Perdoceo Education Corporation (PRDO) Q1 2021 Earnings Call Transcript

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Perdoceo Education Corporation (PRDO 3.25%)
Q1 2021 Earnings Call
May 6, 2021, 5:30 p.m. ET

Contents:

• Prepared Remarks
• Questions and Answers
• Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Hello, and welcome to the Q1 2021 Perdoceo Education Corporation Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Wyatt Turk, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Wyatt Turk -- Investor Relations

Thank you. Good afternoon, everybody, and thank you for joining us for our First Quarter 2021 Earnings Call. With me on the call today is Todd Nelson, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Ashish Ghia, Chief Financial Officer. This conference 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 annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, 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 and not substitute for the most directly comparable GAAP measures. The earnings release that accompanies today's call contain financial and other quantitive 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 now like to turn the call over to Todd Nelson. Todd?

Todd Nelson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Wyatt. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us on our first quarter 2021 earnings call. I hope everyone is doing well. I'd like to begin by thanking our faculty, student support staff and all our employees for their hard work and dedication and educating and serving our students. With that said, let's get into our financial and operating results for the quarter. We reported net income of $30.8 million or $0.43 per diluted share, while adjusted earnings per diluted share, which excludes certain significant and noncash items, was $0.44. Our first quarter results reflect year-over-year growth in key financial and operating metrics, and we serve and graduated more students during the first quarter of 2021 than the first quarter of 2020. Further, as compared to year-end, our balance sheet has grown stronger, and we made investments in various student serving processes and other initiatives, which I will update you on shortly. Ashish will then get into more detail on our financial and operating results. Total student enrollments as of March 31, 2021, were up 9.7% as compared to the prior year quarter end, with both CTU and AIU experiencing growth.

At CTU, total student enrollments increased 12.8% as we continue to experience underlying organic growth and leverage technology to support our students. Please keep in mind that similar to the academic calendar redesign at AIU, CTU has implemented its version of an academic calendar redesign beginning this quarter. This also positively impacted the reported total enrollments as of March 31, 2021, due to a session start date on March 30, as compared to a session start date that was in April in the prior year. At AIU, total student enrollment increased 5%, primarily due to underlying organic enrollment growth. Note that the Trident acquisition, which closed prior to March 31 of last year, is fully reflected in the comparison. Speaking of Trident, we continue to leverage talent and share best practices with AIU to further enhance our students' educational experiences. With the creation of the AIU system last year, Trident is able to maintain its unique academic and student experience while benefiting from the best practices of the university system. We believe investments in technology and student serving functions have positively contributed to student experiences and student learning. Both CTU and AIU have continued to increase our student serving staff and leverage data analytics and technology to enhance the effectiveness of their students -- services to students.

Technology investments in machine learning and data analytics for the quarter are mostly a continuation from previous quarters as we expand their use across various student serving processes. We also continue to invest in our successful mobile app at CTU and American InterContinental University, which has a 90-plus percent adoption rate and has become the primary source of communication with our students. We regularly upgrade and enhance our app in-function features, refine our platform and make resources more convenient for our students, which we believe resonates well with our adult learners. And an update on our two initiatives. Before I turn the call over to Ashish, a quick comment on the investments in these new initiatives that I mentioned on our last call, expanding corporate partnership programs and developing shorter duration programs, which we refer to as workforce development training programs. Both of these initiatives are designed to allow students to use their employers or their own resources to complete their program with little or no debt. We have made good progress on both of these initiatives during the quarter. We have expanded our corporate partnership team, and the new hires we have made thus far should be fully trained and integrated into the second half of the year. Our corporate partnership team identifies, contacts and supports corporations, leveraging their tuition assistance programs to provide debt-free education to their employees through one of our universities. Please recall that although the amount paid by these students results in lower revenue per student due to the grants awarded from the applicable university, the recruiting, marketing and support costs associated with these students are lower as well. And these students tend to persist at a high rate.

Turning to workforce development training programs. We have already identified several nondegree online courses that we believe will offer learning opportunities where one can develop skills and knowledge in a specific endeavor or area of interest. Our training programs are designed to assist adult learners and obtaining additional credentials that are job focused and can help workers increase their skills and prepare for changes in the workforce. We expect to begin offering these programs before the end of the second quarter. As previously mentioned, Trident has already had some success with these programs, and we will further leverage its expertise to expand and grow these programs, first at Trident, and then possibly across our other universities. We see both of these initiatives as ways to further meet the dynamic professional and academic needs of our nontraditional learners, including working adults. With that said, I'd now like to turn the call over to Ashish for a deeper review of our operating performance for the quarter. Ashish?

Ashish Ghia -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Todd. I will now review our first quarter results and then discuss our balance sheet and 2021 outlook before handing the call back to Todd for his closing remarks. Please note that 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. Operating results for AIU reflect the Trident acquisition commencing on March 2, 2020. As a result, this is the last quarter where year-over-year comparability in AIU's operating performance will be impacted due to the Trident acquisition. Also, we are no longer including adjustments for any expenses related to closed campuses when presenting adjusted operating income or adjusted earnings per diluted share because these expenses no longer -- are no longer material. All prior year period amounts have been recast to maintain comparability. Let's start with an overview of our operating results. For the first quarter of 2021, total company operating income was $40.6 million as compared to an operating income of $37.3 million, which is an 8.9% increase. Adjusted operating income, which excludes certain significant and noncash items, and which we believe is more reflective of the underlying operating performance, came in at $44.6 million for the quarter, reflecting an increase of 11.7% versus the prior year. First quarter net income was $30.8 million or $0.43 per diluted share, while adjusted earnings per diluted share was $0.44.

This positive operating performance was primarily driven by revenue growth across both institutions while realizing operating efficiencies within various processes, mainly due to technology enhancements. Separately, as expected, COVID-19-related savings, in general, has started to diminish. And specifically, expenses related to various employee health insurance programs have started to show year-over-year increases. Moving on to some more details around the first quarter 2021 results. Total company revenue was $183.6 million for the quarter, which reflects an increase of 7.4% from $171 million. As it relates to our segments, first quarter revenue at CTU was up 2.2% to $105.8 million, primarily supported by total enrollment growth. Operating income of $36.1 million was up 4.4%, while operating expenses were only modestly higher. Turning to AIU. Revenue increased 15% to $77.5 million for the quarter due to the Trident acquisition as well as organic total student enrollment growth. Operating income of $11.3 million grew 20.8% compared to the prior year quarter. Included in the operating income is approximately 800 -- $0.8 million of expenses related to the amortization of definite life intangible assets that were established as part of the purchase price accounting related to the Trident acquisition. A quick note on bad debt. For the first quarter, we are pleased that total company bad debt expense as a percentage of revenue was relatively in line with the prior year. We will continue to focus on improving student retention and the financial aid process for our students, however, quarterly fluctuations in bad debt levels are expected. Now on to student enrollments.

As mentioned on our last call, given the academic calendar redesign, first at AIU and now at CTU, quarterly new enrollment comparability will be impacted and then may not be fully reflective of the underlying operating performance, and therefore, we are no longer reporting new student enrollments. However, we will continue to report total student enrollments, which we believe better reflects our underlying operating performance over time. Total student enrollment as of March 31, 2021, grew by 12.8% at CTU and 5% at AIU. We believe these positive results reflect the investments across our student enrollment and support functions, which are allowing us to effectively serve prospective student interest. Also, as Todd mentioned, CTU's total student enrollments were positively impacted by the academic calendar redesign. Moving on to Corporate and Other. First quarter operating losses were relatively flat at $6.8 million versus $6.7 million in the prior year quarter. Lower operating losses for our closed campuses were offset by increased employee-related and other corporate support expenses. Now to income taxes. For the first quarter, we recorded a provision for income taxes of $10.2 million, resulting in an effective tax rate of 25%. The first quarter tax rate was benefited by 1.3% for the tax effect of the release of previously recorded tax reserves.

Recall that we utilized all of the $109.7 million of federal net operating loss carryforward and $5.7 million of our foreign tax credit carryforward in 2020. During the course of 2021, we anticipate utilizing the remaining $10.3 million of foreign tax credits to partially offset our federal tax liability. We have also made our first quarterly tax payment in April 2021 and expect to continue making quarterly estimated tax payments for the remainder of the year. We further expect our 2021 effective tax rate to be between 26% and 27%. This full year estimated rate is negatively impacted by increases in tax reserves for uncertain tax positions and the tax effect of expenses that are not deductible for tax purposes. Now to our balance sheet. Net cash provided by operations was $44.7 million for the quarter and in line with prior year quarter. We ended the quarter with $451 million of cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and available for sale short-term investments. This represents an increase of $40.7 million over year-end 2020 and was primarily driven by positive cash flows from our university operations. Capital expenditures for the first quarter were approximately $1 million or 0.6% of revenue. For the full year 2021, we foresee capital expenditures to be approximately 1.5% to 2% of revenues. Finally, let us discuss our outlook for the remainder of the year. Our full year adjusted operating income outlook remains unchanged in the range of $165 million to $171 million as compared to $157.7 million in 2020 or expected growth of approximately 4.6% to 8.4%. And adjusted earnings per diluted share is expected to range between $1.58 and $1.64 per diluted share versus $1.55 in 2020. Please note that the full year outlook incorporates the increased expenses associated with our initiatives, which will be weighted toward the second half. Moving on to our second quarter 2021 outlook. We anticipate adjusted operating income to be in the range of $41 million to $42.5 million as compared to $41.5 million in the prior year quarter, with adjusted earnings per diluted share to be in the range between $0.39 and $0.40 per diluted share versus $0.41 in the second quarter of 2020. Let me conclude by commenting on our balanced approach to capital allocation. We are focused on building a strong balance sheet, which has and will continue to support our organic investments in the business.

These include investments that enhance our students' experiences, such as our technology initiatives and investments in our corporate partnership program and workforce development training programs. We plan to complement those efforts by prudently evaluating external growth opportunities such as the acquisition of high-quality educational institutions or programs and the direct return of capital to our stockholders. Ultimately, our goal is to deploy resources in the most effective and efficient manner that we believe will lead to increased shareholder value and allow us to continue to provide quality education to our students. Please refer to our earnings release filed today for important information about the key assumptions and factors underlying this outlook and other expectations discussed on today's call as well as the GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations. With that, I will turn the call back over to Todd for his closing remarks. Todd?

Todd Nelson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Ashish. We are pleased with our first quarter operating results as we continue to focus on our strategic priorities. We look forward to executing on our various initiatives discussed earlier, while striving to improve academic outcomes and student experiences, and I believe our strong balance sheet positions us well to accomplish these goals. Thank you again for joining us today, and we will now open the line for any analyst questions.

Questions and Answers:

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Alex Paris from Barrington Research. Please go ahead. Pardon me, Alex, your line is now live.

Alexander Peter Paris -- Barrington Research -- Analyst

Sorry about that, I was on mute. Thanks for taking my call. Good afternoon, everybody. Congratulations on the better than expected first quarter results.

Todd Nelson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Alex.

Alexander Peter Paris -- Barrington Research -- Analyst

I have a couple of questions. First one I want to get out of the way, Ashish, is, are there any anomalies to be expected in the academic calendar redesign in Q2, Q3, Q4?

Ashish Ghia -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yes. So I think that's a great question. As we have said, the anomalies related to the academic calendar redesign are mainly related to our new enrollments and we will not be reporting new enrollments as we have discussed. From a total enrollment perspective, as we have said, they are more reflective of the underlying operating performance, and the impact of the academic calendar on total enrollments is much more muted versus new enrollments. So that's how we are looking at it.

Alexander Peter Paris -- Barrington Research -- Analyst

Okay. That makes sense. I guess when we went through this with AIU, the new student starts would be up 50% and down 50%. So again, the reason for taking out the noise with new student starts. Do each period, Q2 through Q4 have equivalent number of enrollment days?

Ashish Ghia -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

No. Actually, they don't. The enrollment days, because of the academic calendar, Alex, and as you alluded to it, we did have significant swings. So the enrollment days won't be aligned. They may have these variations. But like I said, we will focus on total enrollments and the impact on those enrollment days on total enrollments will be more muted.

Alexander Peter Paris -- Barrington Research -- Analyst

Okay. Fine. Thank you. So total enrollment is the product of new enrollment and retention. How have retention trends been faring?

Ashish Ghia -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Well, and I would just say that, Alex, they've been steady. But obviously, as we continue to be cautiously optimistic of the impact of the pandemic, obviously, there's things that impacted as you go into it, and as we've gone through it. And now as we come out of it, obviously, we'll continue to monitor that. It's relatively uncharted territory for the industry. But we'll continue to monitor how that affects current students and potential students and then obviously adjust operations if necessary.

Alexander Peter Paris -- Barrington Research -- Analyst

Fair enough. So I understand the moving parts is as the economy reopens, so do alternative opportunities for your students, and that could affect retention? Is that correct?

Ashish Ghia -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yes. That's correct. And again, I said it's hard at this point to really monitor that because it's too early in the process. But as I said, we're cautiously optimistic. But we'll, obviously, if that does impact them, we would -- obviously, our effort would be to adjust any operations, if necessary, if and when that happens.

Alexander Peter Paris -- Barrington Research -- Analyst

Fair enough. Okay. Thank you. And then I'm really interested in these shorter duration programs, the workforce development programs that you're referring to. You said that you have identified a few program areas. I think you've said in the past before, it's in the technology space and the healthcare space. Does that continue to be true?

Ashish Ghia -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

That's correct. There are others we're looking at but those or where you see a lot of demand, yes.

Alexander Peter Paris -- Barrington Research -- Analyst

And then would these be offered through both universities or independent of the universities?

Ashish Ghia -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Right now, again, it is through AIU. And obviously, as we learn from that and then the idea would be to also then offer them at CTU as well. There's nothing preventing us from doing them on a stand-alone basis as well. But right now, they're offered through AIU.

Alexander Peter Paris -- Barrington Research -- Analyst

And because these are not degree programs, these would not be title for eligible programs, correct?

Ashish Ghia -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

That is correct. Again, you do have the option depending on the length of programs to offer them eligible for title for, but we've chosen not to, we think that again, these are very concentrated programs that allow people to reskill, upskill and at the same time, with the idea to try to minimize the amount of debt that the students would need to take to complete those programs.

Alexander Peter Paris -- Barrington Research -- Analyst

And just order of magnitude, how many programs are we talking about here? five or 10 or more than that or less than that?

Todd Nelson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Five or 10, what was that, Alex?

Alexander Peter Paris -- Barrington Research -- Analyst

Just in terms of sheer number of programs under this workforce development plan?

Todd Nelson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

It start with just a handful, whether that's three to five programs. But then again, you -- that would grow into as you -- again, as we learn through the process, but also as demand itself kind of dictate that. But our ability to develop them quickly is something that we feel that we've had a lot of experience as far as program development.

Alexander Peter Paris -- Barrington Research -- Analyst

And again, they don't result in degree, but do they result in some sort of certification or a badge that could be displayed on your LinkedIn page? What are you thinking?

Todd Nelson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, the idea would be that they lead to, obviously, some sort of professional certification.

Alexander Peter Paris -- Barrington Research -- Analyst

And you expect to begin offering these by the end of the second quarter?

Todd Nelson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

That is correct. Yes. In fact, we've already started the process, and we're starting to have enrollments already. We have not started to obviously deliver them yet, but we're generating enrollments already.

Alexander Peter Paris -- Barrington Research -- Analyst

Great. So I can see these on the AIU website, for example.

Todd Nelson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Ashish, correct me, if that's where they are.

Ashish Ghia -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yes. And actually, within the system, they will specifically be within our Trident University. Because I think as we had shared before, Trident has already had some experience with these kind of deliverables and courses and certificate programs. So that's where we are focusing on and as Todd said, eventually, nothing to prevent us from offering at our other universities.

Alexander Peter Paris -- Barrington Research -- Analyst

Okay. And then just shifting gears, Ashish, among your final comments, you were talking about capital allocation. You obviously have a bulletproof balance sheet, so to speak, nearly $0.5 billion in cash, no debt. What are you thinking about on the M&A front? The Trident acquisition was a home-run. Clearly, we've had a change in administration. Are you looking for other title for granting institutions or programs? Are you looking elsewhere to diversify revenue? And how active are you in that M&A process today?

Todd Nelson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

The good news is that like it's all of you. And there are -- we feel very optimistic because of the opportunities that are out there. The industry itself is -- it's a complex industry for someone who's new to the industry. And so I think the number of buyers that -- of these schools and/or training or certificate companies, it's relatively complex that more as us. We've been doing it for a long time.

Obviously, the shorter duration or workforce training programs are of great interest to us because, again, we see good demand there that we really aren't able to meet through there are programs we already have at AIU and CTU. As Ashish mentioned, we do have already a couple of the shorter certificate programs at Trident, which obviously will continue to use those as well.

But then in the degree area, there are exceptional schools that I think that we could help them as far as advance and the sophistication of their online delivery educationally. So it'll produce, obviously, quality outcomes, which is what we're really all about, and both those that are programs that are titled for non-titled for. But again, it really is all of the both degree and non-degree as well. And again, to answer your question specifically, we are optimistic about the number of schools and what we'd refer to as workplace training programs that are out there in the market of it.

Alexander Peter Paris -- Barrington Research -- Analyst

Great. Well, I appreciate that initial color. Thank you both and I get back in the queue.

Todd Nelson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

Ashish Ghia -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Alex.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from Dan Moore from CJS Securities. Please go ahead.

Brendan J. Popson -- CJS Securities -- Analyst

Hi. Good afternoon. This is Brendan Popson on for Dan. Just wanted to ask about the impact you expect with the current proposals for free community college on your current student population as well as any impact to your growth outlook over the next three year to five years?

Todd Nelson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. Good question. We like, I think everybody, continue to listen to what is -- what we're hearing is being proposed and obviously monitoring the process of getting those things actually into legislation. I think that, again, the community college students, although there is, I would say, some overlap, but not a lot with us because again the majority of our students are working adult students that are already working and looking for the type of degree programs we have -- bachelors, masters, doctoral programs. Those types of things.

So I don't -- I can't say that it wouldn't have some impact, but I don't know that it would have a lot of impact based on other current markets that we serve. But I think it will be interesting to watch the process and to see if that actually happens to -- obviously, a significant cost to the taxpayers to be able to fund that. And I think getting that done will certainly be a significant effort. But at this point, again, I think, as I said, we don't really compete against them on a large scale its typically against more of those who have the four-year programs and graduate programs.

Brendan J. Popson -- CJS Securities -- Analyst

Okay. Great. Yes, makes sense. And obviously, as to -- nothing's passed yet, but good to hear your thoughts. And I wanted to ask about as well your -- an update in your corporate partnership channel. Obviously, the pandemic starting to abate, and we have companies certainly seem desperate for workers. Are you having more dialogue on potential opportunities? And do you think that channel is improving for the next year or two because of that?

Todd Nelson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. Again, and I thank you for asking that question. As you know, with our last call, last quarter, we mentioned that we are making a significant additional investment in that channel. And the reason being is, one, we see demand, we see the value there, the retention of these students are better. And again, we've had, as -- a significant amount of success of that in the past.

And so we're very optimistic with what we're seeing there. Obviously, it's the longer sales process, or enrollment process than you'd see in where you're meeting individually with the students. But again, it's really a process that is -- it's reliant upon the amount of resources that you're willing to put into it to build relationships, and we've made that investment. As Ashish said, we will continue to make it. And we are actually very excited, especially as you come out of this pandemic, and it's very competitive for workers. And obviously, that's a benefit that many companies have or we hope we'll be adding. So again, going forward, we do have -- we're optimistic about that our potential there.

Brendan J. Popson -- CJS Securities -- Analyst

Yes, makes sense. Thank you. And then just a quick one to end here. Just -- you're talking a lot about the margin delta between AIU and CTU. Can you just go over the keys to closing that gap and any reasonable timeframe for that?

Todd Nelson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, it's hard to put a timeframe on it because, again, I think the two universities have a very similar profile and that their institutional accreditation is similar. The types of programs, there is some overlap, similarly priced as far as tuition. So -- and certainly, the potential is there.

But again, depending on some of the strategic decisions that you make, will impact the timing of that. For example, if we decide to invest more heavily in certain new programs at AIU, it may take a little more time because there's more investment in that. But certainly, the two institutions have a very similar profile, which we think obviously gives them an opportunity from a margin perspective.

Brendan J. Popson -- CJS Securities -- Analyst

Great. Thank you.

Todd Nelson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from Greg Pendy from Sidoti. Please go ahead.

Gregory R. Pendy -- Sidoti & Company -- Analyst

Hey guys. Thanks for taking my questions. I'm just -- you put up good enrollment numbers, but just given what we're hearing from some of the other companies in your industry, can you talk a little bit about are you seeing any pick up on the competitive environment?

And maybe for you guys, maybe just within one or two of your programs within your broader program mix because it doesn't seem to be too pronounced in your enrollment numbers, but just kind of curious, are there any areas or any degrees that you think might be getting a little bit more competitive out there? Thanks.

Todd Nelson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

That's a good question, Greg, very valid. Not really seeing, at this point in time, a big change in our competition, I would say, institutionally, but also at the program level. I will say this that your programs do ebb and flow as far as those that are growing or those that are not growing, depending on really what is more happening in the workforce and the demand for those workers. If there's more demand for technology workers than health sciences, that tends to be where you see the growth. If -- and that, I think, has more impact on our enrollment going forward.

I think as I said, being cautiously optimistic as we come out of the pandemic, we want to see how that affects the student market in general for current students, but also potential students. But I think that, obviously, we -- I think, again, watching that and monitoring that to us is more significant and more important than what we're seeing our competition doing. Again, not that we don't -- that's something very important, we just haven't seen a lot of that change as far as the competitive landscape.

Gregory R. Pendy -- Sidoti & Company -- Analyst

And I guess within that topic, has there been any kind of inflationary pressures in terms of your marketing costs going up just in order for marketing costs?

Todd Nelson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. Ashish fell free to comment on that. But that's been relatively stable. But Ashish, anything I missed on that?

Ashish Ghia -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

No, I think that's fair. None that we have seen so far, Greg.

Gregory R. Pendy -- Sidoti & Company -- Analyst

Okay, great. Thanks a lot.

Todd Nelson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Greg.

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. And this concludes our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Nelson for any closing remarks.

Todd Nelson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

We appreciate, again, you taking time to join our call today. We look forward to speaking with you next quarter. Thank you.

Ashish Ghia -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thank you.

Operator

[Operator Closing Remarks]

Duration: 36 minutes

Call participants:

Wyatt Turk -- Investor Relations

Todd Nelson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Ashish Ghia -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Alexander Peter Paris -- Barrington Research -- Analyst

Brendan J. Popson -- CJS Securities -- Analyst

Gregory R. Pendy -- Sidoti & Company -- Analyst

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