At a glance
Perdoceo Education Corp is worth $1.97B, about 13 times its fiscal 2025 earnings. Revenue grew 24.2% to $846.1M in fiscal 2025, with 18.9% kept as profit; over 5 years it has grown 4.2% a year. It pays a 1.97% dividend yield, and returned $268.4M to shareholders in dividends and buybacks over FY2021–FY2025. The stock returned −12.5% over the past year with dividends reinvested and +25.9% a year over five years, against +11.5% and +11.7% for the S&P 500. At its worst it fell 56.7% in the 2020 crash (S&P 500: 33.7%) and 27.4% in the 2022 bear market (S&P 500: 24.5%), and was back at its earlier high 43 months and 2 months after the lows.
The business in plain English
Perdoceo Education, formerly Career Education Corp, owns three accredited for-profit academic institutions, which are also its three reporting segments. They sell degree programs, from associate to doctoral level, mostly online and mostly to adult learners. Colorado Technical University (CTU) teaches business, nursing, computer science, cybersecurity, engineering and criminal justice. The American InterContinental University System (AIUS) groups American InterContinental University, Trident University International and California Southern University, with programs in business, IT, education and behavioral sciences. The University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences (USAHS) offers graduate degrees in physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language therapy and nursing, with clinical training.
The company earns its money from tuition and fees. A large share of tuition is paid with Title IV federal student aid (government grants and loans to students), alongside military and veterans' benefits and employer tuition-assistance plans. Revenue was $846 million in fiscal 2025, up 24.2% from the year before, and net income was $160 million.
As of December 31, 2025, the schools had about 44,400 students, up from 41,380 a year earlier. About 91% studied fully online, 68% were over 30 and nearly all lived in the US. By subject, business studies made up 66% of enrollments, health education 22% and information technology 12%. Bachelor's degree students were 63% of the total.
Price history
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PRDO -12.5% over the year to Oct 28, 2026, total return with dividends reinvested.
Latest results
- In Q2 FY2026 (ended Jun 30, 2026), revenue was $213.4M, up 1.8% from a year earlier, and net income was $48.0M (+16.9%).
- For fiscal 2025, revenue was $846.1M (+24.2% year over year; +4.2% a year from FY2020 to FY2025) with a 18.9% net margin.
Financial health check
| Revenue growth a year (FY2020–FY2025) | +4.2% watch |
|---|---|
| Operating margin | 23.2% good |
| Free cash flow margin | 25.6% good |
| Return on equity (FY2025) | 16.4% good |
| Return on assets (FY2025) | 12.8% good |
| Cash and investments | $734.0M (debt isn’t tagged in a standard way in the filings, so net cash can’t be shown) |
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2020 | $687.3M | $124.3M | $170.2M |
| FY2021 | $693.0M | $109.6M | $180.7M |
| FY2022 | $695.2M | $95.9M | $135.6M |
| FY2023 | $710.0M | $147.7M | $105.6M |
| FY2024 | $681.3M | $147.6M | $157.0M |
| FY2025 | $846.1M | $159.9M | $216.7M |
Valuation snapshot
| Market value | $1.97B |
|---|---|
| P/E ratio | 13 |
| Dividend yield | 1.97% |
Rank among 1514 US companies
Market value at each year end
Perdoceo Education’s market value went from $691.1M at the end of 2016 to $1.97B on Oct 28, 2026, about 2.9 times as much; since the end of 2025 it is up 4%.
Show as a table
| Year end | Market value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 28, 2026 | $1.97B | +4.4% |
| 2025 | $1.89B | +8.5% |
| 2024 | $1.74B | +50.8% |
| 2023 | $1.15B | +23.5% |
| 2022 | $933.7M | +13.2% |
| 2021 | $824.4M | -5.8% |
| 2020 | $875.1M | -32.4% |
| 2019 | $1.29B | +62.5% |
| 2018 | $796.7M | -4.6% |
| 2017 | $834.7M | +20.8% |
| 2016 | $691.1M |
Price behavior
| YTD | 1 yr | 3 yr | 5 yr | 10 yr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PRDO price data to Oct 28, 2026 | +8.9% | -12.5% | +23.2% | +25.9% | +16.9% |
Show as a table
| Year | Price data |
|---|---|
| 2026 (to date) | +8.9% |
| 2025 | +12.9% |
| 2024 | +54.0% |
| 2023 | +28.0% |
| 2022 | +18.2% |
| 2021 | -6.9% |
| 2020 | -31.3% |
| 2019 | +61.0% |
| 2018 | -5.5% |
| 2017 | +19.7% |
| 2016 | +178.0% |
| 2015 | -47.8% |
| 2014 | +22.1% |
| 2013 | +62.3% |
| 2012 | -55.9% |
| 2011 | -61.5% |
| 2010 | -11.1% |
| 2009 | +29.9% |
| 2008 | -28.6% |
| 2007 | +1.4% |
| 2006 | -26.5% |
| 2008 financial crisis stocks fell Oct 9, 2007 – Mar 9, 2009 | Lost 32% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 67.2%, back to its old high 209.8 months after the low |
|---|---|
| 2020 COVID crash stocks fell Feb 19, 2020 – Mar 23, 2020 | Lost 51.8% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 56.7%, back to its old high 43 months after the low |
| 2022 bear market stocks fell Jan 3, 2022 – Oct 12, 2022 | Lost 14% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 27.4%, back to its old high 1.5 months after the low |
Insider activity
Form 4 filings from 2025-10-29 to 2026-10-29 (25 read): 0 open-market purchases and 15 sales ($10.8M), 10 of them under pre-arranged 10b5-1 trading plans.
| Date | Insider | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 15, 2026 | Todd S Nelson President and CEO, Director | sell (plan) | $1.5M |
| Mar 24, 2026 | Todd S Nelson President and CEO, Director | sell (plan) | $1.5M |
| Mar 23, 2026 | Todd S Nelson President and CEO, Director | sell (plan) | $1.4M |
| Mar 16, 2026 | Todd S Nelson President and CEO, Director | sell (plan) | $1.4M |
| Apr 6, 2026 | Greg E. Jansen SVP, General Counsel | sell (plan) | $1.1M |
Who owns it
Large shareholders (13G filings)
| BlackRock, Inc. | 13.7% | Jun 30, 2025 |
| Dimensional Fund Advisors LP | 6.3% | Jun 30, 2025 |
| Renaissance Technologies LLC | 5.68% | Dec 31, 2025 |
| First Trust Portfolios L.P. | 5.15% | Dec 31, 2025 |
| Vanguard Capital Management | 5.02% | Mar 31, 2026 |
ETFs with the most weight in PRDO
| MVPA Miller Value Partners Appreciation ETF | 2.93% |
| RFDA RiverFront Dynamic US Dividend Advantage ETF | 2.63% |
| ECML Euclidean Fundamental Value ETF | 2.22% |
| CAFG Pacer US Small Cap Cash Cows Growth Leaders ETF | 1.56% |
| SIXS ETC 6 Meridian Small Cap Equity ETF | 1.21% |
| DEEP Acquirers Small and Micro Deep Value ETF | 1.19% |
| MYLD Cambria Micro and SmallCap Shareholder Yield ETF | 1.17% |
| ROSC Hartford Multifactor Small Cap ETF | 1.12% |
What could go wrong
- Heavy dependence on federal student aid. Its schools must stay eligible for Title IV federal grants and loans. Failing recertification, losing accreditation or drawing too much revenue from federal programs could cut off that funding and sharply reduce enrollment.
- Earnings tests could close programs. The Gainful Employment rule, which mainly targets for-profit schools, and a new earnings-based test for federal loans can force warnings to students, loss of aid eligibility or closure of programs that fall short.
- Tighter limits on student borrowing. A July 2025 law eliminates Grad PLUS loans for new graduate students and caps annual and lifetime borrowing, generally from July 1, 2026. Students who can't cover tuition may not enroll.
- Paying for canceled student loans. Under 'borrower defense' rules, students who say they were misled can have federal loans canceled, and the Education Department can bill the school. It may also demand large letters of credit, tying up cash.
- Ongoing scrutiny of for-profit colleges. Regulators including the Education Department, consumer-protection agencies and state attorneys general watch the sector closely. Perdoceo has paid large settlements before, operates under a Federal Trade Commission agreement, and rules can shift with each administration.
- Enrollment depends on marketing and employers. Revenue rises and falls with enrollment. Employer tuition-assistance partnerships helped enrollment grow through 2025. If partners pause or cut those benefits, or competition makes online recruiting costlier, enrollment and revenue could fall.
Recent events
- Major agreement signed; Investor presentation or announcement
- Quarterly results released
- Executive or board change; Shareholder vote results
- Quarterly results released
- Executive or board change
- Quarterly results released
- Investor presentation or announcement; Other company announcement
- Quarterly results released
For income and retirement investors
Perdoceo's dividend record is short. Dividends per share were $0.22 in fiscal 2023, $0.48 in 2024 and $0.56 in 2025, at least two straight increases. The 2025 dividend used 23.3% of earnings and 17.2% of free cash flow (cash left after running and investing in the business). The yield was 1.97% as of October 28, 2026. Buybacks have been bigger: $184 million over fiscal 2021–2025, against $84 million in dividends, and the share count fell 10.7% between August 2021 and July 2026. The board can cut or stop the dividend.
The shares fell 67% in the 2008 financial crisis and did not regain their 2007 peak until September 2025. They dropped 57% in the 2020 COVID crash and took 43 months to recover, while a 27% slide in 2022 was erased by November that year. The deepest fall in 21 years of price history was 95%. Single stocks like this carry more risk than diversified funds.
Questions investors ask
How does Perdoceo Education make money?
Perdoceo makes money by charging tuition and fees at three accredited institutions: Colorado Technical University, the American InterContinental University System and the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences. About 91% of its roughly 44,400 students studied fully online as of December 31, 2025. Many pay with Title IV federal student aid, military and veterans' benefits or employer tuition assistance. Revenue was $846 million in fiscal 2025. In the quarter ended June 30, 2026, revenue rose 1.8% from a year earlier.
Does Perdoceo pay a dividend?
Yes. Perdoceo paid $0.56 per share in dividends in fiscal 2025, up from $0.48 in 2024 and $0.22 in 2023. That used about 23% of earnings, and the yield was 1.97% as of October 28, 2026. The record is short, so it says little about how the dividend might hold up in a downturn. The company warns that shareholders may not keep receiving past dividend levels, or any dividend at all.
Is Perdoceo Education a for-profit college company?
Yes. Perdoceo, formerly Career Education Corp, owns for-profit universities, and that brings extra regulation. Federal Gainful Employment rules mainly target for-profit schools, and the company's filings describe close scrutiny of the sector by the Education Department, the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general. Its schools depend on Title IV federal student aid, so losing eligibility, or drawing too much revenue from federal programs, could cut enrollment. The company has paid large settlements in the past and operates under an FTC agreement.
How do federal student loan changes affect Perdoceo?
They could make it harder for some students to pay tuition. A law signed in July 2025 eliminates Grad PLUS loans (federal loans for graduate study) for new graduate and professional students, sets new annual and lifetime borrowing limits, and adds an earnings-based accountability test that applies to all colleges. The changes generally apply to new borrowers from July 1, 2026. Perdoceo warns the lower limits could significantly reduce enrollment. Doctoral and master's students made up 22% of its enrollment as of December 31, 2025.
Are Perdoceo insiders selling stock?
Yes. Between October 29, 2025 and October 29, 2026, insiders made at least 15 sales worth at least $10.8 million, and no purchases. At least 10 of those sales were under pre-arranged trading plans, which schedule sales in advance. President and CEO Todd S. Nelson made the largest sales, including about $1.5 million on September 15, 2026. General Counsel Greg E. Jansen sold about $1.1 million on April 6, 2026. Scheduled sales may say less about insiders' views than unplanned trades.