New Haven’s Higher One scores with strong 3Q

(11/2/2011) Hartford Business Journal - New Haven's Higher One Holdings Inc. had improved sales and profits for the third quarter as more college students subscribed to its on-campus electronic-payments services, pushing the number of user accounts past the two million mark.

For three months ended Sept. 30, Higher One netted $8.5 million, or 14 cents a share, up from $6.5 million, or 11 cents a share, netted the same quarter a year ago.

Third-quarter revenues climbed 25 percent to $48.1 million vs. $38.6 million last year.

Higher One, which went public more than a year ago, said its OneAccount subscriptions that college students use like a debit card to pay for books, food and services on campus grew by a third to two million at quarter end.

Brisk acceptance of Higher One's business model has transformed it into a virtual cash cow. It finished the third quarter with a net $33.4 million in cash and equivalents, even after tapping $14.2 million from cash flow to buy back some 944,000 shares in the quarter.

A year ago, it finished the third quarter with a net $22 million in cash and equivalents.

Meantime, the company narrowed the range on its full-year 2011 revenue to $182 million to $186 million and generally accepted accounting principle earnings to 51 cents to 58 cents a share.

Follow this link for more information.