What happened?
Shares of education company Lincoln Educational (NASDAQ: LINC) jumped 24.3% in the morning session after the company reported strong third-quarter 2026 financial results and raised its full-year revenue outlook.
According to a company press release, Lincoln Educational reported that revenue increased 12.6% year over year to $159.2 million, driven by a 14.2% jump in student starts to 7,362. Adjusted EBITDA grew 30.8% to $17.4 million, while diluted earnings per share advanced to $0.15 from $0.12 in the prior-year period. Both figures surpassed Wall Street consensus estimates, which called for revenue of $151.8 million and earnings of $0.13 per share.
In addition, Lincoln Educational completed an $18.8 million acquisition of its Melrose Park, Illinois campus property and raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $602.5 million at the midpoint.
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What is the market telling us
Lincoln Educational’s shares are very volatile and have had 21 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Lincoln Educational and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 3 months ago when the stock dropped 15.9% on the news that the company reported second-quarter results in which revenue and adjusted EBITDA rose sharply, but new student start growth slowed abruptly.
Investors sold the stock because new student starts rose only 1% in the second quarter, down from 19.5% growth in the first quarter, after fewer enrolled students showed up on the first day of class. The headline financials were strong. Revenue grew 22.4% to $142.6 million, and adjusted EBITDA increased 42.4% to $12.7 million, so the selloff was not about a collapse in current-period profit.
Lincoln Educational is down 6.7% since the beginning of the year, and at $21.75 per share, it is trading 60.9% below its 52-week high of $55.68 from July 2026. Despite the year-to-date decline, investors who bought $1,000 worth of Lincoln Educational’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $2,959.
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