SEI Investments Co. (NASDAQ:SEIC) Q3 2020 Earnings Conference Call - Final Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the SEI Third Quarter 2020 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will be given at that time. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the conference over to our host, Chairman and CEO, Al West. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and welcome everyone. And all of our segment leaders are on the call, as well as Dennis McGonigle, SEI's CFO; and Kathy Heilig, SEI's Controller. I'll start by recapping our situation in third quarter 2020. I'll then turn it over to Dennis to cover LSV and the investment in new business segment. And after that, each business segment leaders will comment on the results of their segments. Then finally Kathy Heilig will provide you with some important company-wide statistics. As usual, we will field questions at the end of each report.

Now before we cover the results of the third quarter, I will speak to the set of circumstances we face today. Around the globe, we are still dealing with the COVID pandemic. From the beginning of this health crisis, our priority has been on the safety and health of our employees and their families, along with the seamless delivery of service to our clients. I'm incredibly grateful to our workforce for transitioning both workplace-to-home and home-to-workplace and all the while supporting our clients each other and our communities.

The strength of SEI shines best when the challenges are extreme. At SEI, we take immense pride in investing for the long term. We have proven business models that have been shaped over the past 50 years of experience. They are the bedrock of our ability to weather the uncertainties of today and emerge from the current crisis stronger and better positioned to take advantage of tomorrow's opportunities.

Our secret to success is straightforward: remain focused on keeping our workforce healthy and productive, invest in our best-in-class technology, innovate continuously, and deliver world-class service to our clients. We'll also be relentless in executing on our strategic vision in launching the growth-generating initiatives we believe will be at the heart of our future successes. We look forward to sharing our progress with you.

So let's turn our attention to the financial results of the third quarter 2020. Third quarter earnings decreased by 16% from a year ago. Diluted earnings per share for the third quarter of $0.75 is a decrease of 13% from the $0.86 reported for the second quarter of 2019. We also reported a 2% increase in revenue from third quarter 2019 to third quarter 2020. This year's third quarter results benefited from a rebound in our capital markets.

Our non-cash asset balances grew by just under $10 billion from both cash flows and market appreciation. LSV's balances during the third quarter gain just under $1 billion. Also during the third quarter, we repurchased approximately 2.1 million shares of SEI stock at an average price of $51.54 per share. That translates to approximately