As of June 30, 2016, the company’s combined institutions offered approximately 1,160 courses and 80 degree programs. Bridgepoint is also focused on developing innovative new technologies to improve the way students learn, such as Constellation^®, its proprietary learning platform, and the mobile learning applications offered by its institutions.

I thought I’d take a closer look at Bridgepoint Education…

Bridgepoint recently released its Q2 2016 results.

CEO Andrew Clark said, “I am happy to report today that our good start has manifested itself into our third straight quarter of year-over-year improvement in new enrollment. Our new enrollment in the second quarter of 2016 exceeded new enrollment in the same period of the prior year by a low double digit.”

The company is also continuing to make progress in its leadership development grant, or LDG program. The LDG program is designed to leverage the tuition assistance benefits provided by its corporate partners in order to provide a debt free education to their employees who also benefit from the best essay writing service reddit.

During the second quarter Bridgepoint added five new LDG partners to the program for a total of 77 at the end of Q2. Student enrollment in the program continues to increase and LDG enrollments have approximately doubled for the quarter compared to the previous corresponding period in 2015.

One of the big issues for Bridgepoint this year has been a letter they received from the Iowa department of education indicating that as a result of the planned closure of Ashford University’s campus in Clinton, Iowa, the Iowa State Approving Agency, the ISAA would no longer continue to approve Ashford’s programs for GI Bill benefits after June 30, 2016.

This has affected all students using the GI Bill not only students in Iowa. However, a few weeks after receiving that letter, the Iowa department of education agreed to stay their decision by 90 days or an appellate [ph] decision was made on its application by California.

In response to this news Clark said, “We believe that Ashford continues to qualify under the applicable rules and continue to work with the Iowa department of education and ISAA to approve our students that utilize the GI Bill. We have ongoing dialogue with the Iowa department of education, the ISAA, and the federal VA.”

Now lets take a look at the Balance Sheet…

(Source: Company Reports)

Bridgepoint currently has cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short term investments totaling $322 million, and no long-term debt. It also has another $45 million in longer term investments.

If we take into consideration just the short term investments, with a market cap of around $340 million, that means Bridgepoint has an Enterprise Value of just $18 million. With operating income* of $19 million, that means the company has an Acquirer’s Multiple of 0.95.

Now let’s take a look at its Free Cash Flow…

Bridgepoint has Free Cash Flow for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Jun. 2016 of $10 million. With an Enterprise Value of $18 million, that means Bridgepoint has a staggering FCF/EV ratio of 55%.

And, with Book Value of  around $300 million minus goodwill and intangibles of $19 million, Bridgepoint has Tangible Book Value of $281 million or $6.06 per share. When compared to its current share price of $7.35, that gives the company a Price to Book ratio of 1.21.

So, as a contrarian investor, there’s a lot to like about Bridgepoint Education Inc.

Disclosure: I am currently an owner of BPI shares.

* The screener uses the CRSP/Compustat merged database “OIADP” line item defined as “Operating Income After Depreciation.”