Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. Raises Stock Position in Grand Canyon Education, Inc. $LOPE

Key Points

• Harbor Capital Advisors increased its stake in Grand Canyon Education (NASDAQ:LOPE) by 83.9%, buying an additional 9,701 shares to hold 21,257 shares worth about $3,535,000 (≈0.08% of the company) in the fourth quarter.
• Several large institutions — including Burgundy, AQR, Invesco, Van Berkom and Allianz — also boosted holdings, and institutional investors now own about 94.17% of LOPE.
• Analysts have a consensus rating of Moderate Buy with an average price target of $220; the company posted a slight Q4 EPS beat ($3.21 vs. $3.19) and the stock trades at a P/E of about 22.2.

Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Grand Canyon Education, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOPE - Free Report) by 83.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 21,257 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 9,701 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. owned about 0.08% of Grand Canyon Education worth $3,535,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. increased its position in Grand Canyon Education by 3.9% during the second quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. now owns 982,698 shares of the company's stock valued at $185,730,000 after acquiring an additional 36,546 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Grand Canyon Education by 3.5% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 597,567 shares of the company's stock worth $112,940,000 after purchasing an additional 20,485 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Grand Canyon Education by 57.5% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 560,068 shares of the company's stock valued at $105,853,000 after purchasing an additional 204,582 shares during the period. Van Berkom & Associates Inc. grew its stake in shares of Grand Canyon Education by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Van Berkom & Associates Inc. now owns 523,305 shares of the company's stock valued at $114,876,000 after purchasing an additional 15,235 shares during the period. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its position in shares of Grand Canyon Education by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 405,506 shares of the company's stock valued at $89,017,000 after purchasing an additional 12,834 shares during the last quarter. 94.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on LOPE. Barrington Research reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $230.00 price objective on shares of Grand Canyon Education in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Grand Canyon Education from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $220.00.

Grand Canyon Education Price Performance

Shares of Grand Canyon Education stock opened at $171.36 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.20, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 0.67. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $165.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $177.03. Grand Canyon Education, Inc. has a 52 week low of $149.37 and a 52 week high of $223.04.

Grand Canyon Education (NASDAQ:LOPE - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The company reported $3.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.19 by $0.02. Grand Canyon Education had a return on equity of 33.28% and a net margin of 19.54%.The company had revenue of $308.12 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $307.92 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.95 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Grand Canyon Education, Inc. will post 8.81 earnings per share for the current year.

Grand Canyon Education Profile

Grand Canyon Education, Inc provides a suite of higher‐education services through a long-term agreement with Grand Canyon University (GCU), one of the nation's largest private Christian universities. The company's offerings encompass a full range of academic and operational support functions, including enrollment management, student recruitment, curriculum development, instructional delivery, and technology infrastructure. Through its online program management capabilities, Grand Canyon Education helps design, market and deliver undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs to meet the needs of both traditional and non‐traditional learners.

Core services include digital marketing, admissions support, student success coaching, learning management systems and faculty recruitment.

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