UPDATE: J.P. Morgan Lowers American Public Education's PT

According to a research report published this morning, J.P. Morgan has lowered American Public Education's

PT from $50 to $45. In the report, J.P. Morgan said, "Thursday afternoon, APEI reported its 1Q12 EPS of $0.50, above our and consensus ests. of $0.48 and guidance of $0.45-$0.49, due to healthy registration growth and strong cost controls. While APEI's 1Q12 registrations from new students (starts) grew 15% y/y (vs. guidance of 14%), mgmt's 2Q12 start guidance of only 2-4% growth was disappointing. Contrary to the rest of the sector, APEI's start deceleration comes from 1) APEI's efforts to fight student financial aid fraud and 2) a very difficult y/y comp, not lack of demand. We continue to favor APEI as a high-quality, low tuition provider, although it does attract the attention of fraud rings." J.P. Morgan maintains its Overweight rating on American Public Education, which closed yesterday at $31.87.