Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, for-profit educator Bridgepoint Education
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Bridgepoint's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.
Bridgepoint facts
| Headquarters (founded) | San Diego (1999) |
| Market Cap | $515.8 million |
| Industry | Education services |
| Trailing-12-Month Revenue | $954.4 million |
| Management | Co-Founder/CEO Andrew Clark CFO Daniel Devine |
| Return on Equity (average, past 3 years) | 60.0% |
| Cash/Debt | $326.7 million / $0 |
| Competitors |
Apollo Group Corinthian Colleges DeVry |
Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.
On CAPS, 95% of the 512 members who have rated Bridgepoint believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward.
Just last week, one of those bulls, neozyklon, tapped the recent accreditation uncertainty surrounding Bridgepoint's Ashford University as a tempting bargain opportunity:
I come to the conclusion that it won't be difficult or expensive to comply with [Higher Learning Commission's] requests. They don't want to put Ashford out of business, they just want them to shape up a bit. Ashford may contribute a little less to [Bridgepoint's] profits but at this point [Bridgepoint] is trading at a PE of less than 4 with NO debt and $327 million in cash! With 50 million shares outstanding, [Bridgepoint] has a cash position equal to $6.25 per share. Remember too that they have a share repurchase program in place and are likely repurchasing shares as we speak. If they get a feeling that HLC will continue their accreditation, expect this share repurchase program to be accelerated.
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