China Distance Education Q4 Profit Climbs; Sees Revenue Growth In Q1, FY15

(RTTNews) - China Distance Education Holdings Limited (DL) Wednesday reported fourth-quarter net income of $13.4 million, up 47.5% from $9.1 million in the prior-year period.

Earnings per share climbed to $0.094 from $0.067 last year. Earnings per American Depositary Share, or ADS were $0.375, compared to $0.266 per share a year earlier.

Net revenue increased by 30.3% to $35.28 million from $27.07 million in the previous year.

Total course enrollments reached 880,000, an increase of 14.7% from the same quarter last year.

The board has declared a cash dividend of $0.20 per share, to shareholders of record as of January 6, 2015. Holders of ADS, each representing four ordinary shares of CDEL, are accordingly entitled to the cash dividend of $0.80 per ADS.

Looking ahead, for the first quarter, the company expects net revenue in the range of $20.0 million to $20.9 million, representing year-over-year growth of about 7% to 12%.

For fiscal 2015, the company expects to generate total net revenue in the range of $123.4 million to $128.3 million, representing year-over-year growth of approximately 27% to 32%.

In after-hours trading, the shares rose 3.54%.