Coursera (NYSE:COUR) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.03 EPS

Coursera (NYSE:COUR) announced its earnings results on Thursday. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by $0.03, FiscalAI reports. The business had revenue of $376.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $368.52 million. Coursera had a negative return on equity of 1.72% and a negative net margin of 15.39%.

Here are the key takeaways from Coursera’s conference call:

• Integration is progressing ahead of schedule: Coursera expects more than $150 million in annualized gross cost savings by year-end and remains on track to deliver its $115 million net synergy target within eight months of closing the Udemy transaction.
• Q3 reported revenue rose 94% year over year to $377 million, while adjusted EBITDA nearly doubled its margin to 16.3%. The company also repurchased more than $100 million of shares during the quarter, bringing cumulative buybacks under its authorization above $215 million.
• Underlying growth remains weak: Normalized revenue declined about 3% in Q3, with enterprise up only 2% and consumer down 9%. Management expects Q4 enterprise growth to be approximately flat and consumer revenue to decelerate further.
• Consumer subscriptions and paid subscribers continued to grow, but that momentum was more than offset by declines in individual certificate subscriptions, transactional offerings, softer funnel indicators, SEO and discovery changes, and pressured discretionary spending. Management’s preliminary 2027 baseline assumes a low-double-digit consumer revenue decline.
• Project Helix is the central growth initiative: The AI-native platform will combine adaptive learning, applied practice, and verified skills, with broad enterprise availability targeted for the first half of 2027. However, management is not assuming material Helix revenue in 2027 and will phase investment based on customer adoption and performance evidence.

Coursera Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of COUR traded down $0.06 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $4.64. The stock had a trading volume of 7,191,201 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,004,646. The company’s 50-day moving average is $5.34 and its 200 day moving average is $5.73. Coursera has a 12-month low of $4.53 and a 12-month high of $8.89. The company has a market capitalization of $1.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.52 and a beta of 1.24.

Insider Activity

In other Coursera news, SVP Alan B. Cardenas sold 9,139 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.71, for a total value of $52,183.69. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 236,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,348,913.27. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gregory M. Hart sold 10,308 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.11, for a total value of $52,673.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,539,003 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,864,305.33. This represents a 0.67% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 16.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on COUR. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Coursera from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $5.50 to $6.50 in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Coursera from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 19th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Coursera from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 14th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Coursera from $8.00 to $6.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 5th. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of Coursera from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, August 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $7.90.

Coursera Company Profile

Coursera, Inc is an online learning platform that provides access to courses, professional certificates, guided projects, and degree programs. The company works with universities, colleges, and industry partners to offer content in areas such as business, technology, data science, computer science, and personal development.

Coursera serves individual learners, businesses, governments, and academic institutions in countries around the world. Its enterprise and government offerings support employee training, workforce development, and large-scale education initiatives, while its consumer platform allows learners to enroll in individual courses or broader credential and degree programs.

Coursera was founded in 2012 by computer-science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller.