Lincoln Educational reports Q4 EPS 22c vs. 22c last year

Reports Q4 revenue $119.4M, consensus $110.85M. Student starts grew by 9.6%; quarter-end student population rose by 14.1%. “We had a very strong finish to 2024, achieving or exceeding all of our guidance metrics while we continued to invest in our growth strategies,” said Scott Shaw, President & CEO. “By focusing on providing high value training to our students and corporate partners, we are meeting the rising demand for educational alternatives to a traditional four-year college degree while expanding employers’ abilities to fill their workforce skills gap. Successful execution of our business plan resulted in strong double-digit growth across all our key financial metrics including revenue, student starts, end of quarter student population, adjusted net income, adjusted EBITDA and cash generation from operations. While we continued to invest in our expansion, we maintained our financial strength and finished the year with nearly $60 million in cash, no debt and nearly $100 million of liquidity. We’ve completed implementation of the first phase of our hybrid teaching platform, Lincoln 10.0, which continues to improve operating efficiencies while benefiting student experience and outcomes. At the same time, we continue to execute our new campus development efforts in Nashville, TN, Levittown, PA, Houston, TX and, most recently, our new campus in Hicksville, New York. Nashville is opening its doors to its first welding class in the new facility this week and we have a steady opening schedule at all three campuses as the year progresses. In addition, we expect to replicate seven high in demand programs at existing campus during 2025 after launching five such programs during 2024. Demand for our core programs by both high school and adult students is at an all-time high, as is the demand from corporate partners for our graduates. In 2025, as we open three new campus locations and replicate programs, we expect to make marked progress toward achieving our objectives of approximately $550 million in revenue and approximately $90 million in adjusted EBITDA in 2027.”