Universal Technical Institute Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
November 19, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Fiscal 2025 outperformed raised guidance, with revenue of about $836 million (+14% YoY), adjusted EBITDA of $126.5 million, new student starts up ~10.8%, and total available liquidity of $254.5 million.
  • Negative Sentiment: Fiscal 2026 guidance includes roughly $40 million of front‑loaded growth investments that reduce reported adjusted EBITDA to $114–$119 million (baseline >$150M), pressuring near‑term margins and EPS despite planned revenue growth.
  • Positive Sentiment: Management is accelerating expansion — three campuses planned in FY2026 and a target of 2–5 campus openings annually plus ~20 new programs per year — aiming for >$1.2 billion revenue and ~ $220 million adjusted EBITDA by FY2029.
  • Negative Sentiment: Department of Education ID‑verification delays temporarily slowed cash collections, lowering FY2025 adjusted free cash flow to $56 million; management expects the backlog to clear within a few months but near‑term cash was impacted.
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Earnings Conference Call
Universal Technical Institute Q4 2025
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Universal Technical Institute Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Matt Kempton, Vice President, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Matt Kempton
Matt Kempton
VP of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations at Universal Technical Institute

Hello and welcome to Universal Technical Institute's fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings call. Joining me today are our CEO, Jerome Grant, and CFO, Bruce Schuman. Following our prepared remarks, we will open the call for your questions. A replay of this call, its transcript, and our investor presentation will be archived on the investor relations section of our website at investor.uti.edu, along with our earnings release issued earlier today and furnished to the SEC. During this call, we may make comments that contain forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which, by their nature, address matters that are in the future and are uncertain. These statements reflect management's current beliefs and expectations and are subject to a number of factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those statements.

Matt Kempton
Matt Kempton
VP of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations at Universal Technical Institute

These factors include, but are not limited to, those discussed in our earnings release and SEC filings. These statements do not guarantee future performance and therefore undue reliance should not be placed upon them. We do not intend to update these forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future developments except as required by law. Please note, unless otherwise stated, all comparisons in this call will be against our results for the comparable period of fiscal 2024. The information presented today also includes non-GAAP financial measures. These should be viewed in addition to, and not as a substitute for, the company's reported results prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. All non-GAAP financial measures referenced in today's call are reconciled in our earnings press release to the most directly comparable GAAP measure.

Matt Kempton
Matt Kempton
VP of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations at Universal Technical Institute

For more information regarding definitions of our non-GAAP measures, please see our earnings release, financial supplement, and investor presentation. With that, I will turn the call over to Jerome Grant, CEO of Universal Technical Institute, for his prepared remarks. Jerome?

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

Thank you, Matt. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We launched our North Star strategy in 2020 with a focus on growth, diversification, and optimization. The first phase of the strategy successfully concluded with the close of fiscal year 2024. In that first phase, we saw our student population more than double from 10,000 to over 22,000. Revenue grew from just over $300 million to $733 million, and adjusted EBITDA increased from $14 million to $103 million. All of this was accomplished while improving student outcomes and employer satisfaction. Fiscal 2025 marked the first year of the next phase of our North Star strategy, a year that demonstrated the strength of our strategy, the depth of our execution, and capitalized on the momentum we built as a diversified, growth-oriented education company.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

We entered the first year of our North Star strategy, phase two, with high expectations, and we delivered results that exceeded such expectations. Revenue surpassed our twice-raised guidance range, reaching $836 million, or 14% year-over-year growth. To reiterate, we raised our top-line guidance twice throughout the first half of the year and raised the lower end of our range in the last quarter. The BEC today is not just against our original forecast; it is against numbers we already raised intra-year. Our baseline adjusted EBITDA for the year was $133 million before incurring strategic growth investments of $6.5 million, netting us a reported adjusted EBITDA number of $126.5 million. As important, average full-time active students rose more than 10%, with new student starts increasing nearly 11% year-over-year. These results underscore both the resiliency of demand for skilled trades and healthcare careers and the effectiveness of our multi-divisional model.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

In just a few minutes, Bruce will delve further into the details of our Q4 and full fiscal year 2025 performance. Operationally, fiscal 2025 was equally strong. Once again, we executed at a high level on all three pillars of our growth, diversification, and optimization strategy. As committed, we successfully launched 19 new programs across our two divisions, extending our reach into fast-growing sectors and expanding access for students nationwide. These included nine full-length programs, eight within UTI and one within Concorde, along with ten shorter cash-pay courses designed to serve working adults and regional employers seeking rapid training options. We also further enhanced our operational foundation, aligning brands, streamlining marketing admissions, and optimizing our campuses, such as the UTI Dallas campus and Concorde Denver location. Together, these initiatives have delivered meaningful efficiency gains while enabling us to scale faster and smarter in the future.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

This first year of the second phase of our North Star strategy proved that our platform works, our transformation is durable, and that we are ready for the next chapter of UTI's evolution, exactly as we drew it up years ago. With an outstanding year of execution laying the foundation, we are set up to deliver strong growth over the next four years. Frankly, we couldn't be in a better position to kick off fiscal 2026, which will be the true inflection point for our continued growth as accelerated by our North Star strategy. As we transition our focus to 2026, I'd like to take a moment to express my gratitude to our team, our students, and our partners around the country. Without all of you, none of these successes would be possible.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

As we now enter fiscal 2026, our operational priorities are clear: expand our campus footprint, launch new programs at scale, and continue to grow our student base while maintaining quality and performance discipline. We are on track to open three new campuses during fiscal 2026. First, the Heartland Dental co-branded campus in Fort Myers, Florida, which expands Concorde's healthcare reach and will serve as a model for future co-branded opportunities, is set to open next week. The UTI Atlanta campus is a comprehensive greenfield site that will serve one of the nation's fastest-growing metropolitan areas and support programs in automotive, diesel, skilled trades, and aviation technologies. The UTI San Antonio campus, which is our first skilled trades and aviation-focused location, adds capacity in a state where demand for technical education continues to significantly outpace supply.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

Alongside those openings, now that the path is clear to execute Concorde's growth strategy, we expect to launch approximately 20 new programs across our two divisions in fiscal 2026, which is significantly more than previously planned. These additions are tightly aligned with employer demand and will build on the success of our fiscal 2025 North Star phase two rollout. Financially, we expect revenue for fiscal year 2026 to be between $905 million and $915 million, representing approximately a 9% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. I want to be deliberate here. Without our planned growth investments this year, our baseline adjusted EBITDA guidance is expected to be north of $150 million. Yet, as we will be including approximately $40 million in planned growth investments as part of our now accelerated growth timeline, we project that we will be printing adjusted EBITDA between $114 million and $119 million.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

To you, our investors, the scale of these gross investments should not come as a surprise, as we've been signaling our advantageous position to accelerate our growth throughout the past year. These investments represent the front-loaded expenses of launching campuses, hiring faculty, and building capacity for long-term scale. To move on, new student starts are expected to range between $31,500 and $33,000. This near double-digit growth is driven by healthy demand trends, expanding program capacity, and improved marketing and admissions ecosystem that's producing higher quality leads and better conversion rates. In short, fiscal 2026 will be a year of investment, expansion, and activation. We're taking the platform we've built over the last three years and moving it fully into growth mode. While these investments, as we've outlined in the past, will temporarily moderate our reported margins, they're essential to establishing the next level of scale.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

We've often said that UTI's growth story is not linear, and that remains true. Fiscal 2026 and 2027 are our build years. The returns begin ramping quite rapidly in fiscal 2028 and beyond. Years two through five of our North Star phase two represent the next chapter of UTI's transformation, focused on accelerating growth, expanding access, and scaling impact. To remind everyone here, thanks to our diligent execution and new level of collaboration in Washington, we're actually one year ahead of schedule. This gives us an additional year to build momentum and execute. As a result, this means that operationally, over the next several years, we now plan to open a minimum of two new campuses and up to five new campuses annually, as well as launching approximately 20 new programs annually across both UTI and Concord divisions, depending on regulatory approvals.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

With respect to campus locations, I'm sure you all read our recent announcement outlining the first three campuses we plan to launch in 2027. As our 2027 plans continue to evolve, you'll hear more from us. The programs we launch will continue to target areas of national workforce shortage, from nursing and dental hygiene to diesel, renewable energy, and advanced manufacturing, reinforcing UTI's position as a leader in closing America's skill gap. We expect the financial impact of these initiatives to compound steadily and show strong momentum by the end of fiscal 2029. As previously noted, revenue growth should continue to average about 10% over this time period. Strategic operating and capital investment should be relatively consistent between 2026 and 2029, enabling margin expansion to begin slowly in 2027 before ramping more rapidly in 2028 and especially 2029.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

As a result of this acceleration, we now anticipate generating more than $1.2 billion in annual revenue and approaching $220 million in adjusted EBITDA in fiscal 2029. This rapid expansion in the last two years of the phase is driven by both maturity of our campuses and program replications launched in 2026 and 2027. Please refer to our investor deck for more details. To put that scale into perspective, by the end of fiscal year 2029, we now expect our revenue to nearly double and our adjusted EBITDA to be more than double what they were in 2024. Phase two is not just an extension of our growth story, but a transformation of our scale, reach, and impact. It sets the stage for what comes next.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

Even by 2029, we won't have made more than a dent in America's skilled workforce gap, which means there's still an enormous runway in front of us. As Ford's CEO just last weekend noted, the industry is struggling to fill thousands of high-paying technician roles, underscoring how substantial the demand remains. As I look ahead, I couldn't be more confident in where we're headed. We're executing from the strongest operational and financial position in our company's history, and we're building something that's designed to endure, thrive, and grow well past 2029. In fact, we're already starting to think about 2030 and beyond, building on that durable, repeatable growth engine that we've created.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

That could mean continuing our organic expansion, accelerating structured B2B partnerships with employers, the military, and state workforce initiatives, including opportunities around AI-enabled training and automation, or even pursuing strategic acquisitions that broaden our reach into new geographies and product sets. We have the platform, the balance sheet, and the team to do all of it. With that, I'll turn the call over to Bruce, our CFO, to review our fiscal 2025 financials and provide you with further details on our guidance.

Bruce Schuman
Bruce Schuman
CFO at Universal Technical Institute

Thank you, Jerome. Fiscal 2025 was another year of exceptional growth. We met or surpassed all of our raised top-line guidance metrics for the year, demonstrating the scalability of our model and giving us a solid foundation to accelerate the next phase of our North Star strategy.

Bruce Schuman
Bruce Schuman
CFO at Universal Technical Institute

In the fourth quarter, total average full-time active students grew 8.1% year-over-year to 25,049, while total new student starts increased 5.4% to 12,109. For the full year, average full-time active students increased 10.5% to 24,618, and new student starts increased 10.8% to 29,793, coming in on the upper end of our raised guidance range. The Concorde division drove a 14.5% increase in both average full-time active students and new student starts for fiscal 2025. These increases are a result of continued marketing and admissions investments and robust demand for Concorde's programs. The UTI division generated an 8% increase year-over-year in average full-time active students for the full year, and new student starts grew 7.9%. The growth in average full-time active students reflects the sustained demand for the skilled trades and the eight new programs launched throughout the year.

Bruce Schuman
Bruce Schuman
CFO at Universal Technical Institute

Turning to our financial performance, fourth quarter revenue on a consolidated basis increased 13.3% to $222.4 million. Concord contributed $77.8 million, an increase of 18.2% over the prior year quarter, while the UTI division contributed $144.6 million, an increase of 10.8% over the prior year quarter. For the full year, consolidated revenue grew 14% to $835.6 million, exceeding the upper end of our guidance range, which, as Jerome mentioned, we raised multiple times throughout the year. Concord contributed $293.8 million, an increase of 19.3% over the prior year, while the UTI division contributed $541.8 million, representing an 11.4% increase over the prior year. Shifting to profitability, consolidated net income for the fourth quarter was $18.8 million, or $0.34 per diluted share, and $63 million, or $1.13 per diluted share for the full year. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter was $36.8 million and $126.5 million for the full year.

Bruce Schuman
Bruce Schuman
CFO at Universal Technical Institute

Full year net income and earnings per share exceeded the upper end of our guidance range, and adjusted EBITDA was in the middle of our projected range. These results included over $6 million in growth investments related to new program launches and new campus buildouts. At the end of the year, we had 54.4 million shares outstanding. Total available liquidity at the end of the quarter was $254.5 million, including $41.8 million of short-term investments and $85.4 million of remaining capacity on our revolving credit facility. Fiscal 2025 cash flow from operating activities was $97.3 million, and capital expenditures were $42 million. Regarding free cash flow, due to the Department of Education's strategy to intensify the verification process for students, cash disbursements were temporarily delayed. The result of these timing impacts was that our fiscal 2025 adjusted free cash flow was $56 million, slightly below our expectations.

Bruce Schuman
Bruce Schuman
CFO at Universal Technical Institute

We expect the remainder of these impacts and delayed accounts receivable to be worked through within the next few months. Looking forward, our results in fiscal 2025 give us real confidence in the road ahead. We finished the year with strong momentum across both divisions due to the ongoing demand for education in the skilled trades. Fiscal 2026 is about turning the momentum we've driven by our first year of North Star phase two into measurable expansion through disciplined execution. Starting with revenue, we expect to generate between $905 million and $915 million for fiscal 2026, or approximately 9% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. For the first three quarters, we expect mid to high single-digit revenue growth, with Q2 being the lowest. Q4 is anticipated to be the highest growth quarter in the low double-digit range. Total new student starts are expected to range between 31,500 and 33,000.

Bruce Schuman
Bruce Schuman
CFO at Universal Technical Institute

For the first quarter, we expect low single-digit growth, then low to mid double-digit growth in Q2, and mid to high single-digit growth in the remaining quarters. For fiscal 2026 net income, we expect a range of $40-$45 million and diluted earnings per share ranging between $0.71 and $0.80. While revenue will be up every quarter, as noted, as we begin to make our significant growth investments this year, net income growth will be strongly negative for the first two quarters, improving slightly, though still negative in Q3, turning positive to low double-digit growth in Q4. As a point of clarity, we've seen no impact in our first quarter due to the recently resolved government shutdown. We expect our full year baseline adjusted EBITDA to exceed $150 million and our SEC reported adjusted EBITDA to range from $114-$119 million.

Bruce Schuman
Bruce Schuman
CFO at Universal Technical Institute

Embedded in this guidance and bridging from that baseline to our reported adjusted EBITDA is approximately $40 million in growth investments, primarily related to the following two items. The first is campus expansions, which includes the pre-opening and launch costs for the three new campuses opening in fiscal 2026, and preparatory work for even more campuses opening in fiscal 2027. The second item is program development, which includes faculty recruitment and educational tools needed for 20-plus new programs opening in fiscal year 2026, with more coming the year after. In terms of the quarterly profile for the year for adjusted EBITDA, similar to net income, as we begin to make our significant growth investments this year, growth will be strongly negative for the first two quarters, with high single-digit growth expected in Q3 and significantly stronger growth in Q4.

Bruce Schuman
Bruce Schuman
CFO at Universal Technical Institute

As a reminder, growth investments are not added back when calculating our adjusted EBITDA. These are investments we've been building a plan for and signaling throughout the year and are not previously unaccounted for impacts. We will be deliberately and strategically reinvesting more heavily beginning in fiscal 2026 to position the company for accelerated returns in the coming years. As a result, we expect to see marginal growth in adjusted EBITDA beginning in fiscal 2027, which will begin to accelerate more significantly in 2028 and even further into 2029 as our array of new campuses and programs ramp and yield higher returns. We anticipate 2026 full year adjusted free cash flow to range between $20-$25 million, which assumes approximately $100 million in CapEx spend, consistent with our multi-year plan to support campus growth and modernization.

Bruce Schuman
Bruce Schuman
CFO at Universal Technical Institute

We expect the bulk of our cash generation and year-over-year growth to materialize in the fourth quarter, consistent with our historical cadence. I want to reiterate what we expect to deliver at the conclusion of this next phase. As a result of North Star phase two, we expect to achieve more than $1.2 billion in revenue, equating to roughly a 10% compound annual revenue growth rate, and to approach $220 million in adjusted EBITDA by fiscal 2029. Driving these results will be approximately $100 million of total CapEx invested in new campuses and program expansions each year. These investments will fuel our next wave of growth and position us to deliver stronger returns, higher margins, and a diversified, durable, and repeatable growth engine over time. We remain confident in our ability to fund this growth strategy from cash on hand and cash generated from operations in the coming years.

Bruce Schuman
Bruce Schuman
CFO at Universal Technical Institute

Again, we're thrilled with what the team has delivered in 2025 and are excited for 2026 and how this inflection point for the company will drive even stronger growth in the years to come. In addition to this earnings call transcript, we encourage everyone to review our press release, financial supplement, investor presentation, and upcoming 10-K filing. These materials include the latest updates on our consolidated and segment results, strategic initiatives, and guidance. Thank you to our students, team, partners, and investors for their ongoing support. I'd now like to turn the call over to the operator for Q&A. Operator?

Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then One on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two.

Operator

At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question today comes from Jasper Bibb with Truist. Please go ahead.

Jasper Bibb
Jasper Bibb
VP and Senior Equity Analyst at Truist

Yeah, thanks. It's Jasper Bibb with Truist. Just hoping you could give a little bit more detail on what you're expecting for start growth in 2026 between the UTI and Concorde segments. Should we expect the start growth to be relatively even between the two segments, or maybe is there a differential there?

Bruce Schuman
Bruce Schuman
CFO at Universal Technical Institute

Yeah, hey, Jasper, it's Bruce. Yeah, like we said on the call, we're expecting roughly about an 8%, 8-9% start growth for 2026. It's going to be very similar in kind of profile to this year, and we're investing to make sure we can make that happen and feel good about the growth for starts in 2026.

Bruce Schuman
Bruce Schuman
CFO at Universal Technical Institute

It's going to be a very similar segment profile to follow up on your question too, as we saw in 2025. It's going to be a very similar profile per segment.

Jasper Bibb
Jasper Bibb
VP and Senior Equity Analyst at Truist

Okay. No, that makes sense. I just wanted to clarify something from the press release. Was this comment about as much as five campus openings annually between the two divisions or on a combined basis? I guess my question is, I don't think there'd be a scenario where you do like 10 campus openings in a year, but just wanted to make sure I understood the point. Yeah, no, just to clarify, it means between the two divisions.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

We had previously said that we would likely open two to three, and now it'll be somewhere between two and five per year.

Jasper Bibb
Jasper Bibb
VP and Senior Equity Analyst at Truist

Okay. Understood. Last one for me.

Jasper Bibb
Jasper Bibb
VP and Senior Equity Analyst at Truist

You mentioned the cash impact of the Department of Ed's ID verification measures, which makes sense. Just hoping you could comment on if you've seen any productivity impact on the front end, bringing on new students. Is that taking longer? Is there additional processes they're making you go through as part of that program?

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

Yeah, thanks, Jasper. No, we've seen no impact at all on the front end. This was simply a temporary—it was the department kind of increased their focus on verifications, legal status, that type of thing. Just basically getting through that backlog of verifications caused a little bit of a slowdown in cash collection, but it was temporary. Frankly, we're already seeing it kind of come back to normal here as we start the quarter, so we don't think it's going to be a long-term drag or anything like that on free cash flow.

Jasper Bibb
Jasper Bibb
VP and Senior Equity Analyst at Truist

Okay, great.

Jasper Bibb
Jasper Bibb
VP and Senior Equity Analyst at Truist

Thank you, guys.

Operator

The next question is from Mike Grondahl with Northland Securities. Please go ahead.

Mike Grondhal
Mike Grondhal
Senior Research Analyst at Northland Securities

Hey, guys, congrats on a nice quarter. Could you talk a little bit about how your high school recruiting efforts went kind of compared to your expectations?

Bruce Schuman
Bruce Schuman
CFO at Universal Technical Institute

Sure. You know, Mike, I've talked a lot. I always want them to go better. I think they went about where we expected them to. We did not add high school resources this last year. We will for 2026. We chose to put sort of the additional strategic investment in Concorde. We saw an opportunity to significantly ramp the Concorde enrollment, specifically around the higher-value clinical courses this year. As we were balancing additional strategic investment rather than adding resources in the high school for UTI, we put more money into Concorde.

Bruce Schuman
Bruce Schuman
CFO at Universal Technical Institute

Also, with the program launches that we've got at UTI, which are highly concentrated in the skilled trades, we're seeing that the skilled trades tend to appeal more to the adult population. Tilt a little more investment to marketing to the adult population this year as well. As we're opening new campuses, Atlanta, San Antonio, and move forward, there'll be more of a balance between high school and adult. That's why we're adding more resources into the high school channel for 2026.

Mike Grondhal
Mike Grondhal
Senior Research Analyst at Northland Securities

Got it. Got it. Can you talk a little bit about tuition increases kind of embedded in your 2026? How are you thinking about pricing power with demand as strong as it is? What's kind of your current thinking there?

Matt Kempton
Matt Kempton
VP of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations at Universal Technical Institute

Number one, we assume somewhere between a 2%-3% price increase.

Matt Kempton
Matt Kempton
VP of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations at Universal Technical Institute

It varies by program and by market in some instances, but our numbers assume somewhere between a 2-3%. When you think about pricing, when inflation spiked in 2022 and 2023, people were saying, "Well, why don't you take a 10% price increase?" The way you have to look at it is really around student funding. There wasn't a significant increase in Pell Grants and student loan qualifications at that time frame, which means every dollar above that 2-3% that we have, it really adds to the gap that the student has to pay out of their own pocket, right? There is an unlimited upside pricing power to be able to do that. Should there be significant increases in student funding, we might be able to see a little bit more in pricing.

Matt Kempton
Matt Kempton
VP of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations at Universal Technical Institute

In some areas where the demand is high and we may be seeing really stiff demand, we may see a little more. On average, it is going to average between 2% and 3%. Got it. Maybe lastly, how will you, I do not know, choose between at least two and up to five? Help us think through the low end and the high end of that range. I mean, the low end is conservative. One of the things we already said was you could pretty much count on us for launching two UTI campuses a year. That was prior to Concorde's growth restrictions falling by the wayside and us getting into the game with them as well. We hold open the opportunity in the years to come that we could slow it down a little bit. Right now, the opportunity is so great.

Matt Kempton
Matt Kempton
VP of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations at Universal Technical Institute

I mean, the demand is so high for what we're doing in many geographies around the country that we've announced our first three campuses for 2027. We had hoped to be able to get a Concorde campus or two open in 2026, but due to a creditor approval, real estate and building and things like that, it likely won't be until 2027. We announced two of those. We've announced the first campus for 2027 for UTI in Salt Lake City, and frankly, we're working on more. We want to make sure that we're moving both prudently but aggressively to solve this problem out there.

Mike Grondhal
Mike Grondhal
Senior Research Analyst at Northland Securities

Perfect. Thank you. Hey, take care, guys.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

Thanks. Thank you.

Operator

Again, if you have a question, please press Star, then One. The next question is from Griffin Boss with B. Riley. Please go ahead.

Griffin boss
Griffin boss
Research Analyst at B. Riley

Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions.

Griffin boss
Griffin boss
Research Analyst at B. Riley

I'll just start off for Bruce. Near the end of your prepared remarks, you talked about expectations for marginal growth and adjusted EBITDA starting in 2027. Can you just clarify here for me, is that implying marginal growth over 2026 numbers or marginal growth over what you did in 2025?

Bruce Schuman
Bruce Schuman
CFO at Universal Technical Institute

Yeah. Thanks, Griffin. Yes. To be clear, that's marginal growth over 2026 numbers. We've always said 2026, 2027 are really our investment years. You're going to kind of see this dip, which you're seeing here in our 2026 guide. We're not giving a specific 2027 guide, obviously, but you'll start to see some marginal EBITDA growth in 2027, and then it will really take off in 2028, 2029. That's when you'll start to see the return from these new campuses and investments really pay off and add to the bottom line.

Griffin boss
Griffin boss
Research Analyst at B. Riley

Understood. Yeah. That's what I thought.

Griffin boss
Griffin boss
Research Analyst at B. Riley

Just wanted to make sure I had it correct. Then just shifting to the CapEx cadence going forward, Bruce, you also talked about that. I missed specifically what you said, but I did want to just discuss what happened in 2025. Obviously, you talked about free cash flow, and CapEx came in below what you had expected as well. Is the gap there, the delta, is that also just because of the Department of Ed and the cash collections coming in, you kind of tempered your CapEx spend this year? Along those same lines, should we expect 2026 CapEx to be that much greater? It was about, what, 13.

Bruce Schuman
Bruce Schuman
CFO at Universal Technical Institute

On an accrued basis, it was actually closer to 54, almost right on our guide. Cash, we did not quite hit it. It was about $42 million on a cash basis. Really, it is a timing issue.

Bruce Schuman
Bruce Schuman
CFO at Universal Technical Institute

It's accruals, and we're seeing that. It really happened toward the end of the year as we really pushed our teams to get that CapEx spent and stay on schedule.

Griffin boss
Griffin boss
Research Analyst at B. Riley

Okay. Got it. Understood. Last one for me, just on the three new campuses that you guys announced yesterday, the growth is great to see. Is there anything you can—can you just remind us maybe or tell us kind of how you look at revenue potential of these different campuses once they've scaled? You've talked in the past about UTI, Atlanta campus, maybe, I think, if I remember correctly, $45 million revenue contribution when it's scaled, and then San Antonio for UTI, it's $23 million. Is there anything you can just talk about across these Concorde campuses and UTI, Salt Lake expectations when you reach these scaled student numbers you talked about?

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

First of all, from Salt Lake City—it's Jerome here, Griffin. Thanks for the question. Salt Lake City is going to—we think it's going to behave a lot like Atlanta. It's a full comprehensive campus, transportation, skilled trades, and energy, aviation on that campus. We think you're talking about 1,200, 1,300 students in the $40 million-$45 million range at peak. That's our current version of the optimized campus. Again, we're never satisfied with this notion of optimization. We'll keep looking for more, whether it's new programs or new ways to teach. Salt Lake City is going to behave a lot like Atlanta. Now, these are the first Concorde campuses that are coming to market.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

Generally speaking, what we're looking at at Concorde is a full line of the Concorde offerings on each of the campus, which tends to come somewhere in the neighborhood of 600-700 students, slightly less revenue per student. You're looking at about $20 million-$25 million in revenue. Again, we'll continue to look at our program offerings there and see what we can fit in beyond that.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

We do not have a variable model in terms of Concord that we are putting out because the demand in the healthcare space and in the dental space is just so high everywhere that it is hard to find a market where you would look at it and say, "I am not going to put dental in there," or, "I am not going to put radiology tech in," or some of the clinical courses. We are going to market with full comprehensive healthcare programs in all of ours. Like I said, we wanted to get the news out that we have signed our leases in Salt Lake City and Houston and Atlanta for Concord, and we are continuing to work on more locations, whether at the end of 2027 or into 2028. We are working on those right now.

Bruce Schuman
Bruce Schuman
CFO at Universal Technical Institute

Griffin, just to add one thing to underscore what Jerome said, you are exactly right. That full campus in Salt Lake City, those are typically $40 million-$45 million revenue campuses, IRRs north of 30%, return on invested capital north of 30%. Just wanted to answer that question. You are correct in the revenue expectations.

Griffin boss
Griffin boss
Research Analyst at B. Riley

Awesome. Great. Thanks, Jerome. Thanks, Bruce.

Griffin boss
Griffin boss
Research Analyst at B. Riley

Appreciate it. Appreciate all the color.

Bruce Schuman
Bruce Schuman
CFO at Universal Technical Institute

Thank you.

Operator

The next question is from Raj Sharma with Texas Capital. Please go ahead.

Raj Sharma
Raj Sharma
Senior Analyst at Texas Capital

Hi. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions again. Congratulations on a solid beat again. Yeah. I wanted to ask you about the starts that you—the starts projected for 2026. I think that you have already addressed a part of it. You said the starts growth will be equivalent in UTI and Concord.

Raj Sharma
Raj Sharma
Senior Analyst at Texas Capital

Any sort of breakdown amongst young adults, high schoolers, military veterans that you've seen that you're contemplating for 2026? And then how much of the starts is going to be new campuses and programs? I'm trying to get a sense of what you're saying store starts growth is for 2026.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

Yeah. There's a couple of dynamics at play. As we continue to diversify the UTI campuses to be a full line of transportation, skilled trades, and energy, the student population tends to be getting a little older, right? That doesn't mean that we're not going to add resources in the high schools. We absolutely are because we're opening new campuses. We need people in new locations. We need to intensify our efforts in places like as we open in Atlanta and San Antonio and as we get ready for Salt Lake City.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

We will be adding resources in the high school. The skilled trades tend to appeal to an older audience. Kids in high school tend to know about fixing cars. They do not know about wind energy. They do not tend to know about HVAC and welding and the like. They tend to really gravitate towards the transportation areas, whereas people who have been out in the world for a couple of years, 19, 20, 21, 22-year-olds often gravitate towards the skilled trades, which is balancing out the population now on the UTI campus. The other factor that is at play, or the other aspects that are at play, is that the skilled trades also tend to attract people who are more local and give us more opportunity to dig deeper into the local markets.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

As we've said over the past, the local student tends to start faster, tends to make a decision faster, and tends to get going, whereas someone who has to relocate has to find somewhere to live, and there's a longer timeline. What we're seeing is shorter timelines from contract to start, and we're seeing higher show rates out of the local population. These are all things that are helping both our revenue and our margin improve.

Raj Sharma
Raj Sharma
Senior Analyst at Texas Capital

Got it. Thank you. Also, I wanted to get a sense of what the employment trends across programs. Have you seen any sort of a slowdown? Even geographically speaking, are you seeing a consistent employment at graduation mark that you have seen in the past? Has that changed?

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

Yeah. If anything, it's intensifying.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

I mean, we're continuing to get more B2B inquiries around government contracts that have been signed around airplane building, shipbuilding, data centers. Our industrial maintenance technology courses are doing quite well because of the number of areas that are being built in there. If anything, we're seeing the demand intensify. On the transportation side, I mean, you heard the CEO of Ford just this last week. He's got 5,000 openings he can't fill, right? He's offering upwards of $120,000 to try to get these folks. There is no slowing down in the transportation business at all.

Raj Sharma
Raj Sharma
Senior Analyst at Texas Capital

Fantastic. And then just a hypothetical question, there's been a talk of the Department of Education totally getting disbanded, dismantled.

Raj Sharma
Raj Sharma
Senior Analyst at Texas Capital

Any sort of impact on you, on the approvals, on FAFSA that you foresee, or do you think that it would just be divvied out to the different divisions, different departments of the government?

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

Yeah. I think with great question. Thanks for asking. I know that news came out yesterday, obviously. This is something that, frankly, this administration, who's been dramatically more collaborative with us over the tenure in office, has been foreshadowing since they took over. To put a point on your question, there really are two, in a sense, pieces of the Department of Education that are most relevant to us. One being the entity, or frankly, the bank that administers Title IV funding. That's something that's perpetually funded. It's self-contained. It wasn't part of the announcement yesterday. What we've seen is FAFSAs are now moving quite well.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

There isn't all the glitches they had with the new electronic FAFSA, etc., seem to be behind them, and we're seeing that progress quite well. If that were to be picked up as a chunk and moved over to another department within the government, we don't anticipate that we would see any real disruption along those lines. The other entity is really what you started with was the entity of approvals. That was announced that the intention was to pick that up and move it over under the Department of Labor. Same group of people, same leadership, etc., but under the auspices of the Department of Labor. What I can tell you now is that our approval process is far more streamlined, much less friction, and much more collaborative than it has ever been since I've been with this company for the last eight years.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

The agreements are moving quite rapidly. I'm signing new PPA agreements, five in the last week, as we think about renewals and new campuses and new programs, etc. We are quite pleased with the collaboration we're seeing from Washington and the lines of communications we've even started to open with the Department of Labor around how we might be able to solve these huge labor problems in the U.S. So far, the two entities we see are working out quite well.

Raj Sharma
Raj Sharma
Senior Analyst at Texas Capital

Great. Fantastic. Thank you for taking my questions. Again, congratulations, and good luck. Thanks.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

Thank you. Thanks, Raj.

Bruce Schuman
Bruce Schuman
CFO at Universal Technical Institute

Thank you.

Operator

This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Jerome Grant for any closing remarks.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

Thank you, operator. Really appreciate it. I'd like to thank everyone who attended today.

Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant
CEO at Universal Technical Institute

Big day in the market for people reporting, so we like that you prioritized us. As always, Bruce, Matt, and I are available to follow up with any questions. We encourage, once again, as we always have, people to visit our campuses. You've really got to see what we're doing, especially the new ones that will be opening in Atlanta, San Antonio, and the Concorde, Heartland campus down in Florida. If you're interested, please give us a call. We look forward to speaking with you again when we report our first fiscal quarter of 2026, which will be sometime in February. Until then, I'd like to wish you all a very happy holiday season. Thank you.

Operator

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Executives
    • Jerome Grant
      Jerome Grant
      CEO
    • Bruce Schuman
      Bruce Schuman
      CFO
    • Matt Kempton
      Matt Kempton
      VP of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations
Analysts
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