School Stocks Fall on Enrollment Outlook
NEW YORK (
) -- Stocks in the for-profit education sector continued to suffer Friday after
Apollo Group
(APOL)
warned Thursday that enrollment would be down more than 40% in fiscal 2011's first and second quarters.
Shares of Apollo, Kaplan's parent
Washington Post
(WPO)
,
DeVry
(DV)
,
Career Education
(CECO) - Get Report
,
Education Management
(EDMC)
,
Everest colleges parent
Corinthian Colleges
(COCO)
and
Bridgepoint Education
(BPI) - Get Report
all traded lower in Friday's session.
|
One reason for the significant decline in enrollment is Apollo's implementation of a mandatory three-week orientation, beginning Nov. 1, for all new students enrolling at University of Phoenix with fewer than 24 transfer credits.
>>Apollo Outlook Weighs on School Stocks
The program will help to counter criticisms Apollo and a number of its peers have faced claiming that for-profit schools saddle their students with debt yet leave them unequipped for the job market and a means with which to repay the hefty loans.
For-profit schools traded sharply lower over the summer when the U.S. government proposed regulations that were seen as hurting the industry's booming earnings growth.
The
S&P 1500 Education Index
, which tracks the industry, dove 34% from June through August, a retreat that began after the Obama administration announced June 16 that it would seek regulations aimed at stanching for-profit schools' high rate of student-loan defaults and curbing their aggressive marketing practices.
>>School Stocks: Winners & Losers
That was followed by a series of proposals to meet those objectives from the Department of Education, including one that would reduce schools' ability to make federal loans based on the rate of their students' loan defaults.
>>Corinthian Miss Drags on School Stocks
|
Analysts from Stifel Nicolaus and FBR Capital issued downgrades on Apollo shares Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded the stock to hold from buy. FBR downgraded the stock to market perform from underperform, and lowered its price target to $40, from $49.
Analysts from RBC Capital Markets reiterated a sector perform rating, but lowered their price target on Apollo to $45, from $55.
Citigroup analyst James Samford initiated coverage of the for-profit education group Tuesday morning, rating those favorably that focus on online education programs and negatively those more focused on traditional school settings.
Samford's buy-rated stocks included
American Public Education
(APEI) - Get Report
, Bridgepoint,
Capella Education
(CPLA) - Get Report
, DeVry and
Grand Canyon Education
(LOPE) - Get Report
.
The analyst's hold-rated stocks included Career Education, Corinthian and
ITT Educational
(ESI) - Get Report
.
He noted that the group overall is an "attractive long-term growth opportunity," with the best upside primarily in online schools. He estimates that half of the 8 million students expected to take at least one course in 2015 will do so exclusively online, compared with 40% out of 5 million in 2009.
Analysts from UBS also initiated coverage on the for-profit education group Tuesday, according to data from
Briefing.com
. Washington Post, Grand Canyon and American Public Education were rated buy with price targets of $475, $35 and $45, respectively.
Coverage of Strayer, ITT, DeVry, Corinthian, Career Education and Apollo Group were initiated with neutral ratings.
Shares of Apollo tumbled 4.3% Friday afternoon on more than double their average trading volume. Education Management fell 3.2%, Career Education 2.8%, Bridgepoint 4%, Corinthian 0.2% and DeVry 1.3%.
ITT bucked the trend, gaining 0.9%.
-- Written by Miriam Marcus Reimer in New York.
>To contact the writer of this article, click here:
Miriam Reimer
.
>To follow the writer on Twitter, go to
http://twitter.com/miriamsmarket
.
>To submit a news tip, send an email to:
.
READERS ALSO LIKE:
>> School Stocks: Winners & Losers
>> 18 Overbought Stocks to Sell Now
>> Bankruptcy Watch: 20 Riskiest Restaurant Stocks
>>See our new stock quote page.
Get more stock ideas and investing advice on our sister site,
Disclosure: TheStreet's editorial policy prohibits staff editors and reporters from holding positions in any individual stocks.









