Capella Education Earnings: Here’s Why Shares are Down Now

Capella Education Co. (NASDAQ:CPLA) delivered a profit and missed Wall Street’s expectations, BUT beat the revenue expectation. The revenue beat is a positive sign to shareholders seeking high growth out of the company. Shares are down 4.3%.

Capella Education Co. Earnings Cheat Sheet

Results: Adjusted Earnings Per Share decreased to $0.68 in the quarter versus EPS of $0.91 in the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue: Decreased 2.71% to $107 million from the year-earlier quarter.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: Capella Education Co. reported adjusted EPS income of $0.68 per share. By that measure, the company missed the mean analyst estimate of $0.74. It beat the average revenue estimate of $106.09 million.

Quoting Management: “We are encouraged by our progress in stabilizing new enrollment growth, improving learner persistence and strengthening Capella’s competitive position,” said Kevin Gilligan, chairman and chief executive officer. “Most importantly, we are gaining traction as we execute our strategy to drive affordability, speed-to-competency and certainty of outcomes for our learners to differentiate Capella. While the overall market environment remains challenging, our improving position heading into 2013 gives us confidence that we are on the right path to return to total enrollment and revenue growth.”

Key Stats (on next page)…