Perdoceo Education Corp (PRDO) 2025 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Hello, and thank you for standing by. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Perdoceo Education Corporation fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions)

I would now like to turn the call over to Nick Nelson, Alpha IR Group. Nick, please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our fourth quarter 2025 earnings call. With me on the call today is Todd Nelson, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Ashish Ghia, Chief Financial Officer. This conference call is being webcast live within the Investor Relations section of the company's website at perdoceoed.com. A webcast replay will also be available on our site for 90 days following the call, and you can always contact the Alpha IR Group for Investor Relations support.

Let me remind you that this afternoon's earnings release and remarks made today include forward-looking statements as defined in Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended. These statements are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to Perdoceo Education Corporation and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual future results, performance, business prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those factors identified in Perdoceo's most recent annual report on Form 10-K filed today and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Except as expressly required by the securities laws, the company undertakes no obligation to update those factors or any forward-looking statements to reflect future results, developments or changed circumstances or for any other reason. In addition, today's remarks refer to non-GAAP financial measures, which are intended to supplement but not substitute for the most directly comparable GAAP measures. The earnings release that accompanies today's call contains financial and other quantitative information to be discussed today as well as the reconciliations of the GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures and is available within the Investor Relations page of the company's website.

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Todd Nelson. Todd?

Thank you, Nick. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our fourth quarter 2025 earnings call. Today, I look forward to discussing the academic, operational and financial successes we achieved in 2025, successes that reinforce our strategy of prioritizing student experience and academic outcomes, which we will believe drive sustainable and responsible growth.

Our academic institutions share a common mission of transforming lives through education by equipping primarily adult learners with the practical skills required to succeed in today's dynamic workforce. TTU and AIUS provide diverse career-focused degree programs designed to help students excel in a rapidly changing job environment. University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences operates in the graduate health sciences field and develops medical professionals to deliver quality health care services to communities nationwide.

I'll start by discussing some key highlights for the quarter and full year. Ashish will then provide more details on our operating and financial performance and discuss the 2026 outlook. As always, I would like to thank our faculty, student support staff and all other employees for their outstanding and ongoing commitment and hard work in serving and educating our students. We ended 2025 on a strong note with revenue, operating income and total student enrollment growth ahead of management expectations. Across our portfolio of academic institutions, we remain focused on providing an outcome-driven education while aligning for academic programs with the current demands of the workforce.

Student retention continues to trend near multiyear highs, and we made purposeful investments in marketing and admissions to effectively serve the prospective student interest that we are experiencing across our academic institutions. Fourth quarter operating performance exceeded our initial expectations with net income of $35.3 million or $0.54 per diluted share, while adjusted earnings per diluted share, which excludes certain noncash items, increased 20% to $0.59 as compared to $0.49 in the prior year.

With that context, let me share some highlights for the fourth quarter and full year. First, our academic institutions graduated approximately 15,000 students in 2025, and we wish them all the very best for their future. For 2026, we expect to graduate even more students as retention continues to trend near multiyear highs. Total student enrollments grew 7.3% versus the prior year-end, driven by 11.2% growth at AIUS, 6.6% growth at CTU and 2.6% growth at St. Augustine.

At CTU, this marks the ninth consecutive quarter of total student enrollment growth, primarily due to continued progress within the corporate student program as well as strong levels of interest from prospective students during 2025. And as expected, AIUS experienced double-digit total student enrollment growth for the quarter.

St. Augustine has continued to be accretive to adjusted operating income since we completed the acquisition in December of 2024. St. Augustine ended the fall term with approximately 3,900 students and spring term enrollments are trending in line with our growth expectations. Strategic investments in technology have also been supporting enrollment growth across our academic institutions.

Concurrently, we continue to refine our marketing, advising and admissions investments, further optimizing the effectiveness of our student enrollment and student support processes. This approach is designed to further enhance student retention and engagement while maintaining disciplined costs. Through our corporate student programs, we provide accredited degree opportunities to employees of their partner -- our partner organizations and supporting their current advancement while helping corporate partners strengthen employee development and retention. We continue to invest strategically in technology and talent to expand the program and enhance academic outcomes across our institutions.

Our balanced capital approach decisions throughout the year reflect, among other priorities, our continued commitment to returning capital to shareholders. During the year, we repurchased 4.1 million shares for a total of $120.8 million and paid $36.9 million in dividends. In total, we returned $157.6 million of capital to shareholders in 2025, reflecting our balanced approach to capital allocation and our commitment to creating long-term shareholder value while continuing to invest in our academic institutions and student support processes.

Finally, we are pleased to note that our Board recently approved a new share repurchase authorization of up to $100 million, providing us with continued flexibility to return capital in a disciplined manner. Overall, I am pleased with 2025 operating performance. We achieved growth in student -- total student enrollments alongside increases in revenue and operating income, and we are entering 2026 with positive momentum.

Ashish will now provide more details on the financial results, our 2026 outlook and student enrollment trends. Ashish?

Thank you, Todd. I will first review the fourth quarter and full year results and then discuss our balance sheet and 2026 outlook before handing in the call back to Todd for his closing remarks. Please note all comparisons discussed on this call are versus the comparative prior year period unless otherwise stated. In addition, total student enrollment numbers and any reference student enrollment trends discussed during this call do not include learners pursuing non-degree-seeking and professional development programs and degree-seeking non-Title, IV self-paced programs at CTU and AIUS. Please also keep in mind regarding year-over-year comparability, this quarter's financial results include the operating performance from the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences acquisition, which was completed in December of 2024.

Turning first to our full year results. Net income was $159.9 million or $2.42 per diluted share compared to $147.6 million or $2.19 per diluted share in the prior year. Adjusted earnings per diluted share, which we believe better reflects underlying operating performance, increased 15.5% to $2.61 from $2.26 in the prior year. Full year operating income grew 12.5% to $196 million while adjusted operating income, which we believe better reflects the underlying operating performance and exclude certain noncash items, increased 25.8% to $237.6 million. Increases in full year operating income, adjusted operating income and adjusted EPS were supported by the acquisition of St. Augustine as well as underlying organic growth and operational efficiencies achieved at CTU and AIU system.

Full year revenue increased 24.2% or $164.8 million to $846.1 million. And from an expense perspective, our results included selective investments in marketing, admissions and overall personnel. While bad debt expense at 3.5% of revenue was lower by $4.2 million versus the prior year which offset some of these investments.

Turning to the fourth quarter. Adjusted operating income was $51.6 million compared to $42.7 million in the prior year quarter, and adjusted earnings per diluted share increased 20.4% to $0.59 from $0.49 in the prior year. Fourth quarter revenue increased 20% to $211.6 million from $176.4 million in the prior year. From an operations perspective, both CTU and AIU system accelerated their marketing and admissions efforts in the second half of the year to support and serve increased levels of prospective student interest they were experiencing while student retention levels trended near multiyear highs. Additionally, we continue to upgrade and invest in new technology, including exploring the use of AI as an innovative tool to enhance academic outcomes at our institutions.

University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences has continued to expand their program offerings in terms of introducing to new modalities at current campus locations, providing more flexibility for prospective students in pursuing a degree at the institution. The university prepares professional health care practitioners through innovative on-ground and virtual education offerings. Prospective student are generally required to have an undergraduate degree and go through a comprehensive application and admissions process, which has allowed them to maintain strong academic outcomes and student experiences.

As of December 31, total student enrollments increased by 7.3% compared to the prior year-end, reflecting growth across all of our academic institutions. As expected, total enrollments at AIU system increased 11.2%, supported in part by the academic session that started in December as well as underlying operating trends, such as student retention and engagement. As a reminder, the number of enrollment days in any given quarter will continue to impact quarterly enrollment comparability at AIU system.

As a result, we expect total reported enrollments to remain relatively flat in the first quarter, increased in the second quarter and accelerate further in the third quarter. And from a full year perspective, we expect both revenue and operating income to grow in 2026 as we plan for AIU system to continue investing in marketing and admissions while student retention is anticipated to remain near multi-year highs.

CTU ended the year with a record 30,000 total student enrollments, reflecting 6.6% growth supported by high levels of student retention and engagement, continued expansion of the corporate student program and sustained interest from prospective students. As Todd noted, this marks nine consecutive quarters of total enrollment growth. While we do expect to graduate a higher number of students in 2026, we plan on continuing our investments in marketing and admissions and the corporate student program and expect total enrollments at CTU to grow in 2026.

University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences ended the fall 2025 term with approximately 3,900 total students enrolled as of December 31, 2025. The increase from prior year was primarily a result of growth in programs such as nursing and speech language pathology. Note that St. Augustine as a traditional university calendar with three academic terms and multiple campuses for in-person classes in California, Texas and Florida. Commensurately, we may share student enrollment data for the beginning of an academic term, which are typically different from total enrollment numbers reported at the end of each fiscal quarter.

Moving on now to our segment results. For the full year, revenue at CTU was $461.6 million, up 4.1% from the prior year while operating income increased 3.4% to $180.6 million. A significant portion of the revenue increase at CTU was reinvested in the academic institution within faculty, course development and various student support services. Additionally, in response to prospective student interest for our programs, we also increased our investment in admissions and marketing to continue supporting future enrollment growth. Partially offsetting these increases were lower expenses associated with our professional development offerings. In the fourth quarter, CTU's revenue increased 2.5% to $114 million while operating income decreased by $2.8 million to $39.2 million.

In addition to the investments mentioned above, the fourth quarter also included nonrecurring compensation-related investments in personnel. AIU system reported full year revenue of $226 million, while operating income increased 9.8% to $36 million. For the quarter, we recorded $53.8 million in revenue, while operating income increased 3.4% to $4 million. Expenses in the fourth quarter of 2025 also included nonrecurring compensation-related investments in personnel. University of St.

Augustine for Health Sciences recorded full year revenue of $157.6 million. Excluding depreciation and amortization, adjusted operating income was $33.5 million. St. Augustine spring term 2026 is off to a strong start and based on current prospective student interest, we expect new enrollment growth for both summer and fall terms.

Supporting this new enrollment growth is the ongoing expansion of their program offerings through the introduction of new modalities and program versions at current campus locations. And commensurately, we also expect strong revenue growth for the full year.

In summary, our academic institutions experienced revenue and operating income growth for the full year 2025, and we expect this momentum to continue into 2026. We believe our disciplined investment philosophy centered on enhancing student experiences and strengthening academic outcomes together with consistent operational execution have resulted in sustainable performance and long-term value creation.

Moving on to Corporate and Other. Operating losses for the year were $23.8 million, a decrease from $30.5 million in the prior year. This improvement was primarily driven by lower acquisition-related expenses during the full year 2025.

Turning to income taxes. For the fourth quarter, we recorded provision for income taxes of $12.7 million, bringing our full year effective tax rate to 26.3%. The statutory federal and state income tax rates combined were 24.7%. The other principal component of the full year's effective tax rate was a 1.3% increase attributable to changes in unrecognized tax benefits. We expect that for full year 2026, our effective tax rate will be between 23.5% and 24.5%, which includes an estimated benefit for tax effect of stock-based compensation and the release of previously recorded tax reserves for uncertain tax positions. A significant portion of the full year stock-based compensation benefit is expected to be recognized in the first quarter.

Separately, various tax provisions from the reconciliation bill as well as various tax attributes acquired with the University of St. Augustine will reduce our cash payments for US federal and state income taxes. In 2025, we paid $49.3 million in federal, state and foreign income taxes representing 22.8% of pretax income, down from 23.3% in 2024.

Turning now to our balance sheet and liquidity position. For the full year 2025, net cash flows provided by operations were $225.2 million versus $161.6 million in the prior year. This growth versus the prior year was primarily supported by year-over-year improvement in adjusted operating income. We ended the year with $643.5 million in cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and available-for-sale short-term investments, which represents an increase of approximately $51.9 million from the prior year-end position. Uses of cash during the year included $120.8 million in return of capital to shareholders in the form of stock repurchases, $36.9 million of quarterly dividend and dividend equivalent payments, $49.3 million of federal and state income tax payments and $8.6 million of capital expenditures.

For full year 2026, we expect capital expenditures to be approximately 1.5% of revenue. Before turning to our 2026 outlook, I want to address our balanced approach to capital allocation. During the quarter, we repurchased 1.8 million shares of our common stock for $54.1 million, bringing our 2025 full year share repurchase total to 4.1 million shares repurchased for $120.8 million at an average price of $29.17 per share. And as Todd noted, our Board recently approved a new share repurchase program of up to $100 million. We anticipate utilizing the new $100 million repurchase authorization over time, subject to market conditions, organic and inorganic investment opportunities, valuation and other factors that guide our disciplined approach to capital allocation.

Additionally, consistent with our dividend policy and continued confidence in our long-term outlook, the Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend payment of $0.15 per share payable on March 13, 2026, to holders of record of Perdoceo's common stock at the close of business on March 2, 2026. Future quarterly dividend payments are expected to be paid out of free cash flow for the relevant year, subject to Board approval and the company's available retained earnings, financial conditions and other relevant factors. Subject to the conditions previously outlined, we continue to view quarterly dividend payments as an integral and growing part of our balanced capital allocation strategy. We generally expect to evaluate dividend amounts on an annual basis.

We'll now discuss our outlook for 2026. We expect the full year 2026 adjusted operating income to range between $250 million and $263 million. This compares to an adjusted operating income of $237.6 million in 2025 with the expected increase primarily due to organic revenue and total enrollment growth assumptions across our academic institutions. Adjusted earnings per diluted share are expected to be between $2.97 and $3.12 versus $2.61 in 2025, a 16% increase at the midpoint. As a reminder, GAAP and adjusted EPS calculations include incremental expenses related to the depreciation and finance leases for St.

Augustine. While these expenses are excluded for the purpose of adjusted operating income, they are a part of the adjusted EPS calculation. This outlook reflects our current beliefs that the consistent high levels of student retention and student engagement that we experienced in 2025 will continue into 2026.

Prospective student interest for academic programs will continue to increase in 2026. Any changes to the regulatory or legislative environment will not have a meaningful impact on prospective student interest levels or necessitate any operational changes. There will not be a material impact on prospective students from the elimination of Grad plus loan program, the new annual and lifetime graduate loan limits or their ability to finance their education with private lending.

Full year revenue is expected to increase versus 2025 supported by the rollout of new program versions within physical and occupational therapy at University of St. Augustine and continued organic growth at CTU and AIU system. At St. Augustine, we expect revenue and total student enrollment growth each quarter, resulting in double-digit adjusted operating income growth for the full year.

At AIU system, while the academic session calendar will impact quarterly enrollment comparability, we expect both revenue and operating income to grow for the full year, supported by strong student retention and engagement and continued investment in marketing and admissions. At CTU, we expect total student enrollments to grow in 2026, in part supported by the levels of prospective student interest in our academic programs. Although we will also graduate a record number of students in 2026 that may temporarily moderate that rate of enrollment growth in the first half of '26 before accelerating in the second half of 2026 driven by the ongoing investments.

For the first quarter of 2026, we expect adjusted operating income to be in the range of $68 million to $70 million as compared to $63.5 million in the prior year quarter with adjusted earnings per diluted share to range between $0.83 and $0.85 per diluted share versus $0.70 in the first quarter of 2025. Our 2026 outlook also assumes continued investment in technology, data analytics, real estate, academics and student support processes.

We believe these investments have supported improved academic outcomes and enhance student experience. In addition, we plan to continue expanding the corporate student program teams at CTU and AIU system to support further growth and engagement. Please refer to our earnings release filed today for important information about the key assumptions and factors underlying this discussion from today's call as well as GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations.

With that, I will turn the call over to Todd for his closing remarks. Todd?

Thank you, Ashish. I'm very pleased with our 2025 operating and financial performance and the continued progress made by all of our academic institutions in educating and serving our students. The operational excellence of our academic institutions as well as our strong capital position allows us to continue executing against the goal of sustainable and responsible growth.

Lastly, I would once again like to thank all of our incredible faculty and staff for their hard work in supporting and educating our students. Thank you again for joining us, and we look forward to speaking again with you next quarter.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.