Apollo Education Group (NASDAQ: APOL) and Capella Education (NASDAQ:CPLA) are both non-cyclical consumer goods & services companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk and dividends.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Apollo Education Group and Capella Education, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Apollo Education Group | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3.00 |
| Capella Education | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2.67 |
Capella Education has a consensus target price of $85.36, suggesting a potential upside of 25.81%. Given Capella Education’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Capella Education is more favorable than Apollo Education Group.
Valuation & Earnings
This table compares Apollo Education Group and Capella Education’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | EBITDA | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Apollo Education Group | N/A | N/A | N/A | ($0.19) | -52.61 |
| Capella Education | $438.59 million | 1.81 | $71.59 million | $3.87 | 17.53 |
Capella Education has higher revenue and earnings than Apollo Education Group. Apollo Education Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Capella Education, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Profitability
This table compares Apollo Education Group and Capella Education’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Apollo Education Group | 0.66% | 1.53% | 0.65% |
| Capella Education | 10.49% | 20.23% | 15.34% |
Insider & Institutional Ownership
73.3% of Apollo Education Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.1% of Capella Education shares are held by institutional investors. 4.8% of Apollo Education Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.6% of Capella Education shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Dividends
Capella Education pays an annual dividend of $1.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Apollo Education Group does not pay a dividend. Capella Education pays out 42.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.
Volatility and Risk
Apollo Education Group has a beta of 0.85, indicating that its share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Capella Education has a beta of 0.49, indicating that its share price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Capella Education beats Apollo Education Group on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.
Apollo Education Group Company Profile
Apollo Education Group, Inc. is a United States-based education provider. The Company offers undergraduate, graduate, certificate and non-degree educational programs and services, online and on-campus, to working adults in the United States and abroad. Its segments include University of Phoenix, Apollo Global and Other. The University of Phoenix segment offers undergraduate and graduate degrees through its colleges and schools in a range of program areas, as well as various non-degree programs. Primarily, the University of Phoenix’s students attend classes online. It also offers educational programs and services at ground locations throughout the United States. The Apollo Global segment includes its institutions based outside the United States and its corporate operations. The Other segment includes College for Financial Planning Institutes Corporation; Western International University, Inc.; TIY Academy, LLC; Apollo Professional Development, and Apollo corporate activities.
Capella Education Company Profile
Capella Education Company is an education services company. The Company provides direct path between learning and employment through its online postsecondary education offerings and through programs to develop job-ready skills for demand markets. The company’s segments include post-secondary segment and job-ready skills segment. The post-secondary segment has Capella University (the University) and Sophia Learning, LLC (Sophia). The job-ready skills segment has Capella Learning Solutions, LLC (CLS), Hackbright Academy, Inc. (Hackbright) and DevMountain, LLC (DevMountain). The Company’s program offers six markets, which include public service leadership; nursing and health sciences; social and behavioral sciences; business and technology; education and undergraduate studies. Capella University offers over 1,940 online courses and approximately 50 academic programs with approximately 150 specializations to approximately 38,000 learners.
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