(By Balaseshan) Apollo Group Inc. (NASDAQ:APOL), a private education provider, reported a decline in third quarter adjusted earnings due to lower enrollment. However, earnings and revenue came in above Street's expectations, sending its shares up 8.38% in aftermarket trading.
Adjusted earnings from continuing operations for the third quarter were $142.29 million or $1.20 per share, down from $203.50 million or $1.45 per share last year.
Revenue declined 8.5% to $1.13 billion, due to an 9.1% decrease in University of Phoenix revenue on lower University of Phoenix enrollment partially offset by selective tuition price and other fee changes. Analysts had expected a profit of $0.97 per share on revenue of $1.12 billion.
For the quarter, University of Phoenix Degreed Enrollment fell 13.1% to 346,300, while New Degreed Enrollment declined 8.0% to 51,500.
Revenue from Associate's degree declined to $269.57 million from $356.34 million, while Bachelor's degree revenue grew to $600.82 million from $592.26 million. Master's degree revenue decreased to $170.04 million from $194.37 million, while Doctoral degree revenue declined to $23.33 million from $23.91 million.
Looking ahead into the fiscal 2012, the company increased its adjusted operating income guidance to range of $700 million to $740 million from previous estimate of $625 million to $725 million.
Apollo narrowed its 2012 revenue outlook to range of $4.2 billion to $4.3 billion from previous forecast of $4.1 billion to $4.3 billion, while Street predicts $4.28 billion.
APOL closed Monday's regular trading down 3.22% at $32.47. The stock has been trading between $30.93 and $58.29 for the past 52 weeks.