After New Oriental disclosed its latest share repurchase plan last night, the company's stock price experienced a sharp rise.
The announcement shows that the board of directors of New Oriental has approved the expansion of the company's share repurchase plan. The company will repurchase no more than $700 million worth of shares according to the repurchase plan, with an increase of $300 million in repurchase amount compared to the previously announced amount.
New Oriental stated that repurchases will be conducted through open market trading, over-the-counter negotiated trading, and other methods depending on market conditions.
Affected by positive news, New Oriental's US stock price surged 13.38% last night, with its market value rising to $12.248 billion.
The board of directors of New Oriental authorized a share repurchase plan in July 2022, authorizing the company to repurchase up to $400 million worth of shares within 12 months.
On the evening of July 31st, New Oriental announced while disclosing its latest financial report that its board of directors had approved the extension of its share repurchase plan until May 31st, 2025.
According to the financial report, as of July 30, 2024, New Oriental has repurchased approximately 7.3 million American depositary shares in the public market under its share repurchase plan, with a total amount of approximately $296 million. On August 6th, the announcement showed that as of that day, New Oriental had repurchased approximately $330 million worth of American depositary shares.
New Oriental currently has sufficient funds for share repurchases. The latest financial report shows that as of May 31, 2024, New Oriental held cash and cash equivalents of $1.389 billion. In addition, the company has nearly $1.5 billion in fixed deposits and $2.07 billion in short-term investments.
New Oriental's Q4 2024 financial report, as of May 31, 2024, shows that the company's net revenue for the quarter reached $1.137 billion, a year-on-year increase of 32.1%.
Especially outside of Dongfang Zhenxuan's live streaming e-commerce business, New Oriental's education business has developed well. In this fiscal quarter, New Oriental's overseas exam preparation and overseas consulting services increased by approximately 17.7% and 17.3% year-on-year, respectively. Meanwhile, domestic exam preparation services for adults and college students recorded a year-on-year increase of approximately 16.4%.
In addition, the number of schools and learning centers in New Oriental continues to recover. As of May 31, 2024, the total number of New Oriental schools and learning centers has returned to over a thousand, reaching 1025, an increase of 114 compared to 911 as of February 29, 2024; Compared to 748 as of May 31, 2023, there has been an increase of 277.
According to the outlook for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 (June 1, 2024 to August 31, 2024) released by New Oriental, the company's net revenue for the quarter (excluding Dongfang Zhenxuan's self operated products and live streaming e-commerce business) will reach between $1.255 billion and $1.284 billion, a year-on-year increase of 31% to 34%.