Perdoceo Education Corporation's (NASDAQ:PRDO) Fundamentals Look Pretty Strong: Could The Market Be Wrong About The Stock?

It is hard to get excited after looking at Perdoceo Education's (NASDAQ:PRDO) recent performance, when its stock has declined 11% over the past three months. However, a closer look at its sound financials might cause you to think again. Given that fundamentals usually drive long-term market outcomes, the company is worth looking at. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Perdoceo Education's ROE today.

Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.

AI is about to change healthcare. These 20 stocks are working on everything from early diagnostics to drug discovery. The best part - they are all under $10bn in marketcap - there is still time to get in early.

How To Calculate Return On Equity?

Return on equity can be calculated by using the formula:

Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Perdoceo Education is:

16% = US$156m ÷ US$998m (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2025).

The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. Another way to think of that is that for every $1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn $0.16 in profit.

See our latest analysis for Perdoceo Education

What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?

We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. We now need to evaluate how much profit the company reinvests or "retains" for future growth which then gives us an idea about the growth potential of the company. Assuming all else is equal, companies that have both a higher return on equity and higher profit retention are usually the ones that have a higher growth rate when compared to companies that don't have the same features.

Perdoceo Education's Earnings Growth And 16% ROE

To start with, Perdoceo Education's ROE looks acceptable. And on comparing with the industry, we found that the the average industry ROE is similar at 17%. This probably goes some way in explaining Perdoceo Education's moderate 6.5% growth over the past five years amongst other factors.

As a next step, we compared Perdoceo Education's net income growth with the industry and were disappointed to see that the company's growth is lower than the industry average growth of 25% in the same period.

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. It’s important for an investor to know whether the market has priced in the company's expected earnings growth (or decline). By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. If you're wondering about Perdoceo Education's's valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Is Perdoceo Education Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

Perdoceo Education's three-year median payout ratio to shareholders is 22% (implying that it retains 78% of its income), which is on the lower side, so it seems like the management is reinvesting profits heavily to grow its business.

Along with seeing a growth in earnings, Perdoceo Education only recently started paying dividends. Its quite possible that the company was looking to impress its shareholders.

Conclusion

In total, we are pretty happy with Perdoceo Education's performance. Particularly, we like that the company is reinvesting heavily into its business, and at a high rate of return. As a result, the decent growth in its earnings is not surprising. We also studied the latest analyst forecasts and found that the company's earnings growth is expected be similar to its current growth rate. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts for the company.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.