Racing to the top of the recent IPO class is Capella
Education Company, parent company of Minneapolis-based Capella University. Its
$92 million IPO came to market last November at $20 per share; as of June 29,
the stock had more than doubled to around $46 on the strength of earnings that
beat analysts’ estimates in Q1 of fiscal ’07 and the company raising its
financial guidance for the balance of the year.
If its 19,000 on-line students
(average age 40) had bought shares in the IPO, Capella would have offered them
an education in finance, not just a degree in one of its 17 undergraduate and
graduate academic programs.
