What Happened: Shares of child care and education company Bright Horizons (NYSE:BFAM) jumped 10.8% in the afternoon session after the company reported fourth-quarter results, with revenue and EPS blowing past analysts' expectations. The company also generated positive free cash flow. Moving on, guidance was strong, with full-year sales outlook exceeding analysts' expectations. The company is expected to close 20 to 30 centers in the U.K. in the coming months, which will impact the full-service business. The company noted that the poor performance of these centers negatively impacted operating income in 2023. By shutting down these centers, it hopes to drive improved profitability, which will be more pronounced in the back half of the year. Overall, it was a decent quarter, showing that the company is staying on track.
Is now the time to buy Bright Horizons? Find out by reading the original article on StockStory.
What is the market telling us: Bright Horizons's shares are quite volatile and over the last year have had 7 moves greater than 5%. But moves this big are very rare even for Bright Horizons and that is indicating to us that this news had a significant impact on the market's perception of the business.
Bright Horizons is up 14% since the beginning of the year. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Bright Horizons's shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $889.95.