Perdoceo Education Corporation (NASDAQ:PRDO) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Perdoceo Education Corporation (NASDAQ:PRDO) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript November 2, 2023

Perdoceo Education Corporation beats earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $0.616, expectations were $0.49.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. My name is Bhavesh, and I’ll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Perdoceo Education Corporation Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time all lines have been placed on mute, to prevent any background noise. Thank you. I will now hand the call over to Davis Snyder with Investor Relations. You may begin your conference.

Davis Snyder: Thanks, Bhavesh. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our third quarter 2023 earnings call. With me on the call today is Todd Nelson, Executive Chairman; Andrew Hurst, President and Executive Officer; and Ashish Ghia, Chief Financial Officer. This conference call is being webcast live within the Investor Relations section at perdoceoed.com. A webcast replay will also be available on our site, and you can always contact the IR Group for Investor Relations support. Let me remind you that this afternoon’s earnings release and the remarks made today include forward-looking statements as defined in Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to Perdoceo Education and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual future results or business to differ materially from expressed in or implied by these statements.

These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those factors identified in Perdoceo’s annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, 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 your events, 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 a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures and is available within the Investor Relations page of the company’s website.

With that, I would like to turn the call over to CEO, Andrew Hurst. Andrew?

Andrew Hurst: Thank you, Davis, and good afternoon to everyone joining us on this call. I would like to begin by saying thank you to our faculty, student support staff and all our other employees for their continued dedication and educating and serving our students. Third quarter operating results exceeded our internal expectations as we experience further improvements in student retention and engagement. We have continued to execute on our operational priorities and remain focused on further improving student experiences and academic outcomes. Let me review some of the key operational highlights and updates from the quarter. First, student retention and engagement has continued to improve at our academic institutions. An increasing percentage of our enrollments are benefiting from the operational adjustments we’ve implemented to refine our student enrollment and marketing procedures, enabling them to have a better chance of being successful at one of our academic institutions.

See also 20 Most Innovative Companies in America and 50 Most Famous American Investors.

Q&A Session

Second, we also continue to invest in and leverage technology to enhance academic experiences for our students and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of various student support functions. We are exploring various ways where we can apply generative AI to back-office operations as well as student support processes and the online classroom. We continue to view technology as a catalyst and differentiator for us and are committed to further investing in it to provide a more meaningful and relevant educational experience for our learners. Finally, in the third quarter, we continued to experience further growth in our corporate partnership program as our teams support organizations around the country to provide debt-free education and training to their employees.

Now let me provide a quick overview of our operating results for the quarter. We reported third quarter net income of $41.3 million or $0.62 per diluted share. While adjusted earnings per diluted share, which excludes certain significant and noncash items, was $0.64. Overall, we are pleased with the quarterly results and expect to end the year on a high note as it relates to student retention and engagement. With that said, I would now like to turn the call over to Ashish Ghia for a deeper review of our operating performance for the quarter. Ashish?

Ashish Ghia: Thank you, Andrew. I will now review our third quarter results and then discuss our balance sheet and 2023 outlook before handing the call back to Andrew for his closing remarks. Please note all comparisons I discuss versus the comparative prior year period, unless otherwise stated. Before I begin, a quick reminder about year-over-year comparability. Financial results for CTU reflect the acquisition that was completed in December of 2022, while AIU System results are now comparable versus the prior year quarter. Additionally, total enrollment numbers that I discussed, for any enrollment trends that I refer to exclude learners participating in non-degree-seeking professional development programs and in degree-seeking non-title IV self-paced programs at our universities.

With that said, let us begin with an overview of our operating results. For the third quarter of 2023, total company operating income increased by 46.9% to $43.1 million as compared to operating income of $29.3 million for the prior year quarter. Adjusted operating income, which excludes certain significant and noncash items, and which we believe is more indicative of our underlying operating performance was $47.2 million for the third quarter, reflecting an increase of 22.1% when compared to the prior year quarter. This result came in above the high end of our outlook range previously — outlook range, primarily due to student retention and engagement at our academic institutions continuing to perform better than our expectations. Net income for the quarter was $41.3 million or $0.62 per diluted share as compared to $22.1 million or $0.32 per diluted share in the prior year quarter.

While adjusted earnings per diluted share was $0.64 as compared to $0.39 for the prior year quarter. Please also note that the diluted shares used to compute EPS for the quarter and the year-to-date now reflect the accretive nature of the LTP trademark sale, which ultimately had the effect of reducing our outstanding share count. Moving on to some more details around the third quarter 2023 results. Total company revenue of $179.9 million was 6.8% higher as compared to the prior year quarter, driven by revenue growth at CTU. In addition to improving student retention trends, the year-over-year revenue comparability was positively impacted by the academic calendar redesign and CTU as well as the acquisition completed in 2022 that was not part of the full comparative prior year period.

As it relates to our segments, total student enrollments as of September 30, 2023, were relatively flat at CTU. Improving student retention and continued growth in total enrollments from corporate partnerships were offset by a negative timing impact of the academic calendar redesign. Total student enrollments at AIU system decreased 34.2% as compared to the prior year quarter. This decrease was expected due to the short-term operational changes at AIU System that were discussed during the prior quarter’s earnings call. These operational changes and adjustments were made within prospective student admissions, outreach and enrollment processes and were undertaken early in the year to ensure compliance with anticipated or final regulatory changes.