CLC's Profit Up 50 Percent; Stock Slide Ends, but Illinois Lawsuit Clouds Centers' Future
Computer Learning Centers Inc., the Fairfax-based computer and networking training company, said yesterday that strong enrollment increases boosted earnings more than 50 percent in its latest fiscal year. The news sent the company's stock price up after several days of declines.</br></br>The company reported that earnings rose to $9.6 million (56 cents a share on a diluted basis) in its 1998 fiscal year ended Jan. 31, compared with $5.6 million (37 cents) in fiscal 1997.</br></br>The earnings report, which had been anticipated by market analysts, helped lift CLC's stock price to $21.71 7/8 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, up $1.98-7/16. The gain followed a two-day sell-off by investors and speculators at the beginning of the week that slashed the company's share price by 46 percent.</br></br>Traders began dumping CLC stock Tuesday after the Illinois attorney general announced a lawsuit alleging that CLC misrepresented course offerings and employment prospects to students in its Schaumburg, Ill., school -- one of 25 it operates across the country. The company has denied the allegations.</br></br>Analysts who follow the company said the strong earnings report does not foreshadow a big rebound in the company's stock price because of the lingering concerns raised by the Illinois investigation.