Bridgepoint restating revenue, earnings

San Diego's controversial Bridgepoint Education reported today (May 30) that its accounting for the year 2013 should no longer be trusted, as the company discovered "material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting." It made the report in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The stock closed the day down 2.18% to $12.99.

What may have disturbed investors the most was that the company stated in its filing that its corrective process was hardly complete. Said Bridgepoint, "Although we plan to complete this remediation process as quickly as possible, we cannot at this time estimate how long it will take, and our measures may not prove to be successful in remediating these material weaknesses.... We have not completed all the corrective processes, procedures and related evaluation or remediation that we believe are necessary. As we continue to evaluate and work to remediate the material weaknesses, we may determine to implement measures to address the control deficiencies." Essentially that means the problems could go on well into the future, so investors may not be able to trust the company's financial reports for a long time.

Ironically, the restatement for 2013 resulted in higher profits — net income from $45 million to $48 million, as compared to $41 million previously reported. Earnings per share would be revised upward to 81 cents to 84 cents as compared to 74 cents previously reported, On the other hand, the revision writes down revenue from a range of $749 million to $753 million compared with the $768.8 million previously reported.