A – Paul Maleh: It is broad based. The other thing we can note, that I made reference to, to some of my prepared remarks, the asset is intact, meaning there’s been no departure of any kind of key revenue generators at CRA that would lead to the kind of quarter we just experienced. With respect to the impact of M&A activity, we get calls on several M&A opportunities. We clear conflicts and then we do not see the case proceed, period. By that I mean, we – either we don’t get a call back on it after we clear the conflict or we do not see any kind of announcement of the deal in the broader press, for that. So, clearly the slowdown in M&A is one part of it, but I think it goes beyond that headwind.
Kevin Steinke : Okay. That’s helpful commentary. But obviously, as you mentioned there, the asset is intact. Really, you’re not losing market share. You’ve still performed quite well on a relative basis year-to-date. And so, that’s all just an indication of – that the business is in good shape for the long term. I think that’s evidenced by the dividend increase you announced. So, maybe just talk about, that dividend increase and how it perhaps relates to your long term confidence in the business and the long term demand outlook.
Paul Maleh: The dividend increase, I think aligns with our commitment to return substantial capital back to our shareholders. The dominant form of those redistributions of capital to our shareholders have been through share repurchases, which have accounted for roughly 75% to 80% of total distributions over the last several years. So the dividend, we’re not changing, significantly changing those proportions with the increase on the dividend. Clearly, it talks about our confidence in the overall stability and viability of the asset going forward. But I don’t believe this signals a shift in the distribution shares between share repurchases and dividend payments.
Kevin Steinke : Okay, understood. Well, thanks for the comments. I will turn it over.
Paul Maleh: Thank you, Kevin.
Operator: And the next question comes from the line of Marc Riddick with Sidoit. Please proceed with your question.
Marc Riddick : Hi, good morning. I wanted to sort of, first, I guess maybe go over. Are there any sort of large projects or anything that we should be thinking about that maybe ended during the quarter or was there anything lumpy as far as major projects to sort of think about it from a timing perspective?
Paul Maleh: We didn’t have any major projects end. There was the U.S. approval of the Microsoft Activision matter on that, so that’s the only thing of note. We had a couple of larger projects go on a temporary pencils down request on those matters. We have since restarted the consulting efforts on those cases. So those did improve to be permanent on a go-forward basis. We got the request of pencils down on a couple of cases in the month of August, but our consultant teams are back at it.
Marc Riddick : Okay. And I was wondering if you could share some thoughts as to maybe what you’re seeing on things that are sort of – we talked a bit on the M&A side of things. I just wanted to talk a little bit about maybe what you’re seeing as far as things that are a demand that’s driven from sort of regulatory moves, and whether or not any sort of government delays or anything like that you think are having an effect on what you’re seeing.
Paul Maleh: Yeah, there were – clearly have been an impact from government delays, if we did have a government shutdown, in terms of the amount of surplus capital they have to run their important cases of shutdown. We haven’t had to deal with that as of yet. But the overall regulatory temperature, I don’t think has cooled at all, both here in the States and abroad. It’s the same type of market opportunities that we’ve been enjoying for the last couple of years, right now.
Marc Riddick : Great. And then I was – I would imagine that the long-term view of things such as AI driven regulation and the like have been changed, but as far as this, maybe just some of the things that you’re seeing now versus maybe earlier in the year, are you seeing anything different than necessarily what you’re expecting or how maybe we should be thinking about the pace of those types of projects?
Paul Maleh: No, I don’t – I wouldn’t say our view has changed in terms of what the impact of technology or AI specifically will have on our business. There’s been lots of technological changes that we have dealt with at CRA for many years now. Many of them have resulted in improved efficiencies and higher quality services delivered to clients, and we’re excited about the opportunity and that maybe this provides another step forward for CRA, across the spectrum. Our main concern with respect to this technology or AI specifically, is maintaining the confidentiality and privacy of the information we are allowed to work with.
Marc Riddick : Great. And then I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the pricing environment. I mean it certainly seems as though nothing’s gotten any less expensive. But I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about maybe the pricing dynamics that you’re seeing and what you were expecting maybe going into next year.
Paul Maleh: Sure. We’re not seeing any kind of shift on the pricing environment. The rate increases that we had put in effect at the beginning of ‘23 are sticking in large part on long – the long run projects are also being adopted on new projects. The write-off and reserves that we incur on a quarter-to-quarter basis, those haven’t shifted. But you know – so that’s all good news. Clients are being much more active in their management of their budgets. So we’re having to do a better job, increasing information flow, making sure our clients are not surprised and most importantly, continuing to deliver the exceptional quality that clients have come to expect.
Marc Riddick : And one more, I’ll toss in if I may. Is there sort of a expectation that we’re just maybe in a bit of a period of elongated sales cycles or with that client caution that you’re seeing or are you expecting sort of a reversion to the mean there going forward? Thanks.
