American Public Education, Inc.

NasdaqGS:APEI Stock Report

Market Cap: US$705.7m

American Public Education Valuation

Is APEI undervalued compared to its fair value, analyst forecasts and its price relative to the market?

Valuation Score

2/6

Valuation Score 2/6

  • Below Fair Value

  • Significantly Below Fair Value

  • Price-To-Earnings vs Peers

  • Price-To-Earnings vs Industry

  • Price-To-Earnings vs Fair Ratio

  • Analyst Forecast

Share Price vs Fair Value

What is the Fair Price of APEI when looking at its future cash flows? For this estimate we use a Discounted Cash Flow model.

US$70.14
Fair Value
45.3% undervalued intrinsic discount
6
Number of Analysts

Below Fair Value: APEI ($38.37) is trading below our estimate of fair value ($70.14)

Significantly Below Fair Value: APEI is trading below fair value by more than 20%.

Key Valuation Metric

Which metric is best to use when looking at relative valuation for APEI?

Key metric: As APEI is profitable we use its Price-To-Earnings Ratio for relative valuation analysis.

The above table shows the Price to Earnings ratio for APEI. This is calculated by dividing APEI's market cap by their current earnings.
What is APEI's PE Ratio?
PE Ratio35.8x
EarningsUS$19.37m
Market CapUS$705.70m

Price to Earnings Ratio vs Peers

How does APEI's PE Ratio compare to its peers?

The above table shows the PE ratio for APEI vs its peers. Here we also display the market cap and forecasted growth for additional consideration.
CompanyForward PEEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
Peer Average24.3x
LINC Lincoln Educational Services
50.2x32.08%US$724.7m
QSG QuantaSing Group
6.7x19.04%US$436.5m
DAO Youdao
35.8x28.98%US$1.2b
VSTA Vasta Platform
4.5x-47.87%US$396.7m
APEI American Public Education
35.8x40.65%US$705.7m

Price-To-Earnings vs Peers: APEI is expensive based on its Price-To-Earnings Ratio (35.8x) compared to the peer average (24.3x).

Price to Earnings Ratio vs Industry

How does APEI's PE Ratio compare vs other companies in the US Consumer Services Industry?

8 CompaniesPrice / EarningsEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
WW WW International
0.2x-92.66%US$261.06m
STG Sunlands Technology Group
2.3xn/aUS$114.67m
RGS Regis
0.6xn/aUS$71.74m
REDU RISE Education Cayman
1xn/aUS$40.41m
APEI 35.8xIndustry Avg. 18.3xNo. of Companies8PE01224364860+
8 CompaniesEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
No more companies

Price-To-Earnings vs Industry: APEI is expensive based on its Price-To-Earnings Ratio (35.8x) compared to the US Consumer Services industry average (18.3x).

Price to Earnings Ratio vs Fair Ratio

What is APEI's PE Ratio compared to its Fair PE Ratio? This is the expected PE Ratio taking into account the company's forecast earnings growth, profit margins and other risk factors.

APEI PE Ratio vs Fair Ratio.
Fair Ratio
Current PE Ratio35.8x
Fair PE Ratio32x

Price-To-Earnings vs Fair Ratio: APEI is expensive based on its Price-To-Earnings Ratio (35.8x) compared to the estimated Fair Price-To-Earnings Ratio (32x).

Analyst Price Targets

What is the analyst 12-month forecast and do we have any statistical confidence in the consensus price target?

The above table shows the analyst APEI forecast and predictions for the stock price in 12 month’s time.
DateShare PriceAverage 1Y Price TargetDispersionHighLow1Y Actual priceAnalysts
CurrentUS$38.37
US$38.50
+0.34%
12.34%US$46.00US$30.00n/a6
Sep ’26US$30.18
US$35.80
+18.62%
8.36%US$38.00US$30.00n/a5
Aug ’26US$29.37
US$33.80
+15.08%
7.10%US$36.00US$30.00n/a5
Jul ’26US$29.54
US$32.80
+11.04%
7.06%US$36.00US$30.00n/a5
Jun ’26US$29.45
US$32.00
+8.66%
5.85%US$35.00US$30.00n/a4
May ’26US$23.46
US$26.50
+12.96%
9.80%US$30.00US$24.00n/a4
Apr ’26US$22.64
US$25.33
+11.90%
7.44%US$28.00US$24.00n/a3
Mar ’26US$21.16
US$22.00
+3.97%
9.09%US$24.00US$20.00n/a2
Feb ’26US$22.17
US$22.00
-0.77%
9.09%US$24.00US$20.00n/a2
Jan ’26US$21.57
US$22.00
+1.99%
9.09%US$24.00US$20.00n/a2
Dec ’25US$20.62
US$23.00
+11.54%
9.39%US$25.00US$20.00n/a3
Nov ’25US$15.13
US$18.33
+21.17%
15.64%US$22.00US$15.00n/a3
Oct ’25US$14.29
US$18.33
+28.29%
15.64%US$22.00US$15.00US$38.793
Sep ’25US$16.72
US$18.33
+9.65%
15.64%US$22.00US$15.00US$30.183
Aug ’25US$18.47
US$22.00
+19.11%
7.42%US$24.00US$20.00US$29.373
Jul ’25US$17.45
US$20.67
+18.43%
4.56%US$22.00US$20.00US$29.543
Jun ’25US$17.40
US$20.67
+18.77%
4.56%US$22.00US$20.00US$29.453
May ’25US$13.82
US$16.00
+15.77%
5.10%US$17.00US$15.00US$23.463
Apr ’25US$14.19
US$15.67
+10.41%
6.02%US$17.00US$15.00US$22.643
Mar ’25US$10.75
US$8.67
-19.38%
28.78%US$12.00US$6.00US$21.163
Feb ’25US$10.77
US$8.67
-19.53%
28.78%US$12.00US$6.00US$22.173
Jan ’25US$9.65
US$8.00
-17.10%
20.41%US$10.00US$6.00US$21.573
Dec ’24US$8.21
US$8.00
-2.56%
20.41%US$10.00US$6.00US$20.623
Nov ’24US$4.14
US$8.00
+93.24%
20.41%US$10.00US$6.00US$15.133
Oct ’24US$4.98
US$8.00
+60.64%
20.41%US$10.00US$6.00US$14.293
US$38.5
Fair Value
0.3% undervalued intrinsic discount
6
Number of Analysts

Analyst Forecast: Target price is less than 20% higher than the current share price.

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Company Analysis and Financial Data Status

DataLast Updated (UTC time)
Company Analysis2025/10/03 06:18
End of Day Share Price 2025/10/03 00:00
Earnings2025/06/30
Annual Earnings2024/12/31

Data Sources

The data used in our company analysis is from S&P Global Market Intelligence LLC. The following data is used in our analysis model to generate this report. Data is normalised which can introduce a delay from the source being available.

PackageDataTimeframeExample US Source *
Company Financials10 years
  • Income statement
  • Cash flow statement
  • Balance sheet
Analyst Consensus Estimates+3 years
  • Forecast financials
  • Analyst price targets
Market Prices30 years
  • Stock prices
  • Dividends, Splits and Actions
Ownership10 years
  • Top shareholders
  • Insider trading
Management10 years
  • Leadership team
  • Board of directors
Key Developments10 years
  • Company announcements

* Example for US securities, for non-US equivalent regulatory forms and sources are used.

Unless specified all financial data is based on a yearly period but updated quarterly. This is known as Trailing Twelve Month (TTM) or Last Twelve Month (LTM) Data. Learn more.

Analysis Model and Snowflake

Details of the analysis model used to generate this report is available on our Github page, we also have guides on how to use our reports and tutorials on Youtube.

Learn about the world class team who designed and built the Simply Wall St analysis model.

Industry and Sector Metrics

Our industry and section metrics are calculated every 6 hours by Simply Wall St, details of our process are available on Github.

Analyst Sources

American Public Education, Inc. is covered by 28 analysts. 7 of those analysts submitted the estimates of revenue or earnings used as inputs to our report. Analysts submissions are updated throughout the day.

AnalystInstitution
null nullArgus Research Company
Jeffrey MeulerBaird
Gary BisbeeBarclays