Universal Technical Institute : Transcript (Universal Technical Institute Inc. UTI US Q2 2026 Earnings Call 6 May 2026 4 30 PM ET)

About this update from Universal Technical Institute Inc

06-Ma y-2026 Universal Technical Ins titute, Inc. (UTI) Q2 2026 Earnings Call CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS Matt Kempton Vice President-Corporate Finance & Investor Relations, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. Jerome A. Grant Chief Executive Officer & Director, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. Bruce Schuman Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... OTHER PARTICIPANTS Mike Grondahl Analyst, Northland Securities, Inc. Rajiv Sharma Analyst, Texas Capital Securities Max Michaelis Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets LLC Jasper Bibb Analyst, Truist Securities, Inc. Steven Frankel Analyst, Rosenblatt Securities, Inc. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION SECTION Operator : Good day, and welcome to the Universal Technical Institute Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Matt Kempton, Vice President of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations. Please go ahead. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Matt Kempton Vice President-Corporate Finance & Investor Relations, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. Hello, and welcome to Universal Technical Institute's fiscal second quarter 2026 earnings call. Joining me today are our CEO, Jerome Grant; and CFO, Bruce Schuman. Following our prepared remarks, we will open the call for your questions. A replay of this call, its transcript and our investor presentation and will be archived on the Investor Relations section of our website at investor.uti.edu along with our earnings release issued earlier today and furnished to the SEC. During this call, we may make comments that contain forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which by their nature, address matters that are in the future and are uncertain. These statements reflect management's current beliefs and expectations and are subject to a number of factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those statements. These factors include, but are not limited to those discussed in our earnings release and SEC filings. These statements do not guarantee future performance and therefore undue reliance should not be placed upon them. We do not intend to update these forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future developments except as required by law. Please note, unless otherwise stated, all comparisons in this call will be against our results for the comparable period of fiscal 2025. The information presented today also includes non-GAAP financial measures. These should be viewed in addition to and not as a substitute for the company's reported results prepared in accordance with US GAAP. All non-GAAP financial measures referenced in today's call are reconciled in our earnings press release to the most directly comparable GAAP measure. For more information regarding definitions of our non-GAAP measures, please see our earnings release, financial supplement and investor presentation. With that, I will turn the call over to Jerome Grant, CEO of Universal Technical Institute, for his prepared remarks. Jerome? ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jerome A. Grant Chief Executive Officer & Director, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. Thank you, Matt. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Before I dive into the details of our second quarter results, I want to take a moment to give you some insight into how we're thinking about the business right now. The first half of the year has played out quite well and in some areas better than we originally anticipated. As always, a huge thank you to our team industry partners and over 26,000 active students for being a part of this and driving these strong outcomes. Let me tell you, demand is strong. Our model is working and we have exceptionally clear visibility into the returns on our strategic North Star investments. We're seeing increasing validation that these investments are driving the outcomes we expected. With that in mind, I'll walk you through our Q2 performance and execution, before I take you on the journey of opportunities ahead of us. And in a few minutes, our CFO, Bruce Schuman will dive deeper into our financials. Building on what's been a strong start to the year, we saw some key leading indicators come in at or above our expectations, further reinforcing our confidence in the trajectory of our business. We delivered yet another quarter of strong operational performance supported by sustained demand across both of our divisions and continued execution against our North Star strategy. Total new student starts increased 14% year-over-year in the quarter with meaningful contributions from both divisions. The UTI division delivered approximately 15% growth, while the Concorde division grew 13%, highlighting the consistency and durability of demand across both our trades and healthcare. Average full time active students grew 7%, reflecting continued momentum as we scale both new and existing campuses. [ph] Core (00:04:34) growth and program expansion performance translated into continued top line strength with revenue of $221 million, up nearly 7% year-over-year. Our baseline adjusted EBITDA came in at $25 million, including approximately $11 million of growth investments. Our reported adjusted EBITDA was just over $14 million, in line with expectations. Our performance in the first half of the year has reinforced our confidence in our full year outlook, and as such, we're reaffirming our guidance on all metrics. Bruce will walk you through the guidance in more detail shortly. We believe this reaffirmed strong outlook for 2026 reflects our confidence in the performance of the business, while also setting us up brilliantly for the final three years of this phase of our North Star strategy. It's not just the macro demand environment that gives us this confidence, but also how we're executing against a model that is proving to be both repeatable and scalable. Our campus launched playbook continues to deliver consistent results, and importantly, those results are trending in line or ahead of our expectations. At UTI San Antonio, which opened in March, each of the first two starts exceeded our plan by nearly 60%. Based on early performance, we now expect the campus to ramp to scale at or better than originally modeled with a projected mature run rate of approximately 800 students. In Atlanta, we're preparing to launch our first comprehensive UTI campus in the state. This campus is expected to serve over 1,500 students at scale. We're already seeing great traction with strong interest in early enrollments pacing well in preparation for the planned start in July. Although these are exciting results in 2026, more importantly, they are early leading indicators critical to ensuring the success of this multi-year strategy. They validate not only demand, but also our ability to execute faster and fill campuses more efficiently than originally modeled. Giving us increased confidence looking at our broader new campus pipeline. Looking ahead to fiscal 2027, we remain on track with our four previously announced locations across the country and are excited to see those launch next year. These campuses include a comprehensive UTI Campus in Salt Lake City, expected to serve 1,500 students as well as Concorde campuses in Houston, Atlanta and the Phoenix metro area, each with projected run rates of approximately 600 students. Throughout all of this, the North Star operational targets we'd previously outlined remain unchanged. We plan to open them a minimum of two and up to five new campuses annually, as well as launch 12 to 20 new programs across the UTI and Concorde divisions each fiscal year. In fiscal 2026, we'll have opened three new campuses and are on track to launch 20 new programs with at least 10 coming from each division. On the UTI side, we have two campuses and 12 programs lined up this year. The new programs span HVACR, Aviation Maintenance and our electrical suite, which includes industrial maintenance, robotics and automation and wind and turbine technology. Most recently, the UTI Sacramento campus graduated its first HVACR class in January, and the UTI Austin campus successfully delivered its first EV courses in February. On the Concorde side, we've opened one new campus, and across our existing campuses we'll launch at least 10 new programs in 2026, including high demand fields such as radiation technology, surgical technology and diagnostic medical scenography. Beyond program replications and new campuses, we're also continuing to focus on optimizing our existing footprint. As you may recall, we recently expanded the UTI Dallas campus to serve an additional 600 students and incorporate HVACR, aviation and electrical programs, in addition to auto, diesel and welding. Since launching last quarter, all of the program enrollments and starts have exceeded expectations and the second half of the year looks to be just as promising. In addition to expanding capacity for popular programs such as aviation and HVACR, welding and the dental hygiene at legacy campuses, we're increasing focused on how UTI and Concorde divisions can collaborate more closely across areas such as marketing, admissions and operations. Through cross-brand collaborations fueled by rapid AI technology advancements, we believe we can potentially unlock incremental margin expansion in the coming years while simultaneously enhancing execution across the company. And while on the topic of artificial intelligence, I want to focus on some extremely important opportunities ahead of us for our company. As many of you know from the stories in the media, each quarter as US jobs data is published, we are in the early stages of a generational shift in the labor market, driven in large part by artificial intelligence. The longstanding dynamic between white collar and skilled collar jobs opportunities has been disrupted. AI is reshaping the economy, but not only in the way many initially expected, as white collar work is becoming increasingly automated, especially at the entry levels, demand for trades and healthcare professions is accelerating. Beyond this shift, it's important to realize that there are also new AI enabling opportunities and roles essential to building, maintaining and operating the infrastructure that supports this new economy. From data centers and energy systems to advanced manufacturing and healthcare delivery, the physical and technical workforce required to support AI driven growth has expanded rapidly. This is exactly where we are positioned. We're not only training students for today's jobs, we're preparing them for the future AI-enabled workforce that's being built right now. Importantly, we believe that this trend is not cyclical, it's structural. We believe this dynamic will continue to drive demand for our programs for years to come. Supported by both powerful macroeconomic tailwinds and long-term partnerships, the opportunity in front of us continues to expand. We maintain strong relationships with leading industry partners, including for example, a nearly 30 year partnership with Porsche. This quarter we reached a memorable milestone with them, as of February, UTI is now graduated over a thousand technicians from the Porsche training centers which we run that are serving more than 200 porsche stores nationwide. We also recently announced a new three year partnership with Fuji Auto Spray (sic) [Fuji Spray Auto] (00:11:28), who will provide professional grade equipment for the collision, repair and aviation programs and the UTI campuses across the US. Longstanding industry partnerships are a cornerstone of the success of our graduates and our company, and we continue to pursue additional such opportunities across automotive, aviation, healthcare and other high demand industries. Similarly, we're actively exploring potential B2B opportunities with military programs, state workforce initiatives and employers to help address critical labor shortages across the economy. As we look ahead, our confidence in the business continues to strengthen as our North Star strategy moves into full implementation mode. We have built a durable and repeatable growth engine supported by strong demand, disciplined execution, a very healthy balance sheet and meaningful long-term macro tailwinds. Organically, we will continue to optimize our campuses and program portfolio, drive operational excellence and expand both capacity and program offerings to meet demand. At the same time, we'll continue to evaluate inorganic opportunities that align with our strategy, particularly in healthcare, where we see significant long-term potential. Our priorities remain focused on executing our North Star strategy with discipline, as well as deploying capital with purpose to position the divisions to deliver sustained growth and value. And we are already starting to discuss what 2029 and onwards looks like for the company. We will share more on that as our plans unfold. With that, I'll turn the call over to Bruce, our CFO, to review our second quarter financials and provide you with additional details on our guidance. Bruce? ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Bruce Schuman Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. Thank you, Jerome. I'll start by saying we're pleased with how the business has performed through the first half of the year. The results we're reporting today reflect a strong start to fiscal 2026 with solid revenue growth, continued momentum in enrollments and leading indicators across the business that remain very encouraging. In the second quarter, total average full-time active students grew 7.2% year-over-year to 26,385, while total new student starts increased 13.8% to 7,569. In line with the expectations we outlined last quarter and reflective of recently launched new campuses and programs starting to ramp. The Concorde division grew average full-time active students 10.2% year-over-year for the second quarter, driven by consistent demand trends across our dental and allied health programs. Within the UTI division average full-time active students grew 5.3% year-over-year, reflecting steady performance across the program portfolio, underpinned by strong demand and recently optimized campus capacity. Turning to our financial performance, second quarter revenue on a consolidated basis, increased 6.7% to $221.4 million. Concorde contributed $78.7 million, an increase of 7.5% over the prior year quarter, while the UTI division contributed $142.7 million, an increase of 6.3% over the prior year quarter. Shifting to profitability, consolidated net income for the second quarter was $400,000 or $0.01 per diluted share, which was in line with the outlook we shared last quarter. Baseline adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter was $25.1 million including $11 million in growth investments. Our SEC reported adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $14.1 million. At the end of the quarter, we had 55 million shares outstanding. Total available liquidity at the end of the quarter was $202.4 million, including short-term investments and remaining capacity on our revolving credit facility. Year-to-date, capital expenditures were $52.7 million, or approximately half of our expected spend for the year. Turning to our full year outlook, based on our performance in the first half and the visibility we have into the second half, we are pleased to reaffirm our fiscal 2026 outlook. We continue to expect consolidated revenue to range from $905 million to $915 million for fiscal 2026, or approximately 9% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. As I shared last quarter, we expect mid to high single-digit revenue growth in Q3 as we saw in Q2. Q4 is still anticipated to be the highest revenue growth quarter in the low to mid double-digit range. Net income is anticipated to be between $40 million and $45 million with diluted earnings per share of $0.71 to $0.80. As I also shared in prior quarters, the net income contraction in Q2 will improve in Q3, though we still expect year-over-year contraction. In Q4, we expect strong net income growth. Our baseline adjusted EBITDA is anticipated to exceed $150 million, including approximately $40 million in growth investments. Our SEC reported adjusted EBITDA is expected to be between $114 million and $119 million. Similar to net income as we make our significant growth investments this year, the adjusted EBITDA contraction in Q2 will improve in Q3, though we still expect year-over-year contraction. In Q4 we expect robust year-over-year adjusted EBITDA growth. Total new student starts are expected to be between 31,500 and 33,000. We anticipate high single-digit growth in the remaining quarters as our base business performs and our growth initiatives continue to ramp. Looking at the broader North Star financial framework, our expectations remain unchanged. We continue to target more than $1.2 billion in revenue by fiscal 2029, with a 10% CAGR throughout that period and adjusted EBITDA approaching $220 million in that year. Beginning in fiscal 2027, we expect revenue to accelerate and are targeting modest EBITDA dollar growth and more meaningful EBITDA expansion in fiscal 2028 and 2029. To support the new campuses and programs driving this growth we continue to plan for $100 million or more of annual capital expenditures. Overall, we view the first half of the year as a strong start, reflecting solid execution, improving demand trends, and continued progress against our North Star strategy. Giving us increased confidence in the repeatability and durability of our model. We are investing from a position of strength with clear visibility into the path ahead. The actions we are taking in 2026 are intended to support faster scaling, higher utilization and stronger long-term returns, including predictable and sustainable cash flows and increasing profits for years to come. At the same time, we are creating additional opportunities to expand margins through increased operational efficiency and greater leverage as the company further grows. Reinforcing our confidence in delivering on both our fiscal 2026 guidance and our longer term financial objectives. In addition to this earnings call transcript, we encourage everyone to review our press release, financial supplement, investor presentation and upcoming 10-Q filing. These materials include the latest updates on our consolidated and segment results, strategic initiatives and guidance. Thank you to our students, team partners and investors for your ongoing support. I'd now like to turn the call over to the operator for Q&A. Operator? ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... QUESTION AND ANSWER SECTION Operator : We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] At this time we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Our first question comes from Mike Grondahl with Northland Securities. Please go ahead. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Mike Grondahl Analyst, Northland Securities, Inc. Q Hey, guys, congratulations on the progress. Maybe the first one for Jerome. You talked about data centers a little bit more this call. Are you seeing incremental opportunities there? And are you able to start new programs? How are you kind of responding to that and what are you seeing? ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jerome A. Grant Chief Executive Officer & Director, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A Well, I think the example we gave was really to highlight the sources of job opportunities for the students in the programs we already teach are growing and in some cases accelerating. Data centers need welders, data centers need electronics technicians, building automation specialists, all of the things that we have, if you've listen to some of the folks in the AI space talking about what's holding them back. It's not technology, it's their ability to actually get these places open because they can't find enough workers. And so what we're seeing from a job standpoint is a stronger diversification of employers that are coming to the table and looking for our skilled trades workers. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Mike Grondahl Analyst, Northland Securities, Inc. Q Got it. Got it. And then maybe one for Bruce. Bruce, when you were talking about UTI's, I think enrollment up 5.3% year-over-year. You mentioned recently optimized campus capacity could you just explain that a little bit? ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Bruce Schuman Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A Yeah. Sure, Mike. So, I mean, the - our optimization has been a core foundational pillar we've been talking about for quite a while and we continue to optimize capacity looking for space in legacy campuses to put these program replications, things like [ph] HVAC (00:22:26), welding, aviation, we're using some of our legacy campuses to roll that out. That's what I was referring to. That work continues and is continuing to improve our margin outlook. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Mike Grondahl Analyst, Northland Securities, Inc. Q Can you speak to like, hey you expanded capacity a couple of percent over the last six months? Or is there any way to kind of quantify that? Bruce Schuman Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A Well, I mean, basically, if you look at our base, our core business that what we delivered last year, roughly 100 basis points of expansion, we would have kind of delivered similar if it weren't for the growth investments. A lot of that comes probably more than half of that comes from that optimization pillar of our strategy. That's the best way I could explain it to you, Mike. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Mike Grondahl Analyst, Northland Securities, Inc. Q Got it. Got it. Okay. Hey, thanks a lot, guys. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Bruce Schuman Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A Yeah. Thank you. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jerome A. Grant Chief Executive Officer & Director, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A Thanks, Mike. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Operator : Our next question comes from Raj Sharma with Texas Capital. Please go ahead. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Rajiv Sharma Analyst, Texas Capital Securities Q Hi. Congratulations on the execution. Also, thank you for taking my questions. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jerome A. Grant Chief Executive Officer & Director, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A Sure. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Rajiv Sharma Analyst, Texas Capital Securities Q If I could - yeah, if I could talk about any - also a great new details in the data in the supplementary. So that's very appreciated, I was just trying to understand revenues were up about 7% year-on-year. The operating expenses were up 16%. And even if I take out the growth OpEx, your OpEx of $11 million, if you take it out, the OpEx was still up about 10%. I'm trying to understand that, is that was that all the increase in advertising...? ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Bruce Schuman Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A Yeah. Hey, Raj, it's Bruce. Yeah, I can address that. So a lot of it really is, we're executing the year here. There's a little bit of timing element, frankly. You know, as we execute our full year, again, I would just remind you, the vast majority of that margin contraction really was from the growth investments. There were a few other things timing our medical, for example, was up a little higher than we planned on. And we chose to invest a little bit more in marketing to make sure we are on track for our second half revenue and starts. But it's really timing, we have offsets for that and in Q3 and we feel very confident in our full year profitability that we guided to. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Rajiv Sharma Analyst, Texas Capital Securities Q Got it. Thank you. And then I know you reaffirmed the fiscal guidance. Is it fair to assume that you're looking for starts growth to perhaps be higher for the year given your first half performance? ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jerome A. Grant Chief Executive Officer & Director, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A Well, I mean... ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Rajiv Sharma Analyst, Texas Capital Securities Q And I know that there's an impact, [indiscernible] (00:25:10) numbers, but... ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jerome A. Grant Chief Executive Officer & Director, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A Hey, buddy, thanks for throwing that in there because it was - the thing I was going to say, as you know, as a leading indicator, we're very, very happy what we're seeing primarily the overachievement of the new campuses and the new programs that we're putting into place. And yes, that monetizes mostly over 2027 and beyond. So we've got a lot of confidence that, that's going to continue to happen. Now, will San Antonio continue to [ph] sit (00:25:47) people at 60% higher than what we had in the model? You know, not likely, but it's a very, very strong start. And we think that it'll continue to move past our models as is the programs that we're moving on. So we feel real confident that the starts aren't going to fall anywhere near below and could be in the top part of the range. So feel good about it. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Rajiv Sharma Analyst, Texas Capital Securities Q Great. And then just [indiscernible] (00:26:19) sort of new opportunities that could expand your current growth plan or do you think you're good for now till you get to the North Star two strategies that there's likelihood of not any further expansion in that. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jerome A. Grant Chief Executive Officer & Director, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A No, I actually - I mean, remember, we're at the end of 2026 we're two years into a five year strategy, we are set up very - for the strategy, the way it's laid out right now, which is primarily an organic strategy of two to five campuses a year, 12 to 20 new programs a year, modest base growth out of our same store 2% to 5% growth in our same store. And what we're trying to express is a high level of confidence in the execution on the plan, as is. All of that what you're talking about would be sort of gravy on top. And there's a lot of great conversations going in the B2B space right now that I wouldn't count out opportunities during this five year timeframe that, that could have some impact on the upside of that number. Nothing to announce today. But there are a lot of employers and manufacturers out there right now that are seeing the same thing we're needing, which is the supply and demand problem is growing, not shrinking. And that brings them more to the table to have constructive conversations around partnering to solve it. So we feel good that some of that will come in line during this strat plan period, not after. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Rajiv Sharma Analyst, Texas Capital Securities Q [indiscernible] (00:28:09) Thank you for taking my questions though. I'll take it offline. Again congratulations. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jerome A. Grant Chief Executive Officer & Director, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A Okay. Thanks, Raj. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Operator : The next question will come from Max Michaelis with Lake Street. Please go ahead. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Max Michaelis Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets LLC Q Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Just a two-parter here. San Antonio looks like obviously you have a terrific starts that are up 60% versus your internal expectations. Anything different you did there in terms of go-to-market advertising that you could share? And then the second part of that question would be, obviously, that's a pretty high standard that San Antonio has already set. But what kind of demand trends are you seeing at the Atlanta - new Atlanta campus? And would you put that on par with San Antonio? ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jerome A. Grant Chief Executive Officer & Director, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A Well, why don't I answer in reverse... ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Max Michaelis Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets LLC Q Okay. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jerome A. Grant Chief Executive Officer & Director, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A ...is we're really happy with what we're seeing in Atlanta. We don't really like to talk about pre-start numbers because we want to make sure that we get people comfortably in their seats and, and moving forward. But the trends we're seeing in terms of contract pace for the timeline, remember we still have till July to get this open. Makes us real confident that Atlanta is going to be quite the winner for us. Once we get past our - I think when we report in August, we're going to have some solid numbers for you. And we're really optimistic about what we're going to see there. One of the things I think we've always said to you, the analysts and folks out there is Texas has been a very, very strong market for us. Austin blew away our projections quite quickly and our thoughts about San Antonio is that could happen, of course, again, not counting your chickens before they hatch. We didn't want to go out there strong. Well, what we're seeing is that's quite true, right, which is there is a very strong demand in Texas for what UTI is bringing. So we're thrilled with what we see. And when we're picking new sites around the country, of which Salt Lake City is coming up and then the subsequent sites from there, we really do think about those same metrics as can we see a way to beat our models. And when we're picking sites of the many that are available, we're really looking for where we might be able to ramp the fastest. And so far, we're really happy with what we're seeing with the first two, which is San Antonio and Atlanta. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Max Michaelis Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets LLC Q Awesome. Thanks, guys. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jerome A. Grant Chief Executive Officer & Director, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A Thank you. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Operator : Up next we have Jasper Bibb with Truist. Please go ahead. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jasper Bibb Analyst, Truist Securities, Inc. Q Hey, good afternoon everyone, it's two quick clarification question. I heard high single-digit growth in starts in the next two quarters, I think you guided to mid to high single-digit growth for those quarters on the last call. So just wanted to confirm, you're kind of thinking this year is going to end up in the upper end of the range on starts. Is that kind of the right way to think about it? ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Bruce Schuman Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A Yeah. Jasper, this is Bruce. That's correct. That's how we're thinking about how the year is shaping up. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jasper Bibb Analyst, Truist Securities, Inc. Q Okay. Makes sense. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jerome A. Grant Chief Executive Officer & Director, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A Yeah. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jasper Bibb Analyst, Truist Securities, Inc. Q And then some of your, I guess, online education peers have talked about like the consumer shift to GenAI over search and algorithm changes at Google, kind of impacting the top of the funnel on student acquisition [indiscernible] (00:31:36) the starts are obviously strong [indiscernible] (00:31:38) seem like an issue for you. But I'm just wondering if you're seeing something similar and, how you're managing through that? ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jerome A. Grant Chief Executive Officer & Director, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A Well, it's actually one of the reasons that we wanted to underscore the collaboration going on between the two divisions, specifically in areas like customer acquisition marketing is that there's a - there is a pretty significant shift in how people are searching for opportunities out there much in the same way as TV moved to streaming very, very fast for the 18 to 24 year olds, information is moving quite rapidly to the AI engines from traditional search. And we want to make sure that we're on the leading edge of capturing that, as those advertising platforms harden over the next months and years. And so what we really wanted to do is we really wanted to make sure that our digital organizations were working in unison. One, so we're not overspending researching these things between the two divisions and number two, that each of them can take advantage of the opportunities that we're seeing by beginning to invest in these areas. So we feel like we're well positioned to get the most out of that transition. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jasper Bibb Analyst, Truist Securities, Inc. Q Just last one for me. I think you mentioned kind of ongoing discussions for B2B partnerships, also potentially some opportunities with the military or state workforce development programs, too. So I guess maybe my question is, are you seeing a broadening kind of interest in the types of B2B partnerships that are coming to you and potentially a different structure to versus, I guess, what you already did versus Heartland - with the Heartland campus. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jerome A. Grant Chief Executive Officer & Director, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A So the short answer is yes. You know, there is a broadening of who is approaching us to see whether we can help them solve their problems, whether it is municipalities, other portions of the military who may be engaged with some of the onshoring activity to help people who are trying to solve that problem hospital chains, things along those lines where they're starting to think we better act in concert with some of the larger partners like ourselves in the country. And so the incoming is definitely on the rise and broadening and where we get them, I made a comment about data centers and infrastructure for AI two years ago we weren't getting calls from construction companies that were opening data centers around the country looking for [ph] HVAC techs (00:34:24) welders, electricians, building automation specialists, now we are. And so I think those are all opening opportune - doors for opportunities for us to potentially look at training models in unique and innovative ways. And but those things take time, and again, like I said, we had nothing to announce on a specific front on those. But we are staffed up and diligently focused on it because we think those are going to be an opportunity over the next couple of years. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jasper Bibb Analyst, Truist Securities, Inc. Q Okay. Thank you. Thanks for taking the questions. Thanks guys. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jerome A. Grant Chief Executive Officer & Director, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A Thanks, Jeff. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Bruce Schuman Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A Thank you. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Operator : Our next question comes from Steven Frankel with Rosenblatt. Please go ahead. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Steven Frankel Analyst, Rosenblatt Securities, Inc. Q Hi. Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity. Maybe give us an update on what kind of incentives employers are offering these days in terms of tuition payback, working while you're going to school et cetera? Is that pace continue to climb with more people trying to do that or in the current economy, have they backed away from some of those moves? ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jerome A. Grant Chief Executive Officer & Director, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A No, they haven't - they haven't, that's a great question. You know, there's a lot of conversation out there right now around student debt and leaving college with large student loan balances and the like. And even there's been things in the press around trade school folks coming out with debt. And so, the programs we started in auto diesel a number of years back that have gotten us to a point where somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,000 employers nationwide are offering incentive packages for to our graduates to come and work for them, are continuing to proliferate as we proliferate our product offerings into the skilled trades. Right. This is a new concept to [ph] HVAC (00:36:20) companies to electronics companies, to aviation companies. And so the trip agreements, as we call them, are something that we're working to broaden across the entire portfolio that we have. And we're seeing quite good responses. So we've seen anything other than the employers backing away from incentives because the problem is getting more acute. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Steven Frankel Analyst, Rosenblatt Securities, Inc. Q Great. And any early learnings from Heartland that would lead to kind of the way you might do the next one. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jerome A. Grant Chief Executive Officer & Director, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A Heartland is you know, there - I don't - there are no new aha moments there with which is you've got an employer who has become a very strong partner with us who has a very big problem and is willing to co-invest to solve that problem around the country. And the time it takes to get others to get on the same page is usually tied to them trying to see what the outcomes will be from new partnerships that we already have. And Heartland is very happy, the cohorts that we started were very strong and we anticipate doing similar deals with other partners very soon. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Steven Frankel Analyst, Rosenblatt Securities, Inc. Q And then lastly, any early peek into what you think the high school class is going to look like this year? ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jerome A. Grant Chief Executive Officer & Director, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A High school looks good. I mean, again, I think one of the things that we've said over the years is that high school kids tend to gravitate towards the automotive and diesel areas. You just got your driver's license and you're 16 and you don't know that much about [ph] HVAC (00:38:28) or welding or those sorts of things. And so it's primarily a focus in the auto diesel areas. And we're seeing strong returns from what we've seen. It's a good point to bring up. And we're very - we feel very, very strong about our guidance that we have and coming in the range of the guidance that we have. But to your point half of our starts on the UTI side come in the fourth quarter and it's mostly to high school. And we just want to make sure that those are coming in as strong as the leading indicators show. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Steven Frankel Analyst, Rosenblatt Securities, Inc. Q All right. Great. Thank you. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jerome A. Grant Chief Executive Officer & Director, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. A Sure. Thanks, Steve. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Operator : This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Jerome Grant, CEO for any closing remarks. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Jerome A. Grant Chief Executive Officer & Director, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. Thank you, operator. Just some brief remarks. First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who attended today. As always, Bruce, Matt and I are available for follow-up questions and also as we've said every single quarter, we encourage as many of you as possible to come out and visit one of our campuses. If you're interested, please let us know, we'd be happy to host you, love doing that. And we look forward to speaking with you on our investors call in fiscal third quarter, which will be in August, so thanks and have a great evening. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Operator : The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect. 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