EmailApollo Group (APOL $34.86 +2.35) reported third quarter earnings of $1.20 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.24 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.96, while revenues fell 8.5% year/year to $1.13 billion versus the $1.12 billion consensus. The decrease was the result of a 9.1% decrease in University of Phoenix net revenue, due principally to lower University of Phoenix enrollment, partially offset by selective tuition price and other fee changes.
For the quarter, University of Phoenix Degreed Enrollment decreased 13.1% to 346,300. New Degreed Enrollment decreased 8.0%, or 5.3% adjusting for available start dates, as compared to the third quarter of fiscal year 2011. The Company repurchased ~9.0 million and 17.1 million shares of its common stock at a weighted average purchase price of $36.41 and $43.02 per share for a total cost of $329.0 million and $736.0 million during the three and nine months ended May 31, 2012, respectively. Additionally, subsequent to May 31, 2012, the Company repurchased ~0.5 million shares at a total cost of $15.0 million, resulting in $48.5 million remaining of the current share repurchase authorization. The company issued in-line guidance for fiscal year 2012 with raised revenues to $4.2-4.3 billion from $4.1-4.3 billion versus the $4.28 billion consensus with adj. operating income of $700-740 million (ests below ~$720 million).
