Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Cohen & Steers Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press the star followed by the one on your telephone keypad. If at any time during the conference you need to reach an operator, please press star zero. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded Thursday, October 17th, 2024. I would now like to turn the conference over to Brian Heller, Senior Vice President and Corporate Counsel of Cohen & Steers. Please go ahead. Thank you, and welcome to the Cohen & Steers Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me are Joe Harvey, our Chief Executive Officer, Raja Dakkuri, our Chief Financial Officer, and Jon Cheigh, our Chief Investment Officer. I want to remind you that some of our comments and answers to your questions may include forward-looking statements. We believe these statements are reasonable based on information currently available to us, but actual outcomes could differ materially due to a number of factors, including those described in our accompanying third quarter earnings release and presentation, our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, and our other SEC filings. We assume no duty to update any forward-looking statement. Further, none of our statements constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the securities of any fund or other investment vehicle. Our presentation also contains non-GAAP financial measures, referred to as as adjusted financial measures, that we believe are meaningful in evaluating our performance. These non-GAAP financial measures should be read in conjunction with our GAAP results. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures is included in the earnings release and presentation to the extent reasonably available. The earnings release and presentation, as well as links to our SEC filings, are available in the Investor Relations section of our website at www.cohenandsteers.com. With that, I'll turn the call over to Raja. Thank you, Brian, and good morning, everyone. My remarks today will focus on our as-adjusted results. A reconciliation of GAAP to as-adjusted results can be found in the earnings release and presentation. Yesterday, we reported earnings of $0.77 per share, compared to $0.68 sequentially. Revenue was $133 million, compared to $122 million sequentially. The increase in revenue from the prior quarter was primarily due to higher average AUM. Our effective fee rate during the quarter was 58 basis points, which is consistent with the prior quarter. Operating income was $47.6 million, compared to $42.5 million sequentially, and our operating margin improved to 35.7%. Total expenses were higher compared to the prior quarter, primarily due to an increase in compensation and benefits, and to a lesser extent, an increase in our distribution and service fees. The increase in compensation and benefits was in line with the sequential increase in revenue, as the compensation ratio remained at 40.5%. The increase in distribution and service fees was due to higher AUM related to our open-end funds. Regarding taxes, our effective rate was 25.1% for the quarter. Our earnings presentation notes liquidity at the end of Q3 and prior quarters. Our liquidity totaled $348 million at quarter end, which represents an increase versus Q2. AUM was $91.8 billion at quarter end. This was an increase of over $11 billion from the prior quarter, primarily due to market appreciation. AUM was also impacted by net inflows during the period. Joe Harvey will provide an update on our flows and pipeline. Let me briefly touch on a few items to consider for the rest of the year. With respect to compensation and benefits, we maintain a measured approach. We would expect the compensation ratio to remain at 40.5% for the rest of the year. We still expect G&A to increase 6%-7% for the year as compared to 2023. Most of the increase is related to investments in our technology and infrastructure. Finally, we expect our effective tax rate for Q4 to be in line with the year-to-date rate of 25.3%. I'll now turn it over to Jon Cheigh, who will discuss our investment performance. Thank you, Raja, and good morning. Today, I'd like to cover three topics: our performance scorecard, the investment environment for the quarter, and finally, our outlook for infrastructure and how we believe our listed infrastructure strategy is positioned to capture share of a growing market. Beginning with our performance scorecard, the third quarter marked a major turning point across most of our markets. Many of our asset classes saw double-digit returns in the quarter, aided by the three drivers I mentioned on the last call: attractive valuations, clarity on Fed rate cuts, and severe underownership of our asset classes. From a relative performance perspective, the third quarter saw 39% of our AUM outperformance benchmark. While our outperformance metrics were a touch softer over the last few months, we don't manage for the short term. On a one-year basis, 96% of our AUM has outperformed its benchmark. While our three-, five-, and ten-year outperformance stands at 97%, 97%, and 99% respectively. Our one-year and three-year excess returns of 394 basis points and 192 basis points, respectively, are at or above our targets. In particular, I would highlight our global listed infrastructure performance, which is up 520 basis points versus its benchmark over the last 12 months. Congratulations to that investment team led by Ben Morton. 95% of our open-end fund AUM is rated four or five star by Morningstar, which is slightly up from 94% last quarter. In short, we have strongly delivered both the alpha and the beta for our investors over the last twelve months. Transitioning to investment market conditions, as I stated a moment ago, sentiment in the quarter shifted in favor of listed real assets as a group, led by real estate and global infrastructure, which outperformed the broader equity market by a wide margin. For example, US REITs rose by nearly 17% in the quarter, while global listed infrastructure rose by more than 13%. Preferred Securities was up by 0.6%. By comparison, US equities rose by 0.9%, and MSCI World was up about 6.5%. Amid easing inflationary pressures and cooling labor market conditions alongside already tight policy, the Fed cut its benchmark rate by 50 basis points in September, while also suggesting, excuse me, a steady path of additional cuts through 2025. While rate markets likely got too dovish a month or so ago, the general trend of lower rates augurs well for continued improvements in sentiment and performance for listed real assets. This important shift adds to the already sound earnings growth for listed real asset companies that we anticipate for the remainder of 2024 and 2025. Also worth noting is that despite REITs significant outperformance in the quarter, they remain attractively valued compared with stocks on a historical multiple basis. Private real estate, meanwhile, as measured by the preliminary results for the NCREIF ODCE Index, had a total return of 0.25% for the quarter, which, while modest, marks the first positive quarter in two years and is consistent with the lead lag relationship with listed real estate, which bottomed one year ago. Peak to trough, the index is down 18.6% over the last two years, while US REITs were up 32.5% in the same time frame. On the private side of our business, we remain focused on taking advantage of repriced real estate, particularly shopping centers, where we see attractive cash yields coupled with underappreciated future growth prospects. As I just mentioned, listed infrastructure also handily outperformed equities in the quarter. The start of a new rate-cutting cycle supported more interest rate-sensitive stocks in the communications and electric utility sectors. Additionally, investors continued to evaluate the implications of increased power demand and began to price some of this into the share valuations for certain utilities, natural gas producers and pipeline owners, and independent power producers. Turning to fixed income, preferred securities had a solid gain amid the decline in bond yields. Returns and preferreds outperformed high-yield bonds, but modestly trailed investment-grade bonds and 10-year treasuries. However, preferreds remained the top-performing fixed-income category year to date. Notably, the technical backdrop for preferreds remained positive amid limited net new supply in an environment of strong demand for quality income. As the rate-cutting cycle unfolds, lower yields on money market funds and short-term bonds may lessen the appeal of quote-unquote, safe havens and result in investor demand for higher income solutions such as preferred securities. Turning to the topic of listed infrastructure, I'd like to discuss our optimism on three levels. First, on infrastructure as an asset class. Second, for listed infrastructure in particular. And last, for CNS's investment strategy and our ability to take share of a growing market. First, to reiterate the investment case for infrastructure, the ownership of essential assets has in the past, and in our view, will continue to deliver very attractive, less economically sensitive, and more inflation-resistant total returns. This investment profile finds further support in the economic trends of decarbonization, digitization, deglobalization, and I'll add another D, debt. The world has significant infrastructure investment requirements, and sovereigns have too much debt to adequately address these needs. Infrastructure companies, both listed and private, will have significant investment opportunities to deliver new projects and expansions that are attractive for both investors and the public sector.... Second, listed versus private infrastructure. Historically, private infrastructure has not delivered meaningful illiquidity return premiums relative to listed. This statement is surprising to investors because they have observed that such a premium has existed in areas like corporate private equity, venture capital, and private debt. In contrast to the long-term tight correlation of listed and private over the last two and a half years, private infrastructure, as measured by the Burgess Private IQ data, has returned more than listed as of the last reported date. Our high conviction view is that this anomaly will normalize, just as the disconnect between listed and private real estate has normalized dramatically the last two years. From today's valuation starting point, we believe listed infrastructure will have more compelling returns versus private. Additionally, listed gives investors greater access to areas like core digital infrastructure, dominant marine ports, and utilities without sacrificing liquidity or experiencing a J curve of returns common in private. We also believe that society's essential assets are best owned by transparent listed companies with governance that is subject to the discipline of public market standards. Finally, while we expect the overall infrastructure and listed infrastructure markets to grow, we also expect that our significant and deep team, and compelling short and long-term track record will help us to win more than our fair share over time, just as we have done within listed real estate. Already, we are seeing takeaway opportunities from our competitors who haven't delivered returns relative to what our team has produced over its 20-year track record. Over the last twelve months, our global infrastructure fund has returned 33.3%, beating its benchmark by almost 5% points and handily beating private infrastructure and the vast majority of our peers. We remain very excited about what's unfolding within infrastructure and specifically our opportunities to deliver for both our existing and new investors. With that, let me turn it to our CEO, Joe Harvey. Thank you, John, and good morning. I'd like to formally welcome Raja as Chief Financial Officer to his first Cohen & Steers earnings call. Today, I will review our key metrics and business trends for the third quarter, then talk about our initiatives for future growth. The third quarter marked a major turning point in the market and business cycles for many of our asset classes. This manifested in both appreciation and net inflows for us in the quarter. Our relative outperformance batting average in the quarter was moderate, as can happen when oversold, out-of-favor stocks or sectors lead turning point rallies such as this. For our clients' portfolios and our AUM, we'll take the beta and appreciation over the alpha for the quarter. As John laid out, our one year and longer period investment performance remains stellar and is at the top of our corporate priorities. Business-wise, after two and a half years of headwinds due to regime change, we now have some tailwinds brewing and feel good about our positioning. Our relative performance is strong. The return cycle has turned broadly positive for what we do. Business activity is up, our fee rates are stable. We continue to enhance distribution, and we have meaningful new initiatives in front of us. Two of the more challenging asset allocation dynamics of recent years were the restoration of fixed income allocations in investor portfolios, which drew away from listed allocations and private allocations that were either increasing or inaccessible due to illiquidity. We believe we're finally in the late stages of that process. There are still $6.4 trillion sitting in US money market funds, realizing a solid but perhaps fleeting yield, considering the downward trend in rates. On the private side, investors may start to rethink the calculus of opportunity cost, recognizing that over allocation to private constrains the ability to capitalize on the types of opportunities we have seen over the past few years. This may seem counterintuitive in light of the fervor over trends such as private credit, but this idea continues to resonate with me, especially in light of the crowding of capital in certain private markets. Of course, more listed allocations could benefit us. Turning to our key metrics and flows, in the third quarter, we had firm-wide net inflows of $1.3 billion. After nine consecutive quarters of outflows, this was our first quarter of firm-wide net inflows since the first quarter of 2022, when the Fed began its series of rate hikes. We had net inflows in each major business segment, with the exception of defined contribution and Japan sub-advisory, both of which had modest outflows. US REIT strategies led the way with $1.3 billion in net inflows. By vehicle, open-end funds accounted for $1.2 billion of those inflows. Institutional advisory had $9 million in net inflows, with no account terminations in the quarter. Sub-advisory ex Japan had $131 million in net inflows, and sub-advisory and Japan sub-advisory had net outflows of $32 million. This year to date, we've had net inflows in North America and Asia Pacific, ex-Japan, which includes Australia. Our flagship US REIT fund, Cohen & Steers Realty Shares, and its institutional sibling, accounted for the lion's share of flows. Driving those flows were allocations by a major asset management multi-strategy allocator and several independent RIAs. These flows were offset by outflows of $221 million from our international real estate fund, primarily from an RIA that reduced its weighting in international real estate, which has underperformed US real estate for some time. Preferred strategy flows turned nominally positive after 10 straight quarters of net outflows. Sub-advisory ex-Japan was more active in the quarter, with inflows of $454 million from two Australia financial institutions through open-ended vehicles. We're seeing a general uptick in activity on Australia. These inflows were partially offset by a $192 million outflow, completing a liquidation that began last quarter from a European institution who terminated a US-domiciled allocator. Our one unfunded pipeline was $651 million, compared with $1 billion last quarter. $617 million of last quarter's pipeline funded, and we were awarded $170 million in three new mandates, and there were $51 million in net positive adjustments to what was already in the pipeline. The pipeline composition is 53%, US real estate, 22% global listed infrastructure, and 19% private real estate. We do know of $1 billion in expected redemptions pending from advisory and sub-advisory clients that will likely be split roughly half in the fourth quarter and half in the first quarter of 2025. About one-third of the changes are eliminations of US REITs and listed infrastructure from strategic allocations. The remainder are sub-advisory mandates, where the vehicles have competitive pressures due to the investment architecture for multi-strategy vehicles or from fee pressures. Thinking about the state of the industry, over many years, asset management has been a high-margin, innovative, industrious, and accordingly, a very competitive business. Even now, these dynamic and innovative forces drive the industry's continuing evolution. Key areas of strategic change today include the migration of investment advisors from wirehouses to independent and enterprise RIA firms, shifts in vehicle preferences to ETFs, the integration of insurance companies and their portfolios with private equity, and the adoption of private strategies in the wealth channel. So what are we doing to adapt to capitalize on the strategic shifts? First, and on the leading edge for several of these trends, beginning this fourth quarter, we realigned our US wealth distribution team to engage with advisors in a cross-channel capacity nationally. This is a move that aligns with RIAs having the highest growth rate in AUM. Accordingly, we want to enhance our outstanding wealth market position that we have built over thirty years. Each of our advisor consultants will cover our clients and prospects, regardless of whether they affiliate with a broker-dealer, are running an independent RIA, or some combination thereof. In addition, we have created a group to focus exclusively on the largest RIAs who allocate using an endowment model approach, possess dedicated due diligence and asset allocation capabilities, and have increasingly demonstrated a proclivity toward private markets. These firms also value active strategies where there are persistent sources of alpha and are willing to allocate fee and risk budgets accordingly. We believe our new sales structure will both drive our core business as well as open new relationships with the fastest-growing wealth advisory teams in the industry. In addition, considering the criticality of the RIA channel for launching new strategies, we expect it will facilitate the launch of our first active ETFs planned for early next year and include US REITs, global preferreds, and our natural resource equity strategies. Further, with respect to our non-traded REIT, the second phase of our capital-raising strategy post the seed capital round has commenced with RIAs. Jon talked about the positioning of our global listed infrastructure strategy, which has $9.5 billion in AUM. We're seeing early signs of increasing allocations to infrastructure in more channels. The timing couldn't be better, as our performance ranks highly among our peers. The significant growth in private allocations is pretty well known, and we believe future investment opportunities will be abundant due to the underinvestment in infrastructure, as well as the emergence of new opportunities such as digital infrastructure, AI, and the associated demands for power. We believe that, just like in real estate, better portfolios can be built in infrastructure across both listed and private markets based on the complementary nature and varying return cycles of the sub-sectors. In institutional advisory, we are working on both new allocations and takeaways from underperforming managers. Turning to our real estate franchise, we are excited about the timing of the cycle, as listed is experiencing a new return cycle, and we believe the private market is well into its price troughing process. As we discussed on our last several calls, we are deploying our seed capital in our non-traded REIT, focusing on open-air shopping centers, both grocery-anchored and certain power centers. From its initial real property acquisition in January through September, Cohen & Steers Income Opportunities REIT has been a top-performing non-traded REIT with a total return of 8.3% for Class I shares. By comparison, the return on the widely used core property index, NCREIF ODCE, was -2.6% for the nine months through September. Return drivers include our shopping center strategy, as well as alpha from our listed REIT sleeve. Both of these strategy elements are differentiating factors for our non-traded REIT and demonstrate using listed and private together. We continue to work on developing advisory strategies and other vehicles to provide our listed private expertise to our clients. In closing, we are excited about the investment environment for both our strategies and growth initiatives. I'd like to thank all of our employees for persevering through the regime change and preparing for our next phase of growth. We look forward to reporting our Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Results in January. At this point, I'll turn the call back to Julianne, who will facilitate a Q&A session. Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question, please press Star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw any questions, please press Star one again. Our first question comes from John Dunn from Evercore ISI. Please go ahead. Your line is open. Hi. It seems like money is flowing into your higher fee areas. Can you maybe talk about how you expect the fee rate and incremental margins to, you know, be for the new business that's coming online? Yeah. John, so thanks for the question. Yes, as you, as you properly noted, the inflows are going into certain of the open-ended funds, which tend to be the higher fee. And so we'll just have to see how that develops over time. And in terms of us being pleased with that flow, we definitely are. And then, as Joe talked about in terms of CNS REIT, we're seeing the momentum there in terms of the returns and how that's presenting itself as compared to the index. I'll just add, John, if you look at our average fee rates over the past three years or so, they've been very consistent, and you know, over that time period, there have been puts and takes in terms of the so-called mix shift between our different vehicles, but most importantly. Our strong investment performance puts us in a very good position to compete for institutional advisory business on with attractive fees, fees that we've been accustomed to. We can't necessarily control, you know, where monies flow, whether it's into our open-end funds or into institutional advisory, but I think the track record of stable fees is a long one and one we think will persist. Got it. And then, you mentioned, you know, your two newer focuses over the next couple of years are active ETFs and private real estate. You know, it's likely to be two competitive spaces. How do you, how are you approaching developing them, and what do you think, you know, it actually takes to be successful in those two areas? Well, you know, investors now want to, you know, invest in vehicles that they prefer, and the flows into ETFs are starting to validate, you know, that, and active for ETFs. So, you know, we're gonna lead with our core strategies, one in real estate and one in preferreds. And so it will help us reach investors who have shifted, you know, their preferences to that vehicle. But we want to be able to, you know, offer to the most segments of the market, you know, our strategy. So, you know, we've been bringing on various, you know, talent that will, you know, help us with the launch of active ETFs in terms of capital markets and sales. And our new head of wealth has a good track record from his prior firms of launching and active ETF strategies. So that's you know, some of the elements to the active ETF part of it. And in terms of you know, the private real estate area, you know, our non-traded REIT is one of the things we're most excited about. As I talked about, we believe one of the differentiating factors is you know the property sector that we're focused on initially which we think is you know very mispriced. We can go into the details behind that but the other factor is how we're using listed to complement the private allocation which is not really been done to the extent that it should be. In other words other non-traded REIT managers think about having a sleeve to provide liquidity and invest in CMBS or other fixed income. But you know we use our active listed real estate team to complement what we're doing on the private side of the portfolio. And so far, it's worked extremely well because the alpha that our listed team has added this year is spectacular. Thanks very much. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press Star, followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Ben Rubin from UBS. Please go ahead. Your line is open. Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Last quarter, net flows into your US real estate strategies were the strongest in recent years, as you pointed out. And it sounds like some of those past headwinds are shifting now towards tailwinds. And that said, could you just provide any additional color or drill down on the nature of last quarter's inflows? You mentioned in your private remarks a big win from a large asset allocator. So were the flows last quarter more broad-based, or were they driven by just a few lumpier mandates? And then secondly, have you seen that same level of engagement, sustained quarter to date, either in the form of client RFPs or flows? Thanks for taking my questions. Well, you make a good observation on the third quarter flows. We did have one very large allocator who, you know, we've worked with historically and has been very disciplined about how to allocate throughout the cycle. So I guess the foundation is that we feel good about, you know, investors such as that starting to allocate because they tend to be the leading edge of the turns and the cycle. So, you know, while that is counted in our wealth flows, you know, I consider it to be a, you know, more like an institutional type allocation. So we think that the wealth, you know, channel is still early days in terms of, you know, coming back into our asset classes. So the flows are more concentrated in the quarter, and, you know, if history is any, you know, guide, that those would tend to broaden out in the wealth channel as the cycle progresses. Let me see. Can you repeat the second part of the question? I'm sorry. Yeah, of course. Thanks for answering the first part. The second part was about the level of engagement you're seeing quarter to date. Are you seeing a sustained momentum, either in the form of RFPs or flows, or has the pace moderated from September? You know, we're not going to just discuss the October flows. We'll report those in the first week of November. But as it relates to just overall business activity, it's ticked up, you know. I'd say across the board, and so that's very encouraging. This is Jon. The only thing I'd add is, I actually think our activity has been strong all year, over the last 12 months. But, people didn't necessarily feel like there was a catalyst, if you will, or urgency, because, again, for a while, whether it was on the institutional side or the wealth side, they were dealing with other issues, whether it was illiquidity, in a private portfolio or there had been some changes going on with managers in fixed income world. So it just wasn't a priority. And I think what we're seeing is the same level of activity or more, but maybe at the margin, a little bit more, a little bit of a greater sense of, US REITs and other asset classes have lagged US equities. Maybe they missed it a little bit for a quarter, but some expectation that it's not a one-quarter allocation, it's how do we think these asset classes will do over the next three, five, seven years? You know, some of the moves we've seen from these allocators, generally, they're going from zero weights to market weights, so there's some exposure in their portfolios. Got it. Thanks for answering my questions. My second one is on margin specifically. So your operating margins last quarter showed some nice improvement, but if I'm looking at 2024 versus the first nine months of last year, your margins are actually lower despite some market tailwinds. So as I'm thinking about the pace of margin expansion in next year, what will be the primary drivers? And additionally, how flexible do you see your expense base today that will allow you to expand margins off this base? Thank you. Let me start, and then Prajak can perhaps fill in, so when last year, I would say that one of the biggest, you know, factors. Two factors that affect our margins. One is depreciation in our, you know, asset classes, you know, starting the prior year, and that flowing through the results this year, but then the second is building our private real estate investment capabilities, and, you know, we've not had a lot of, you know, fee-paying assets that have. You know, started to hit our AUM and revenues, so as we go forward and assuming the appreciation holds and that starts to flow through our average AUM, that would be the largest factor that will help our margins. But then as we start to, you know, raise AUM in our private real estate business, that will then start to offset the expense load that is in our cost structure for the private real estate team. Great. And if I could just squeeze one more in. As you mentioned in your prepared remarks, the balance sheet, cash, and securities continued to build last quarter, and now you're holding more liquidity than this time last year. So I know you aren't in the market buying shares, so I'm just curious if your capital return framework or your priorities will shift as we enter a, you know, a macro backdrop, which would be more conducive to flows and thus, earnings growth? Thank you. Sure. Well, that's always a dynamic question, but I think that, or analysis, I should say, but let's start with the foundation. We believe in maintaining a very strong balance sheet, and that's due to the nature of investing in liquid markets, and our most important revenue driver is completely out of our control. And just to also, you know, further paint the picture, last year, when we, you know, had depreciation in our asset classes, we arranged a line of credit to, you know, give us additional firepower. And one of the things that has changed in our business with the launching private strategies is that it requires more co-investment with these vehicles. And so the business become a little bit more capital-intensive. But as we sit today with the appreciation in our assets, we're in a very strong position as it relates to our cash flow profile improving. Also, remember that earlier this year, opportunistically, as when the stock was added to the S&P SmallCap 600 Index, we did an inclusion trade to raise some more capital. So you combine those factors, we've got an extraordinarily, you know, strong balance sheet right now. In terms of uses of capital, we think about our seed strategies and needs there. In terms of the core business, I'd say we're steady state. In other words, every time we launch something new, we tend to harvest something else. You know, private co-investments are you know, kinda steady state. And then we'd like to just make sure we have enough capital for anything that could be opportunistic. When you look at our dividend policy and look at our record on Bloomberg, you can see that we've tended to address our quarterly dividend in the first quarter, and our strategy there is to have a very predictable and growing quarterly dividend. And then, over the years, you know, we've paid special dividends. And, you know, once we go through the analysis of what all of our needs are, the last special that we paid was in twenty twenty-one. And of course, that was the pandemic period and also the period when we started making the private investments. So, hopefully, that provides some context, but just I'll end by saying that our balance sheet is very strong and with the markets where they are right now, our cash flow profile is also improving accordingly. Understood. Thank you for taking my questions. We have no further questions in queue. I'd like to turn the call back over to Joe Harvey for closing remarks. Again, thanks, everyone, for joining, and we look forward to talking to you next quarter. Thank you, Julianne, for moderating the call. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.