American Public Education vs Strategic Education
APEI and STRA side by side, both in services-educational services. Figures are trailing twelve months unless noted, from SEC filings and end-of-day prices.
How APEI and STRA compare
Strategic Education is the larger company, worth 1.6 times as much as American Public Education ($1.2B against $774M).
On earnings, American Public Education is cheaper: it trades at 17.3× trailing earnings, against 319× for Strategic Education.
American Public Education grew revenue faster over the last twelve months (2.9% versus 2.8% for Strategic Education).
American Public Education keeps more of each dollar of sales as profit, with a net margin of 6.8% compared with 0.74% at Strategic Education.
Strategic Education pays a dividend yielding 4.4%; American Public Education does not pay one.
Strategic Education scores higher on the StockData Score (17 against 15 for American Public Education), which adds up 30 checks on valuation, growth, past performance, financial health and dividends.
Key numbers
A dot marks the better figure where higher or lower is clearly better.
| Metric | APEI | STRA |
|---|---|---|
| Size and price | ||
| Market cap | $774M | $1.2B |
| Share price | $42.28 | $54.30 |
| Change, 1 year | 28.2% | −30.8% |
| Change, 5 years | 78.5% | −5.8% |
| Beta (5Y) | 0.71 | 0.88 |
| Employees | 74 | 3,683 |
| StockData Score | ||
| Total score | 15 | 17 (better) |
| Valuation score | 2 | 3 (better) |
| Growth score | 4 (better) | 2 |
| Performance score | 5 (better) | 2 |
| Health score | 4 | 5 (better) |
| Dividend score | 0 | 5 (better) |
| Valuation | ||
| P/E | 17.3× (better) | 319× |
| P/S | 1.1× | 0.9× (better) |
| P/B | 2.5× | 0.8× (better) |
| EV/EBITDA | 8.2× (better) | 10.5× |
| P/FCF | 13.7× | 7.4× (better) |
| PEG | – | 7.84 |
| FCF yield | 7.3% | 13.6% (better) |
| Fair value | $42.59 | $66.50 |
| Margin of safety | 0.73% | 18.4% (better) |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth (TTM) | 2.9% (better) | 2.8% |
| Revenue growth, 5Y average | 15.1% (better) | 4.3% |
| Net income growth (TTM) | 44.2% (better) | −91.6% |
| EPS growth (TTM) | 85.6% (better) | −96.5% |
| EPS growth, 5Y average | 1.7% | 7.5% (better) |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | 56.2% | – |
| Operating margin | 9.2% (better) | 4.3% |
| Net margin | 6.8% (better) | 0.74% |
| FCF margin | 8.4% | 12.7% (better) |
| Return on equity | 15.6% (better) | 0.60% |
| Return on invested capital | 26.4% (better) | 1.9% |
| Financial health | ||
| Debt / equity | 0.28 (better) | 0.00 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | −1.66 | – |
| Current ratio | 2.91 (better) | 1.08 |
| Altman Z-score | 3.99 (better) | 2.50 |
| Piotroski F-score | 7 | 7 |
| Dividends and buybacks | ||
| Dividend yield | – | 4.4% |
| Payout ratio | – | 567% |
| Years of dividend growth | – | 0 |
| Dividend growth, 5Y average | – | 0.00% |
| Buyback yield | 3.0% | 12.1% (better) |
| Shareholder yield | 3.0% | 16.5% (better) |
| Ownership | ||
| Held by institutions | 107% | 99.2% |
| Held by insiders | 14.4% | 3.9% |
| Insider net buying, 12 months | −$22.0M | −$4.9M (better) |
| Short interest, % of float | 16.2% | 7.6% |
Go deeper
- APEI stock overview
- APEI income statement
- APEI valuation and score
- STRA stock overview
- STRA income statement
- STRA valuation and score
For information only, not investment advice. Check the source filings before relying on any figure.