The Santa Ana, Calif., schools, which offer associate's, bachelor's and master's degrees in health care, information technology, criminal justice and other areas, said it expects to earn 26 cents to 29 cents per share in its first quarter, on sales of $375 million to $385 million.

For the entire 2010 year, Corinthian is forecasting a per-share profit of $1.30 and $1.36 per share and revenue between $1.58 billion and $1.60 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect profit of $1.18 per share on sales of $1.51 billion for 2010.

For the year ended June 30, the company said it earned $68.8 million, or 79 cents per share, compared with $21.3 million, or 25 cents per share, in 2008. Sales rose 22.4 percent, to $1.31 billion, lifted by higher tuition paid by growth in new students.

New enrollments during the fourth quarter of 2009 rose 26.8 percent to 29,188, while the total student population was up 24.4 percent to 86,088.

For 2010, the company expects growth in new students to be 10 to 12 percent higher than in 2009.

The Federal Reserve and many private economists expect the unemployment rate to hit 10 percent in the coming months.

Shares of Corinthian Colleges climbed $2.16, or 12 percent, to $19.50 in premarket trading.

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