Welcome to the Westwood Holdings' Group Inc., First Quarter 2015 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. I would like now to introduce your host for today's conference, Mrs. Sylvia Fry, Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer. Ma'am you may begin.

Thank you. Good afternoon and welcome our first quarter 2015 conference call. I’d like to start by reading our forward-looking statements disclaimer. The following discussion will include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results to be materially different from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning the factors that could cause such a difference is included in our press release issued earlier today as well as in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31st, 2014 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. In addition, in accordance with the SEC rules concerning non-GAAP financial measures, the reconciliation of our economic earnings and economic earnings per share to the most comparable GAAP measures is included at the end of our press release issued earlier today. On the call today we will have Brian Casey, our President and Chief Executive Officer and Tiffany Kice, our Chief Financial Officer. I will now turn the call over to Brian Casey, our CEO.

Thanks, Sylvia and good afternoon everyone. Thanks for taking the time today to join our call. at Westwood we have always placed a central emphasis on investment performance putting our clients interest ahead of our own and managing the business in a shareholder friendly way. The first quarter of 2015 is another reminder that this formula works well. We will discuss the drivers of our strong performance in more detail as we go through the call and I wanted to start by highlight what we view as the most significant developments. Revenues increased 14% to 29.6 million, compared to the same period last year. Assets under management or AUM reached a record level of 21.7 billion with positive net inflows of 1.1 billion for the quarter. This record AUM number does not include over 2 billion in AUM notably the approximately 1.6 billion from the Woodway acquisition which will be included in the AUM next quarter and approximately 479 million of assets under advisement where we do not have full discretion. Net inflows into the Westwood's funds mutual funds were 456 million or an organic growth rate of over 12% during the quarter, mutual funds now account for approximately 20% of our overall AUM. We achieved further diversification in AUM by investment strategy with five strategies individually have assets in excess of $1 billion. The Westwood global and emerging markets team now manages AUM in excess of 4.5 billion in less than three years since joining Westwood. Non-U.S. clients now represent approximately 20% of AUM compared to 3% in 2009. Turning our focus to our investment teams, Westwood's U.S. value strategy has got off to a great start in the first quarter. Despite the numerous challenges of a sharply higher U.S. dollar lower crude oil prices and concerns over the…

Thanks, Brian. Good afternoon everyone. For the first quarter of 2015 we are reporting total revenues of 29.6 million up 14% or 3.7 million from the same period in 2014, advisory fees up 17% or 3.5 million. Net income of 5.6 million was flat with the first quarter of 2014 and diluted earnings per share of $0.71 declined slightly from $0.72 in the same period of 2014. Net income included 500,000 of Woodway transaction cost net of tax which negatively impacted diluted earnings per share by approximately $0.06. Economic earnings on a non-GAAP metric was 9.4 million or a $1.20 per share as compared to 9.2 million or $1.18 per share in the first quarter of 2014. Economic earnings included 500,000 of Woodway transaction cost net of tax which negatively impacted economic earnings per share by approximately $0.06 as well. Firm-wide assets under management increased to a record 21.7 billion with positive quarterly net inflows of 1.1 billion and consisted of institutional assets of 13.5 billion or 62% of the total. Private wealth assets of 4 billion or 19% of the total and mutual fund assets of $4.2 billion or 19% of the total. Included in these amounts are Westwood Global and emerging market strategies of 4.6 billion a 38% increase from year-end. Net inflows for the quarter were concentrated principally on our emerging markets and income opportunity strategies, or our large capability strategy experienced outflows. Our balance sheet continues to be very solid with cash and investments at year-end of 84 million and a debt free balance sheet. This has given us flexibility to opportunistically expand private wealth's platform via the Woodway acquisition which closed on April 1st. We will begin to report Woodway's financial results and AUM and consolidated results and firm wide AUM in the second quarter. Our Board of Directors approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.50 per share payable on July 1, 2015 to stockholders of record on June 12, 2015. This represents an announced dividend yield of 3.2% at yesterday's closing price. We encourage you to review the presentation we posted on our website reflecting the first quarter highlights as well as longer term trends in the growth of our assets under management, revenues, earnings and dividends. I will now turn the call back over to Brian to conclude.

Thanks, Tiffany. If anybody has any questions, we’re happy to answer them now.

[Operator Instructions]. And we have a question from the line of Mac Sykes of Gabelli. Your line is now open.

Just two quick questions and then one [indiscernible] question, the tax rates have dipped to 33%, how should we think about that on a normalized rate going forward?

That’s pretty much what we expect from an effective tax rate for the year, you will see that it's starting to dip because our taxes in Canada are lower than our taxes here in the USA and as the earnings go up in our advisory entity up in Canada, the net tax rate will slightly start to decrease from what you’ve seen in the past.

And then for the Woodway close, I think you issued some stock, could you just remind me the amount? I guess you had the global opportunity, you had the convertibles and then of course income opportunity, maybe you can just rank the three at this point in terms of greatest opportunity over the next couple of quarters in terms of where do you think flows might come/

Well as you know that question on the past it's a tough one to gauge but just in terms of appetite right now. Appetite continues to be strong for AUM [ph], and we had a huge win funded in the first quarter in our EM Plus strategy which takes out over a $1 billion. The pipeline is still very strong there. Small cap is an area that has picked up considerably for us. We have reached that critical stage of a $0.5 billion under management where larger institutions can begin to consider giving us meaningfully sized mandates. So I feel really good about small cap. Worldwide income opportunity will be interesting to watch, it is designed to be a global version of already highly successful existing strategy. How investors will react to that, I think it's just too early to tell. I can tell you that from meetings that I’ve done over the last several years the questions have been consistently, when are you going to come out with a global version of this strategy. So I think the take will be good, but you just never know.

And going back to your question, we issued a 109,712 shares of Westwood common stock with that transaction.

I'm sorry, one just follow-up, these three new products that you’re launching on May 1st, which we think about the fee rate on those being in-line or above or below the current mutual fund rate?

They are mutual funds so they are stated in the prospects and I would say as with most mutual funds the stated management fees is a really good fee. Obviously in the early years until you attract assets you don’t get to realize that fee. So we will just have to see what take up is on the flows and we have got some seed money that we’re putting in the company, we have got some seed money from our trust company investors but we will just have to see what transpires but we’re certainly excited about it, this will take our mutual fund product line of 15 different funds and give our guys a real wide array of products to talk investors about.

[Operator Instructions]. And at this time I'm showing there are no further participants in the queue. I would like to turn the call back to management for any closing remarks.

Okay, great. Well once again I want to thank everybody for their support of Westwood and especially for those of you who I’ve talked to in the last few months as we have given you an update on the business. It was great to see you and I appreciate very much for being a shareholder. If you’ve any questions feel free to give us a call or go to our westwoodgroup.com. Thanks again.

Ladies and gentlemen thank you for your participation on today's conference.