Strategic Education, Inc. (NASDAQ:STRA) Q3 2024 Results Conference Call November 7, 2024 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Terese Wilke - Director of IR
Karl McDonnell - President and CEO
Daniel Jackson - EVP and CFO
Robert Silberman - Chairman

Conference Call Participants

Jeff Silber - BMO Capital Markets
Alex Paris - Barrington Research
Jasper Bibb - Truist Securities

Operator

Welcome to Strategic Education's Third Quarter 2024 Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers’ presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I will now turn the call over to Terese Wilke, Senior Director of Investor Relations for Strategic Education. Mrs. Wilke, please go ahead.

Terese Wilke

Thank you. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Strategic Education's conference call in which we will discuss third quarter 2024 results. With us today are Robert Silberman, Chairman; Karl McDonnell, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Daniel Jackson, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Following today's remarks, we will open the call for questions.

Please note that this call may include forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The statements are based on current expectations and are subject to a number of assumptions, uncertainties and risks that Strategic Education has identified in today's press release that could cause actual results to differ materially. Further information about these and other relevant uncertainties may be found in Strategic Education's most recent annual report on Form 10-K, the 10-Q to be filed and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as Strategic Education's future 8-Ks, 10-Qs and 10-Ks. Copies of these filings and the full press release are available for viewing on the website at strategiceducation.com.

And now I'd like to turn the call over to Karl. Karl, please go ahead.

Karl McDonnell

Thank you, Terese, and good morning, everyone. Our third quarter 2024 results reflect continued growth across all of our businesses. For the third quarter, SEI's revenue grew 6% to $304 million and operating income grew 13% to $37 million. Our operating margin increased to 12.1%.

Expenses in the quarter were slightly lower than we expected due to the timing of expenses and lower-than-expected bad debt. Adjusted earnings per share were $1.15 during the quarter, an increase of 19% from the prior year.