluding the positive impact from this benefit, current year EPS and adjusted EPS would be higher than the prior year. Third quarter operating income of $44.8 million was $1.7 million higher as compared to the prior year quarter. As expected, revenue for the quarter was lower by $10.1 million, which was more than offset with $11.8 million of lower operating expenses. This expected decrease in revenue was primarily due to a lag impact from 2023 operational changes at AIUS as well as the academic calendar comparability and changes within professional development offerings at CTU. Operating expenses during the third quarter were favorable due to general expense efficiencies and certain non-recurring charges in the prior year quarter that benefited year-over-year expense comparability. Additionally, we continue to realize cost savings from rightsizing processes and operations that…

Thank you, Ashish. In summary, our academic institutions remain focused on serving and educating students, and our investments will continue to prioritize student experiences and academic outcomes. I'd like to thank all of our students and staff once again for their ongoing hard work and education. Thank you again for joining us.

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect. End of Q&A: