GRAND CANYON EDUCATION, INC. REPORTS FIRST QUARTER 2025 RESULTS

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PHOENIX, May 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Grand Canyon Education, Inc. (NASDAQ: LOPE), ("GCE" or the "Company"), is a publicly traded education services company that currently provides services to 22 university partners.  GCE provides a full array of support services in the post-secondary education sector and has developed significant technological solutions, infrastructure and operational processes to provide superior services in these areas on a large scale.  GCE today announced financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2025.

www.gce.com (PRNewsfoto/Grand Canyon Education, Inc.)
www.gce.com (PRNewsfoto/Grand Canyon Education, Inc.)

Grand Canyon Education, Inc. Reports First Quarter 2025 Results

For the three months ended March 31, 2025:

  • Service revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2025 was $289.3 million, an increase of $14.6 million, or 5.3%, as compared to service revenue of $274.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024. The increase year over year in service revenue was primarily due to an increase in partner enrollments of 5.8% to 127,779 at March 31, 2025 as compared to 120,788 at March 31, 2024. Revenue per student decreased slightly between years primarily due to the additional day for leap year in 2024 which added additional service revenue of $1.5 million as compared to the current year and contract modifications for some of our university partners in which the revenue share percentage was reduced in exchange for us no longer reimbursing the partner for certain faculty costs both of which had the effect of reducing revenue per student partially offset by the service revenue per student for accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing ("ABSN") students at off-campus classroom and laboratory sites generating a significantly higher revenue per student than we earn under our agreement with GCU, as these agreements generally provide us with a higher revenue share percentage, the partners have higher tuition rates than GCU and the majority of our partners' students take more credits on average per semester.

  • GCU enrollments increased to 123,773 at March 31, 2025, an increase of 5.8% over enrollments at March 31, 2024. University partner enrollments at our off-campus classroom and laboratory sites were 5,027, an increase of 12.1% over enrollments at March 31, 2024, which includes 1,021 and 650 GCU students at March 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. Excluding sites closing in 2024 to new enrollments, total enrollments at our off-campus classroom and laboratory sites increased 16.5% between years. We opened six sites in the year ended December 31, 2024 and opened one site in the three months ended March 31, 2025 increasing the total number of these sites to 46 at March 31, 2025, which has also positively impacted the enrollment growth. Enrollments for GCU ground students were 22,330 at March 31, 2025 down from 22,965 at March 31, 2024 due to a small decline in traditional ground students year over year and the continued decline in professional studies students (working adults attending the university's traditional campus at night), partially offset by an increase in ABSN students between years. GCU online enrollments were 101,443 at March 31, 2025, up from 93,987 at December 31, 2024, an increase of 7.9% between years.

  • Operating income for the three months ended March 31, 2025 was $88.0 million, an increase of $3.5 million, or 4.2%, as compared to $84.5 million for the same period in 2024. The operating margin for the three months ended March 31, 2025 and 2024 was 30.4% and 30.8%, respectively. The first quarter operating income and operating margin were negatively impacted on a year over year basis by the additional day for leap year in 2024 which added additional service revenue of $1.5 million as compared to the current year partially offset by contract modifications for some of our university partners in which the revenue share percentage was reduced in exchange for us no longer reimbursing the partner for certain faculty costs both of which had the effect of reducing revenue per student.

  • Income tax expense for the three months ended March 31, 2025 was $19.8 million, a decrease of $0.4 million, or 2.0%, as compared to income tax expense of $20.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024. Our effective tax rate was 21.6% during the first quarter of 2025 compared to 22.9% during the first quarter of 2024. The effective tax rate decreased year over year primarily due to an increase in excess tax benefits to $2.7 million as compared to $1.5 million in the three months ended March 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively, partially offset by higher state income taxes.

  • Net income for the three months ended March 31, 2025 was $71.6 million, an increase of $3.6 million, or 5.3% as compared to $68.0 million for the same period in 2024. As adjusted net income was $73.3 million and $69.6 million for the first quarters of 2025 and 2024, respectively.

  • Diluted net income per share was $2.52 and $2.29 for the first quarters of 2025 and 2024, respectively. As adjusted diluted net income per share was $2.57 and $2.35 for the first quarters of 2025 and 2024, respectively.

  • Adjusted EBITDA increased 3.4% to $102.0 million for the first quarter of 2025, compared to $98.6 million for the same period in 2024.