American Public to Report Q2 Earnings: Here's What You Must Know

American Public Education APEI is scheduled to release its second-quarter 2025 results on Aug. 6, after market close.

In the last reported quarter, the company’s earnings and revenues surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 173.3% and 1.6%, respectively. Furthermore, both the top and bottom lines increased from the prior-year quarter's actuals by 7.1% and 783.3%, respectively.

APEI’s earnings topped the consensus mark in three of the last four quarters and met on one occasion, with an average surprise of 122.5%.

Trend in APEI’s Estimate Revision

For the second quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s loss per share has widened in the past 60 days to seven cents from six cents. The estimated figure indicates an 800% fall from the year-ago earnings of one cent per share.

American Public Education, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

American Public Education, Inc. price-eps-surprise | American Public Education, Inc. Quote

The consensus mark for revenues is pegged at $161 million, implying 5.3% year-over-year growth.

Factors Likely to Shape APEI’s Quarterly Results

Revenues

The company’s second-quarter top line is expected to have increased year over year, driven by the robust market trends favoring nursing and other healthcare education programs. The increased demand for healthcare professionals in the country is likely to have benefited the quarter to be reported, thus elevating contributions from the Rasmussen University (RU) and Hondros College of Nursing (HCN) segments. Besides this, increased registrations by military-affiliated students alongside diversified program offerings are expected to have aided the contributions from the American Public University System segment (APUS) and boosted the enrollment trends overall.

For the second quarter, American Public expects APUS net course registrations to increase year over year between 4% and 7% to 93,500 to 96,100. Student enrollment in HCN is expected to grow 14% to 3,700, with RU’s enrollment expected to be up 8% to 14,600. Under the RU segment, enrollments in the On-ground Healthcare and Online divisions are expected to increase 3% to 6,400 and 12% to 8,300, respectively.

The company expects total revenues during the quarter to be reported to be up between 4% and 5% to $160-$162 million.

Segment-wise, we expect revenues from the APUS segment (which accounted for 51% of total revenues in the first quarter of 2025) to increase 2.8% year over year to $79.2 million. Moreover, the same from the RU (35.3%) and HCN (10.7%) segments is expected to grow 7.2% to $56.9 million and 10.9% to $18.2 million, respectively.

Even though challenges in graduate school, brought on by shifting federal priorities and policies, including the Department of Government Efficiency's actions, are expected to have pulled back the quarter’s performance to some extent, the market tailwinds and in-house capabilities are more than offsetting the challenges.

Margins

During the quarter to be reported, the bottom line is expected to have declined year over year due to increases in employee compensation and advertising costs, and classroom and course materials costs. Moreover, the ongoing enhancements undertaken by APEI to boost its business capabilities are likely to have been taking a toll on its margins despite having leverage from an increased top line.

For the second quarter, our model expects total costs and expenses to increase year over year by 3.9% to $156.5 million. We expect gross margin to decline 30 basis points (bps) to 49.9%.

For the quarter to be reported, APEI expects adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) to grow year over year between 6% and 28% to $11.5-$14 million. Our model predicts the metrics to increase 6% to $11.6 million from the year-ago quarter.

What Our Model Unveils for APEI

Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for American Public this time around. The company does not have the right combination of the two key ingredients, a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold), to increase the odds of an earnings beat. 

Earnings ESP of APEI: The company has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% at present. You can uncover the best stocks before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

APEI’s Zacks Rank: American Public currently sports a Zacks Rank of 1. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Stocks With the Favorable Combination

Here are some companies in the Zacks  Consumer Discretionary sector that, according to our model, have the right combination of elements to post earnings beats in the quarter to be reported.

Amer Sports, Inc. AS has an Earnings ESP of +50.00% and currently carries a Zacks Rank of 2.

The company’s earnings beat estimates in three of the trailing four quarters and met on one occasion, with an average surprise being 79.7%. Amer Sports’ earnings for the second quarter of 2025 are expected to decrease 60%.

Airbnb ABNB presently has an Earnings ESP of +0.27% and a Zacks Rank of 3.

The company’s earnings beat estimates in one of the trailing four quarters and missed on the other three occasions, with an average surprise being 3.4%. Airbnb’s earnings for the second quarter of 2025 are expected to increase 8.1%.

AMC Entertainment AMC currently has an Earnings ESP of +20.00% and a Zacks Rank of 3.

The company’s earnings beat estimates in two of the trailing four quarters and missed on the remaining two occasions, with the average negative surprise being 73.7%. AMC Entertainment’s earnings for the second quarter of 2025 are expected to increase 90.7%.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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