Apollo Group Inc. Earnings: Profit Swings Up and Beats Street Expectations

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component Apollo Group Inc. (NASDAQ:APOL) reported its results for the second quarter. Through its subsidiaries, Apollo Group offers innovative and unique educational programs and services both online and on-campus at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels.

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Apollo Group Earnings Cheat Sheet for the Second Quarter

Results: Reported a profit of $63.9 million (51 cents per diluted share) in the quarter. The education and training services company had a net loss of $64 million or a loss of 45 cents per share in the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue: Fell 7.5% to $969.6 million from the year-earlier quarter.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: Apollo Group Inc. reported adjusted net income of 58 cents per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean estimate of 39 cents per share. It beat the average revenue estimate of $932.8 million.

Quoting Management: “Empowering our students to achieve their desired academic and life outcomes is our highest priority,” said Apollo Group Co-Chief Executive Officer and Apollo Global Chairman Greg Cappelli. “We are building on our mission to provide world class education, as well as connecting education to careers, in order to further differentiate University of Phoenix. We are committed to leading education into the future.” Apollo Group Co-Chief Executive Officer Chas Edelstein added, “We are working to continually improve our services to students to enhance their educational experience and outcomes. As we pursue opportunities for increased operating efficiency, our efforts to optimize allow us to invest in innovation and create new and better ways to reach adult learners, while keeping education affordable and accessible and delivering the best possible experience to our students.”

Key Stats:

The company has now topped analyst estimates for the last four quarters. It beat the mark by 10 cents in the first quarter, by 9 cents in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year, and by 11 cents in the third quarter of the last fiscal year.

Revenue has dropped for four quarters in a row. Revenue declined 11.1% to $1.18 billion in the first quarter. The figure fell 10.9% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year from the year earlier and dropped 7.6% in the third quarter of the last fiscal year from the year-ago quarter.

Looking Forward: The outlook for the company’s results in the upcoming quarter is unfavorable. The average estimate for the third quarter is 96 cents per share, down from $1.09 ninety days ago. In the past month, the average estimate for the fiscal year has fallen from $3.42 per share to $3.23 abs.

(Company fundamentals provided by Xignite Financials. Earnings estimates provided by Zacks)

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To contact the reporter on this story: Derek Hoffman at staff.writers@wallstcheatsheet.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Damien Hoffman at editors@wallstcheatsheet.com