Candriam S.C.A. Grows Stock Holdings in Laureate Education $LAUR

Candriam S.C.A. lifted its stake in Laureate Education (NASDAQ:LAUR) by 510.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,214,700 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,015,711 shares during the quarter. Candriam S.C.A. owned about 0.82% of Laureate Education worth $28,401,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. CWM LLC increased its holdings in shares of Laureate Education by 260.1% during the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,901 shares of the company’s stock valued at $100,000 after acquiring an additional 3,540 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in Laureate Education by 43.3% in the 1st quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 25,838 shares of the company’s stock worth $528,000 after purchasing an additional 7,813 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp grew its position in Laureate Education by 43.4% during the 1st quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 935,239 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,126,000 after purchasing an additional 282,901 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in Laureate Education by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 367,368 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,513,000 after purchasing an additional 13,620 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Laureate Education by 3.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,060,176 shares of the company’s stock worth $267,081,000 after buying an additional 387,567 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.27% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LAUR has been the topic of several analyst reports. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Laureate Education from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Laureate Education in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Laureate Education from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 20th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Laureate Education from $26.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on Laureate Education from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $30.67.

Laureate Education Trading Down 2.2%

Shares of LAUR stock opened at $30.44 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. Laureate Education has a 12-month low of $17.82 and a 12-month high of $32.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.22 and a beta of 0.61. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $29.85 and its 200 day moving average is $25.76.

Laureate Education (NASDAQ:LAUR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.33 by ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $400.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $391.77 million. Laureate Education had a net margin of 12.86% and a return on equity of 22.99%. Laureate Education’s quarterly revenue was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.56 earnings per share. Laureate Education has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. Research analysts expect that Laureate Education will post 1.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Laureate Education declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, October 30th that permits the company to repurchase $150.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 3.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Laureate Education Company Profile

Laureate Education, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, offers higher education programs and services to students through a network of universities and higher education institutions. The company provides a range of undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the areas of business and management, medicine and health sciences, and engineering and information technology through campus-based, online, and hybrid programs.