Investors Give Corinthian Colleges an 'F'

On Tuesday August 26, before the market open, Corinthian Colleges Inc. (COCO) reported a Q4 loss (see conference call transcript) of $0.01 per share or $620,000 on $274 million in revenue vs. a loss of $0.10 per share or $8.756 million on $231.62 million in revenue a year ago. Excluding charges, COCO would have earned a profit of $0.11 per share. For the full fiscal 2008 year, COCO earned $0.25 per share or $21.3 million on $1.07 billion in revenue. Shares gapped down opening at $15.58 and sold off throughout the day to close at $13.09, down 19.3% on 11.16 million shares 

COCO expects Q1 2009 earnings of $0.06 - $0.08 on revenue of $285 million - $290 million. Analysts expect earnings in the high range of $0.8 and below the company’s forecast at $283.3 million. For the full fiscal 2009 year, COCO expects earnings of $0.58 - $0.63 per share on $1.21 billion - $1.25 billion in revenue. Analysts expect earnings below the company’s guidance at $0.55 on $1.22 billion in revenue.