How to buy Laureate Education stock | 14.3

Laureate Education, Inc is an education & training services business based in the US. Laureate Education shares (LAUR) are listed on the NASDAQ and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Laureate Education employs 32,000 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$3 billion.

How to buy shares in Laureate Education

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for Laureate Education. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: LAUR. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Laureate Education reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$14.3, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Laureate Education, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Laureate Education. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

How has coronavirus impacted Laureate Education's share price?

Since the stock market crash in March caused by coronavirus, Laureate Education's share price has had significant negative movement.

Its last market close was USD$14.3, which is 32.20% down on its pre-crash value of USD$21.09 and 95.89% up on the lowest point reached during the March crash when the shares fell as low as USD$7.3.

If you had bought USD$1,000 worth of Laureate Education shares at the start of February 2020, those shares would have been worth USD$435.65 at the bottom of the March crash, and if you held on to them, then as of the last market close they'd be worth USD$701.56.

Laureate Education share price

Use our graph to track the performance of LAUR stocks over time.

Laureate Education shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-10-20.

Latest market close	USD$14.3
52-week range	USD$7.3 - USD$21.66
50-day moving average	USD$13.0293
200-day moving average	USD$11.1112
Wall St. target price	USD$16.25
PE ratio	10.9615
Dividend yield	N/A (0%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$4.228

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Is it a good time to buy Laureate Education stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of Laureate Education, Inc by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

Laureate Education price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $14.3 from 2020-11-16

1 week (2020-11-23)	0.63%
1 month (2020-10-30)	10.00%
3 months (2020-08-28)	11.63%
6 months (2020-05-29)	46.97%

1 year (2019-11-29)	-17.58%
2 years (2018-11-30)	-3.05%
3 years (2017-11-30)	4.92%
5 years (2015-11-27)	N/A

Is Laureate Education under- or over-valued?

Valuing Laureate Education stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Laureate Education's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Laureate Education's P/E ratio

Laureate Education's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 11x. In other words, Laureate Education shares trade at around 11x recent earnings.

That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.

Laureate Education's PEG ratio

Laureate Education's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 1.055. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Laureate Education's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Laureate Education's EBITDA

Laureate Education's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$457.1 million.

The EBITDA is a measure of a Laureate Education's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

Laureate Education financials

Revenue TTM	USD$3 billion
Operating margin TTM	9.34%
Gross profit TTM	USD$999.2 million
Return on assets TTM	2.66%
Return on equity TTM	-5.71%
Profit margin	-8.15%
Book value	$10.924
Market capitalisation	USD$2.9 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Laureate Education shares

There are currently 7.3 million Laureate Education shares held short by investors – that's known as Laureate Education's "short interest". This figure is 3.8% down from 7.6 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Laureate Education shares can be evaluated.

Laureate Education's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Laureate Education's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Laureate Education shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Laureate Education shares traded daily (recently around 1.4 million). Laureate Education's SIR currently stands at 5.41. In other words for every 100,000 Laureate Education shares traded daily on the market, roughly 5410 shares are currently held short.

However Laureate Education's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Laureate Education shares, or, against the total number of tradable Laureate Education shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Laureate Education's short interest could be expressed as 0.03% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Laureate Education shares in existence, roughly 30 shares are currently held short) or 0.0723% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Laureate Education shares, roughly 72 shares are currently held short).

A SIR below 10% would generally be considered to indicate a fairly optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Laureate Education.

Find out more about how you can short Laureate Education stock.

Laureate Education share dividends

We're not expecting Laureate Education to pay a dividend over the next 12 months.

Laureate Education share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Laureate Education's shares have ranged in value from as little as $7.3 up to $21.66. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NASDAQ average) beta is 1, while Laureate Education's is 0.7999. This would suggest that Laureate Education's shares are less volatile than average (for this exchange).

Laureate Education overview

Laureate Education, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides higher education programs and services to students through a network of universities and higher education institutions. It offers a range of undergraduate and graduate degree programs primarily in the areas of business and management, medicine and health sciences, and engineering and information technology through campus-based, online, and hybrid programs. The company also operates online institutions that offer professional degree programs primarily for the working adults with undergraduate and graduate degree programs. It provides its services in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Australia, China, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The company was formerly known as Sylvan Learning Systems, Inc. and changed its name to Laureate Education, Inc. in May 2004. The company was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Laureate Education is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 1.823% of Laureate Education shares are held by insiders and 105.539% by institutions.

• How many people work for Laureate Education?

  Latest data suggests 32,000 work at Laureate Education.

• When does the fiscal year end for Laureate Education?

  Laureate Education's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is Laureate Education based?

  Laureate Education's address is: 650 South Exeter Street, Baltimore, MD, United States, 21202-4382

• What is Laureate Education's ISIN number?

  Laureate Education's international securities identification number is: US5186132032

• What is Laureate Education's CUSIP number?

  Laureate Education's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 518613203