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For-Profit EDU: Why the Amended Complaint Against DV Might Be Worth Reading

March 8th, 2011

From what we can gather, few investors if any have paid close attention to the progress of the various securities class action suits filed against almost every one of the publicly traded for-profit postsecondary education companies.  We are...

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COCO: Potential Cal Grant Cuts Could Exacerbate COCO’s Mounting “90/10” Challenges

February 26th, 2011

Yesterday afternoon, the California Student Aid Commission voted unanimously to support a drastic reduction of Cal Grant awards to for-profit education institutions in the event that cuts to the program are needed to help solve...

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Winners and Losers from the FY08 3-Year CRD Data – The Usual Suspects

February 4th, 2011

The Department of Education released “trial” 3-year cohort default rate data this morning on an national level and institution by institution basis. Before we get into a discussion of the national level data and some of our findings on a school...

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COCO: Tuition Price Increases to the Rescue! Not So Fast, COCO Runs from One Regulatory Wall to Another, Financial...

February 1st, 2011

COCO reported 2Q11 earnings results this morning and will host a conference call at 12PM EST today. You can read the company’s earnings release here.  The stock is trading higher based on four...

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COCO: Can COCO Remain Profitable in the Face of Fundamental Headwinds AND Escalating Regulatory Risk?

January 31st, 2011

On Tuesday, February 1st, COCO will report 2Q11 earnings and potentially provide initial guidance for 3Q11 results.  At the start of 2011, COCO finds itself at a critical impasse.  The company faces ENORMOUS...

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For-Profit Education: 4Q10 FAFSA Data Confirms Enrollment Slowdown Across ALL of Higher Education

January 24th, 2011

Today the US Department of Education released data on the number of Free Applications for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) submitted during 4Q10-11 (calendar fourth quarter of 2010).   In our view the FAFSA data provided by...

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For-Profit Postsecondary Education: Checks with Private Institutions Indicate STRA Was Not an Anomaly, the Slowdown Is...

January 19th, 2011

For an industry that has distinguished itself in the equity markets as a consistent source of trading opportunities, the “whip-saw” action in the for-profit education sector in the first few...

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For-Profit Education: What is "It"? The Implications of STRA's Pre-Announcement and APOL's Upcoming Earnings Release

January 10th, 2011

At the risk of dating ourselves, we couldn't help but think of Faith No More's edgy rock tune from the late 1980's "Epic" when STRA's negative pre-announcement hit the tape late Friday afternoon."What is...

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Implications of Explosive Keyword Price Inflation on the For-Profit Education Sector

November 23rd, 2010

Over the past several months there has been a growing bifurcation in the for-profit postsecondary education industry between those companies that have enacted significant "self regulation" measures in order to improve compliance with...

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COCO: Management's Strategy Appears to be "It's Not Our Fault", Debt Levels Now Appear to be a Major Problem

November 2nd, 2010

In our 1Q11 earnings preview for COCO, we argued that the company's first quarter earnings could represent a seminal event.  As we stated in our preview:"The decisions management makes over the next 3-6 months...

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COCO: The Burden of Proof Falls on Management, Re-Examining the Value of Heald

November 1st, 2010

COCO will report 1Q11 earnings before the market opens on Tuesday, November 2nd.  In our view, the company finds itself in an extraordinarily precarious position irrespective of what happens with the Dept. of Educationa's Gainful Employment...

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3Q10 FAFSA Volumes Provide Further Confirmation That Enrollment Trends Are Rolling Over

October 26th, 2010

Over the past few weeks, three large, publicly traded for-profit postsecondary education companies reported earnings.  The general feedback from each company (APOL, CPLA, and ESI) has been fairly similar: 1) new student starts have...

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The Credit Hour Issue Escalates

October 18th, 2010

For the past 6-7 months we have argued that the definition of a credit hour could become a significant regulatory issue in the higher education space, one that has generally overlooked by most investors.  As a reminder, upon the passage of NegReg 2009 the Department of Education will...

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A View from Privately Held For-Profit Postsecondary Education Institutions - Here Comes the Enrollment Slowdown

October 8th, 2010

Investing in the for-profit education sector over the past 2-3 months has been almost entirely about one's ability to tap into various DC lobbying groups, read the "tea leaves" from public statements from...

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