Watch Capella Education Company's (Nasdaq: CPLA) earnings report to see if it can beat analyst expectations for the third consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, February 14. Capella Education is an online postsecondary education services company that offers a variety of doctoral, master's, and bachelor's programs in markets like health and human services, business management and technology, and education.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Capella Education Company with nine of 13 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Capella Education Company as much as competitor Grand Canyon Education overall. Seven out of seven analysts rate Grand Canyon Education a buy compared to four of 13 for Capella Education Company. Analysts still rate the stock a Hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $110.3 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 3.9% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.91 per share. Estimates range from $0.86 to $0.93.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are enthusiastically backing the stock, with 98.8% granting it an "outperform" rating. Most of the community backs the All-Stars, with 94.8% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced Capella Education Company, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 70 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Capella Education Company's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
A year-over-year revenue decrease last quarter snaps a streak of three consecutive quarters of revenue increases.

Now let's get some insight into how efficient management is at running the business. Margins are a representation of how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. Capella Education Company's gross margins have decreased year-over-year for the last three quarters. Gross margins reflect the total sales revenue retained after costs. See how Capella Education Company has been doing for the last four quarters: 

Quarter Q3 Q2 Q1 Q4
Gross Margin 58.4% 60.1% 61.8% 63.4%
Operating Margin 14.5% 22.5% 20.2% 24.7%
Net Margin 9.7% 14.6% 13.1% 15.7%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.