Capella Education Co.'s stock rose 8 percent Tuesday after the company reported a second-quarter profit that beat expectations.
Capella shares often swing sharply on earnings day.
The Minneapolis-based for-profit education company, best known for its online Capella University, showed gains in all its key operational metrics. And executives forecast faster revenue growth in the second half of the year.
"Capella University's performance year-to-date and expectations for the third quarter position us for better annual performance in 2016 than we anticipated at the beginning of the year," Steve Polacek, Capella's chief financial officer, said in a statement.
The results accounted for the sale of its Arden University business in the U.K. last year and acquisition of two small U.S. firms that focus more narrowly on job training.
Here are the specifics:
Net profit was $9.7 million, down from $10.3 million a year ago.
Per-share profit adjusted for continuing operations was 93 cents, up from 90 cents a year ago. Analysts had forecast 88 cents per share.
Revenue was $106.7 million, up 2 percent from $104.6 million a year ago.
Active enrollment increased 2.4 percent from a year ago and new enrollment increased by 2.5 percent.
Executives forecast revenue growth of 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent in the third quarter.
They forecast active enrollment to grow between 2 and 3 percent in the third quarter.
