Capella Education Company (CPLA)

This met a high level screen to indicate a sell and strong underperform against its peers (other tickers in its industry). My 1st version of this spreadsheet devles deep into the company's balance sheet and recent income statements, combined with other relevant price data for the company including insider/institutional holdings, short interest, debt levels, etc.
I'm testing capabilities of this 1st version of my automated, valuation spreadsheet matched with my personal criteria and see how it holds up.

canslim

205

CPLA seems to have a very rosy outlook already priced into the stock. The industry analysts all seem to be screaming "Buy". Given that the analysts tend to shout buy right after a stock has reached its peak, this seems like a good time to do the opposite. With a short ratio of more than 20% of float, there is the risk of a short squeeze on this stock.

ibd

Serious problems with management - very little regard for ethical behavior. Over the past year, the United States Department of Education, Office of the Inspector General found several violations of Federal Law and the University's Financial Aid Director was fired for accepting kickbacks from student-loan industry.

University consistently fails to disclose relevant information such as acceptance and retention rates of students.

Capella University, founded in 1993, offers graduate degree programs in the fields of business, information technology, education, human services, public health, public safety, and psychology, as well as bachelor's degree programs in the fields of business, information technology, and public safety. The university is exclusively online, and focuses on the needs of adult students who want a high-quality education they can pursue from any location. More than 23,400 students are currently enrolled, representing all 50 states and 45 countries. Eighty-three percent are pursuing master's or doctoral degrees.

Capella Education Company and Capella University are both headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and together employ more than 1,100 administrative staff and more than 1,000 faculty members.

HighGain+ HighPE

We're doing more and more and more online, undoubtedly education is next. I foresee Capella being able to tap into multiple customer segments -- tech savvy people without the time to devote to typical classroom learning for an advanced degree; blue-collar workers who are "down-sized" and lower tax bracket folks who will use it a la a community college, one class/credit at a time as $$ allows.

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Solid company. Good business model - not a scam house with shady loans. Corporate reimbursement of education costs makes this a good path for people looking to advance a career in a shaky market.

Online education is key.

Better than REVU

Play on the online education

With a down housing market, people look to further there career. Perfect time for the online education for profit sector to see a boost.

Ready for a split 2:1? I can smell it around $80

I live in Minneapolis where Capella is based, have actually interviewed with the company, and work for a competing university. My thoughts on this one are:

(1) The company is a class act, run much better than the University of Phoenix for example.

(2) Capella's marketing is targeted and very effective.

(3) Where information systems are concerned, there is some volatility. This past spring, the IT department was experiencing some problems installing Oracle (Peoplesoft) CRM. There may be some scalability questions regarding the learning systems as well.

(4) Liquidity is an issue, as most of the stock is owned by insiders.

Still, the net is that this company is a good stock to own for the foreseeable future.

Target $60

Good academia