One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$78.09 our estimate vs market $33.02
Wall Street consensus: $44.00 (-43.7% lower than our fair-value estimate)
58% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
Perdoceo Education Corporation
PRDO · NMS · Consumer Defensive · Education & Training Services
Current price
$33.02
52-week range
$26.66 - $38.50
Market cap
$2.07B
Balance sheet
Healthy
34.88x Strong cushion
Net cash $620.23M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
2 Risks
3 rewards · 2 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 1.5% last year.
- Reward Returns 17.6% on equity, ahead of 40% of its peers.
- Risk Stock trades 13.6% above its 5-year average P/E.
- Risk Insider ownership is only 1.2% (peer median: 3.5%).
What this company does
Perdoceo Education Corporation
Perdoceo Education Corporation is a company that owns for-profit universities, such as Colorado Technical University and the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences. It earns most of its money from student tuition for online and in-person degree programs in career-focused fields like nursing, business, and physical therapy. The company's success largely depends on its ability to attract and retain students, which can be affected by the job market and government rules for student aid.
How the company got here
Founded in 1994 as Career Education Corporation, the company grew by acquiring a number of career-focused schools. The 2010s brought increased regulatory scrutiny for the for-profit education sector, leading the company to restructure and simplify its portfolio of schools. In 2020, it changed its name to Perdoceo Education Corporation, which means "to instruct thoroughly" in Latin, to signal a fresh start and a focus on a smaller number of institutions. A key move was the 2021 acquisition of the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences, which added a strong focus on graduate-level healthcare programs.
What it actually does
Perdoceo Education Corporation is a company that owns and operates several universities that offer higher education to students across the United States. Most of its students are working adults who attend classes online to earn associate's, bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degrees in career-focused fields. The company provides the technology, like online learning platforms, and student support services to make this possible. Students pay tuition (the fee for instruction) to these universities to earn their degrees and advance their careers.
Colorado Technical University (CTU)
This is Perdoceo's largest university, making up the majority of the company's revenue. CTU primarily serves working adults online, offering degrees in areas like business, nursing, computer science, and criminal justice. Students, many of whom are over 25, pay tuition for the flexibility of earning a degree online while managing other life commitments. CTU focuses on career-relevant programs and uses technology like its 'intellipath' adaptive learning platform to personalize the student experience.
The American InterContinental University System (AIUS)
AIUS is another large, mostly online university focused on providing career-oriented education to a diverse population of adult students. It offers degrees in fields like business, information technology, and education. Similar to CTU, students pay tuition for flexible online programs that fit into their busy lives. AIUS has a significant number of minority students and, like CTU, aims to bridge the gap between learners seeking career advancement and employers needing a skilled workforce.
University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences (USAHS)
This segment is different because it specializes in graduate-level health sciences degrees, a growing part of Perdoceo's business. Students at USAHS are training to become physical therapists, occupational therapists, and nurses, paying tuition for specialized programs that often include a mix of online and in-person clinical training. This university diversifies Perdoceo's offerings beyond the purely online, adult-degree model and into a field where hands-on training and professional licensing are critical.
What management is betting on now
Management is focused on growing enrollment in its existing universities, particularly by investing in technology and student support to improve the learning experience and academic outcomes. They are also expanding their corporate partnership programs, where they offer degrees to employees of other companies. Additionally, the company is committed to returning capital (money) to its shareholders through dividends (a portion of profits paid out to investors), which they see as a key part of their financial strategy.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q3
$50.00M
FY2024 Q4
$15.97M
FY2025 Q1
$63.39M
FY2025 Q2
$76.03M
FY2025 Q3
$39.37M
FY2025 Q4
$37.88M
FY2026 Q1
$67.65M
FY2026 Q2
$73.08M
Revenue
$213.35M
Net income
$47.97M
Diluted EPS
0.75
Operating cash flow
$74.63M
Free cash flow
$73.08M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$221.74M
Net income
$53.95M
Diluted EPS
0.85
Operating cash flow
$69.39M
Free cash flow
$67.65M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$211.64M
Net income
$35.35M
Diluted EPS
0.55
Operating cash flow
$40.11M
Free cash flow
$37.88M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$211.87M
Net income
$39.85M
Diluted EPS
0.60
Operating cash flow
$41.23M
Free cash flow
$39.37M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$209.58M
Net income
$41.03M
Diluted EPS
0.62
Operating cash flow
$78.78M
Free cash flow
$76.03M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$213.00M
Net income
$43.69M
Diluted EPS
0.65
Operating cash flow
$65.13M
Free cash flow
$63.39M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$176.43M
Net income
$31.46M
Diluted EPS
0.46
Operating cash flow
$17.60M
Free cash flow
$15.97M
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Sources
Revenue
$169.83M
Net income
$38.26M
Diluted EPS
0.57
Operating cash flow
$50.98M
Free cash flow
$50.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $78.09 vs current price $33.02
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $44.00 (-43.7% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $78.09 a share — about 136.5% above today's price of $33.02, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Healthy
Net cash $620.2M - more cash than debt. Interest coverage 34.9x.
Net debt
$-620.23M
Interest coverage
34.88x
Perdoceo Education Corporation's profit covers its interest bill about 34.9 times over. which is weaker than most peers shown here.
Healthy
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
PRDO
BASELINE
Perdoceo Education Corporation
Total debt $113.77M Interest coverage 34.88x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $104.21M Interest coverage 75,830.25x +217,304% vs PRDO Carries about 2174.0x more debt cushion than PRDO.
Total debt $545.98M Interest coverage 38.27x +10% vs PRDO Has roughly the same debt cushion as PRDO.
What you should know
The case for and against PRDO
3 Rewards
2 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 1.5% last year.
-
Returns 17.6% on equity, ahead of 40% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 9/10 years.
Risks
-
Stock trades 13.6% above its 5-year average P/E.
-
Insider ownership is only 1.2% (peer median: 3.5%).
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
12.01x
Forward P/E
10.01x
P/B
2.00x
P/S
2.41x
EV/EBITDA
5.80x
PEG ratio
0.67x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
79.9%
Operating margin
25.7%
Net margin
20.6%
ROE
17.6%
ROA
10.0%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.11x
Current ratio
4.69x
Quick ratio
4.56x
Total debt
$113.77M
Total cash
$734.00M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$858.61M
Revenue 5Y CAGR
5.1%
EPS TTM
2.75
EPS 5Y CAGR
20.3%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$225.35M
Free CF TTM
$216.66M
FCF margin
25.2%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
2.1%
Payout ratio
21.8%
Last ex-div date
2026-09-01