COCO shares were delisted from the NASDAQ today. We are closing out our COCO short idea with a 99.9% ABSOLUTE gain and 176.1% alpha generation. It is our goal to identify short ideas that have 100% absolute return potential. Obviously,...
READ MORE >ESI shares traded up 20%+ today in reaction to the completion of COCO's asset sale to ECMC and the announcement that loan forgiveness on COCO's Genesis loan program will be 40% of principal. There are some that want to interpret the 40%...
READ MORE >Sorry we didn't pass along some feedback sooner, but we wanted to share a few key data points and thoughts on Obama's proposal to make community college free for students that maintain a 2.5 GPA. The program is largely modeled on one...
READ MORE >“The cheaters usually get caught--just never soon enough. Plenty more heads will roll.” Anonymous executive in the for-profit education space Given our longstanding bearish stance on...
READ MORE >Here we are on the eve of another earning season in the for-profit education space and it appears that all of the challenging trends the group faced for the Winter term still remained firmly entrenched during the Spring enrollment...
READ MORE >In many respects, we are stunned that COCO shares did not trade down more today. Let’s consider what “new” information we learned as a result of the company’s earnings release: 1) starts trends are...
READ MORE >The for-profit postsecondary education sector has been a “contrarian’s delight” for the better part of 12-months. Initially what started as a long trade predicated on overly bearish sentiment...
READ MORE >Tick, tick, tick….. From where we sit, it certainly feels like the walls are closing in on COCO as the company’s weak enrollment results, shrinking EBITDA generation, tenuous liquidity position, and...
READ MORE >“It’s real the pain you feel, you trust, you must confess Is someone getting the best, the best, the best of you?”- Foo FightersOften wrong, never in doubt…. If we could use...
READ MORE >We watched the stock price action in COCO over the past two weeks with considerable befuddlement and consternation. After all, the stock rallied more than 25% following the announcement that the Department of Education had preliminarily sided with the...
READ MORE >“And you all know how the story go….Not bad meaning bad but bad meaning good…”- Run-DMCWith all due respect to Monsieurs Simmons, McDaniels, and Mizell we doubt that they...
READ MORE >Earlier this week, the American Arbitration Association ruled on a dispute between a former student of CECO’s California School of Culinary Arts (since rebranded the Le Cordon Bleu College of...
READ MORE >Despite all of the levers the company has pulled (cohort default rate “management”, asset sales, off-loading student loan credit risk temporarily, sale lease backs) over the past two years, it finally appears that COCO is starting to run out of...
READ MORE >In some respects, given all that has happened over the past 2-3 years in the for-profit postsecondary education space it’s hard to imagine that COCO is still hanging around. After all, in an era when brand, price, and return...
READ MORE >On Tuesday, October 16th APOL will kick-start the earnings season in the for-profit postsecondary education sector. Investor expectations for the company’s results, particularly surrounding new...
READ MORE >“The investment thesis for us is pretty straightforward, as I said earlier, career-oriented, that's a big deal to us. I mean, we're teaching students how to become prepared for their first job. Not only do we teach them and get them through the process, we also spend a...
READ MORE >After gapping down earlier in the morning, COCO shares rallied over the course of the day to end down only 1% following 4Q12 results and management commentary that should create significant cause for concern among...
READ MORE >Make no mistake, as we navigate earnings season in the for-profit education space over the next 2-3 weeks, the poor operating results from DeVry will look like an accurate gauge of the operating...
READ MORE >Early this morning, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released its long awaited report on the Private Student Loan (PSL) industry. The report provides a broad overview of the characteristics of the private student loan market for the...
READ MORE >In case you missed it, I recently had the opportunity to speak with Leslie Norton of Barron's about PAA Research, our approach to idea generation, and some of our latest thoughts on for-profit education, payment processing and OPEN, Z, BGG, and TTC. You can find the full interview HERE.
READ MORE >There is little doubt that the for-profit postsecondary education sector has been under siege for the past 2-3 years. Most stocks in the space are trading at or near their 52-week lows and at valuations most investors and management teams in...
READ MORE >Today the 1Q12 earnings season in the for-profit postsecondary education sector kicks off in earnest. Thus far, many of the 12 issues that we thought would matter most this year have weighed...
READ MORE >It seems like an outlandish question to ask on a day when COCO shares have gapped up a draw-dropping 30% in response to a modest earnings beat that was almost entirely driven by lower bad-debt expense and a 2Q12 enrollment intake that was inline with expectations. However, we think...
READ MORE >Yesterday we published a lengthy report that outlined the 12 issues that we think will have the greatest impact on the enrollment, revenue, EPS and stock sentiment of the publicly traded for-profit...
READ MORE >Perhaps it happens every year, but the relative outperformance of last year’s losers compared to the prior year’s winners has been particularly pronounced thus far in 2012. The 25 worst...
READ MORE >What a difference a few months can make. To put the performance of the publicly traded for-profit postsecondary education companies in perspective for the past few months, we thought it might be...
READ MORE >In an article on Insidehighered.com today entitled “Hitting Hard at Fraud”, more details on the extent of online fraud rings in higher education have emerged. As a reminder, two weeks ago, the Department of...
READ MORE >Earlier today PAA Research hosted a conference call with Deanne Loonin of the National Consumer Law Center, one of the best known and most influential non-profit consumer advocacy organizations in the...
READ MORE >PAA Research will host a conference call TODAY at 2:30PM ET with Deanne Loonin of the National Consumer Law Center, one of the best known and most influential non-profit consumer advocacy...
READ MORE >PAA Research will host a conference call at 2:30PM ET Wednesday October 5th with Deanne Loonin of the National Consumer Law Center, one of the best known and most influential non-profit consumer...
READ MORE >SELL/SHORT
$230
SELL/SHORT
$55
LONG
$70
SELL/SHORT
$4
SELL
$50
SELL/SHORT
$45
SHORT
$18
SELL/SHORT
$5
SELL/SHORT
$42
LONG
$75
SELL/SHORT
$50
SELL/SHORT
$50
LONG
$5.50
SHORT
$50
SHORT
$28
LONG
$65
LONG
$37
PAIR TRADE
$10
PAIR TRADE
$30
LONG
$35
SHORT
$35
SELL/SHORT
$10
SHORT
$101
SHORT
$15
SHORT
$0
SHORT
$9
SHORT
$0
PAIR - LONG BGG/SHORT TTC
25%
PAIR - LONG BGG/SHORT TTC
25%
SHORT
$14.00
SHORT
$22
SHORT
$15
SHORT
$20
SHORT
$31
SHORT
$35
SHORT
$30
PAIR - LONG KNL/SHORT MLHR
25%
SHORT
$100
LONG
$8
LONG
$20
SHORT
$22
PAIR - LONG CSGP/SHORT LOOP
40%
LONG
$35
SHORT
$275
SHORT
$0