Grand Canyon Education, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOPE) Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call May 4, 2022 4:30 PM ET

Company Participants

Daniel Bachus - Chief Financial Officer

Brian Mueller - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Conference Call Participants

Jeffrey Silber - BMO Capital Markets

Jeffrey Meuler - Robert W. Baird & Co.

Operator

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the First Quarter 2022 Grand Canyon Inc. Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Dan Bachus, Chief Financial Officer.

Daniel Bachus

Joining me on today's call is our Chairman and CEO, Brian Mueller.

Please note that many of our comments today will contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Various factors could cause our actual results to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by such statements. These factors are discussed in our SEC filings, including our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K. We undertake no obligation to provide updates with regard to the forward-looking statements made during this call and we recommend that all investors review these reports thoroughly before taking a position in GCE.

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Brian.

Brian Mueller

Good afternoon and thank you for joining Grand Canyon Education's first quarter 2022 conference call. 2021 was a difficult year in higher education. Grand Canyon Education came through the year amazingly well as compared to the rest of higher ed. Most important, the overall trends predicted for 2022 in the sector continued downward, while Grand Canyon Education will resume its consistent upward trend for 14 years and is positioned to do very well the next 10 years.

COVID had a negative short-term impact on all three of our pillars. However, long term, the negative impacts on the rest of the sector have turned into positives for GCE because of how it has positioned itself, especially the last three years. I will explain as I talk about each pillar individually. First is GCU traditional campus. Both the number of high school graduates per year and the percentage of them going to college has declined in recent years and that has resulted in lower enrollments at many universities and community colleges. It has also caused some universities to lower their admissions requirements in order to boost their enrollments.