American Public Education, Inc. (APEI), along with its affiliated entities, delivers higher learning opportunities accessible both online and at physical campuses. The ...
American Public Education, Inc. (APEI) is a publicly traded U.S. higher education services company headquartered in Charles Town, West Virginia. Founded in 1991 as American Military University, the organization initially focused on distance education for the military community. It has since expanded into a broader education platform serving active-duty service ...American Public Education, Inc. (APEI) is a publicly traded U.S. higher education services company headquartered in Charles Town, West Virginia. Founded in 1991 as American Military University, the organization initially focused on distance education for the military community. It has since expanded into a broader education platform serving active-duty service members, veterans, working adults, career changers, traditional college students, and healthcare trainees. APEI’s shares trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol APEI.
The company operates primarily through three affiliated education organizations: American Public University System, Rasmussen University, and Hondros College of Nursing. American Public University System provides online undergraduate and graduate degrees, certificates, and professional learning opportunities, with subject areas such as business administration, technology, national security, military studies, intelligence, homeland security, criminal justice, education, health sciences, and liberal arts. Rasmussen University combines online instruction with physical campuses and offers career-oriented programs, particularly in healthcare, nursing, business, technology, and related disciplines. Hondros College of Nursing focuses more specifically on healthcare education, including practical nursing diplomas and associate-level programs in nursing and medical laboratory technology.
APEI’s value proposition centers on access, flexibility, career relevance, and affordability. Online delivery allows students to study without relocating and supports frequent or monthly course starts, while campus-based offerings provide laboratory, clinical, and hands-on instruction where required. The company’s cost structure is typical of an education provider: major expenses include instructional personnel, student support, marketing and recruitment, technology infrastructure, facilities, regulatory compliance, administrative functions, and campus operations. Unlike a manufacturing business, APEI has no meaningful inventory or traditional bill-of-materials requirement; its principal operating inputs are faculty and staff time, digital learning systems, content, facilities, clinical resources, and student acquisition capabilities.
The supplied data reports approximately 5,841 full-time employees, placing APEI in the 5,001-10,000 employee category. Angela K. Selden has served as president and chief executive officer since September 2019. Based on the supplied trailing-twelve-month figures, APEI reported a gross margin of approximately 53.7%, an EBITDA margin of roughly 11.5%, an EBIT margin of about 9.1%, and a net profit margin of approximately 6.1%. The same data indicates approximately $66.0 million of free cash flow to equity, a current ratio near 2.98, debt-to-equity of about 0.23, and interest coverage above 14 times. These measures suggest a relatively liquid and moderately levered balance sheet, although education demand, enrollment trends, tuition pricing, regulatory changes, student-aid policy, retention, competitive pressure, and labor costs remain important business risks. APEI’s long-term opportunity is to expand affordable, outcomes-oriented education while improving enrollment, student completion, healthcare-program capacity, and operating efficiency across its online and campus-based platforms.
YoYYoY means Year-over-Year. It compares the latest annual value with the previous annual value to show long-term trend strength.
QoQQoQ means Quarter-over-Quarter. It compares the latest quarter with the immediately previous quarter to show short-term momentum changes.
RevenueThe total money that came through the front door from selling things, before paying a single bill. Think of it as the grand total of every credit card swipe from customers. (YoY compares this year to last year's performance, while QoQ compares the current three months to the previous three).
$648.9M
+3.9%
-1.7%
Net IncomeThe absolute bottom line. If the company paid every single supplier, employee, banker, and tax collector, this is the actual money left in their pocket at the end of the day.
$31.6M
+95.8%
-44.9%
Gross MarginThe basic markup. If they sell a $100 pair of sneakers, this percentage tells you how much of that price tag is profit right after paying for the rubber and shoelaces, but before paying for things like store rent or TV commercials.
+51.7%
-1.7%
+0.8%
Operating MarginThe 'day job' efficiency score. Out of every dollar a customer spends, this shows how many cents the company keeps after making the product AND paying for all the everyday corporate overhead (like salaries, marketing, and keeping the lights on).
+8.3%
+56.8%
-36.9%
Net MarginThe final take-home percentage. When you strip away every conceivable cost, tax, and interest payment, this is the exact number of cents the company truly gets to keep from every dollar in sales.
+4.9%
+88.5%
-43.9%
Free Cash FlowThe holy grail of corporate cash. It's the spendable, physical money left over after the business pays for its daily operations AND buys the big, expensive upgrades (like new factories or servers) it needs to survive. This is the 'free' money they can use to pay dividends or buy back stock.
$46.1M
+65.9%
-87.8%
FCF MarginThe ultimate cash conversion rate. It shows how good the company is at turning regular sales directly into cold, hard, spendable cash. A high percentage means the business is an absolute cash-printing machine.
+7.1%
+59.7%
-87.6%
Debt / EquityThe financial risk gauge. It compares how much of the company's empire was built using borrowed money (loans) versus the owners' own money (shareholders). A high number means they are heavily leveraged and playing a riskier game; a low number means they are playing it safe.
55.3%
-16.3%
+105.1%
Current RatioThe 12-month survival check. It simply compares the cash they have right now (plus things they can quickly turn into cash) against the immediate bills they absolutely must pay this year. A score above 1 means they have enough in the wallet to cover the upcoming bills without panicking.
3.46x
+5.2%
+8.9%
Total AssetsThe absolute size of the company's empire. It bundles together absolutely everything of value they own—from the cash in the register and the inventory in the warehouse, to the software patents in the vault and the factories on the ground.
Operator: Thank you for standing by. My name is Jonathan, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the APEI Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the call over to Jack Landry, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Jack Landry: Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to American Public Education's conference call to discuss Second Quarter 2026 Results. Joining me on the call today are Angela Selden, President and Chief Executive Officer of APEI and Chancellor of the American Public University System; Edward Codispoti, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and Gary Janson, Chief Strategy and Growth Officer. Materials for today's call, which is being webcast and is open to the public, are available in the Events and Presentations section of APEI's website. Statements made during this call and in the accompanying presentation regarding APEI and subsidiaries that are not historical facts may be forward-looking statements that are based on management's current expectations, assumptions, estimates, and projections. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expressed or implied by such statements, including risks related to potential impacts from government shutdowns or changing federal or state government policies, laws, practices, and actions, including impacts on revenues or the timing of receivables and other factors identified in our Form 10-K and Form 10-Q under the heading Risk Factors and other SEC filings. Forward-looking statements may sometimes be identified by words like believe, estimate, expect, may, plan, potentially, project, target, outlook, path, position, on track, on base, should, will, would, and similar or opposite words. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding expected operational efficiencies, technology platform implementations, marketing efficiency initiatives, expectations regarding the resilience of our programs to market or technological disruption, expectations for registration and enrollments, revenue, earnings, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, and other earnings guidance, our foundation for growth and our current and future growth initiatives, strategic investments, capital allocation, and M&A opportunities, operational milestones and timelines, the completed combination of our institutions, governmental and regulatory actions, their impact, and our response to those actions, changing market demands, and our ability to satisfy such demands and other company initiatives. The call and the presentation contain references to non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin. A reconciliation between each non-GAAP financial measure we use and the most directly comparable GAAP measure is located in the appendix to today's presentation and in the …
