New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. (EDU) Q4 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good evening, and thank you for standing by for New Oriental's FY 2026 Fourth Quarter Results Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I'd now like to turn the meeting over to your host for today's conference, Ms. Sisi Zhao.

Thank you. Hello, everyone, and welcome to New Oriental's Fourth Fiscal Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Our financial results for the period were released earlier today and are available on the company's website as well as on Newswire Services. Today, Stephen Yang, Executive President and Chief Financial Officer; and I will share New Oriental's latest earnings results and business updates in detail with you. After that, Stephen and I will be available to answer your questions. Before we continue, please note that the discussion today will contain forward-looking statements made under the Safe Harbor Provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, our results may be materially different from the view expressed today. A number of potential risks and uncertainties are outlined in our public filings with the SEC. New Oriental does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable law. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. In addition, a webcast of this conference call will be available on New Oriental's Investor Relations website at investor.neworiental.org. I will now first turn the call over to Mr. Yang. Stephen, please go ahead.

Thank you, Sisi. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the call. We're pleased to bring you another quarter of remarkable results with revenue and income growth that have once again exceeded expectations. Our performance this quarter reflects not only the continued strength of our core business, but also the outstanding contributions of East Buy and our new creative ventures. Taken together, these assets have energized our strategic ambitions as we look ahead with confidence in the year to come. We're particularly pleased that despite the economic headwinds and external challenges, our relentless efforts to deliver the very best to our customers are yielding strong results. In this quarter, total net revenue grew 23% year-over-year to $1,529.5 million. Non-GAAP operating income rose 34.7% to $110 million, while operating margins for both the quarter and the fiscal year 2026 showed healthy increments. Both our core business and new initiatives continue to score meaningful traction this quarter. Breaking it down, overseas test prep business recorded a revenue increase of 6% year-over-year for the fourth quarter of 2026. Overseas study consulting business recorded a revenue increase of about 1% year-over-year for this quarter. Our adults and university students business recorded a revenue increase of 29% year-over-year for this quarter. Our non-academic tutoring business has been rolled out to around 60 existing cities. Market penetration has signed steady growth, particularly across high-tier cities. The top 10 cities contributed around 60% of this business. Our intelligent learning system and device business that leveraged our teaching expertise and data analytics to provide adaptive learning solutions has been launched in around 60 cities. We're encouraged by the enhanced customer retention and scalability with top 10 cities contributing over 50% of this business. In summary, our new educational business initiatives delivered a 25% year-over-year revenue increase in this quarter. Moving on to our integrated tourism-related business; encompassing study tours and research camp for K-12 and university students as well as cultural tours for middle age and senior travelers, for culture travel, Chinese study tour, global study tour and camp education products continue to deliver meaningful value to customers through knowledge generation, personal growth and deep cultural [ emissions ]. Our student programs now operate in about 55 cities nationwide with the top 10 cities generates over 50% of the segment revenue. And our premium adult tourism offerings span around 30 provinces domestically and select international destinations. We're also expanding into senior health and wellness tourism with an asset-light model, forging partnerships with over 45 wellness facilities across key destinations, including Hainan, Yunnan and Guanxi. With our OMO teaching platform, we have continued to invest in revamping and upgrading the system. During this quarter, we invested $31.2 million to improve and maintain our OMO platform, which enable us to provide and interrupt high-quality instructions to students that cater to their individual learning needs. Beyond upgrading the OMO system, we continue to embed AI across our ecosystem, including driving product innovation and transforming our internal operations to enhance capabilities, improve efficiency and provide greater support to our staff. In terms of the product innovation, we are proud to share that our proprietary AI-powered personalized learning platform has successfully completed the first phase of deployment, achieving meaningful sales with just 25 days of inauguration. Unlike a general proposed large language model, our AI platform is built on a highly specialized vertical learning system, proposedly designed to reflect rooted assets of New Oriental. This encouraging initial performance is a validation of the platform's market traction and product market fit. We look forward to propelling the development of the AI-driven products and solutions to further broaden our operational excellence and market impact. Turning to the East Buy's fiscal year 2026 performance. East Buy remains firmly committed to the 3 high product standards, high safety standards, high product quality and high cost performance while delivering attentive customer service for families. On the platform front, East Buy made significant strides in its multi-platform live streaming strategy on Douyin, launching 11 new vertical live streaming accounts and expanding its channel matrix to 18 channels in total. East Buy also launched a suite of the innovative operational programs, including streamer recruitment campaigns and annual suppliers that has proven effective to strengthen internal operational teams, deepen long-term strategic partnerships with suppliers and elevate the customer engagement. Charting the new course in fiscal year 2027, East Buy will accelerate its expansion of its private label portfolio across food and daily necessities, scale up product R&D and quality control to uphold 3 high standards and advance its app membership ecosystem. By leveraging New Oriental's extensive nationwide network, East Buy will further expand its offline experience footprint to engage a broader customer base, collectively optimizing operational efficiency, its supply chain network and laying a solid foundation for sustainable long-term growth. Now I would like to share the latest updates of an exciting new strategic initiative that we have been piloting since the last quarter. New Oriental Home, a platform designed to serve the entire family unit from children to parents to seniors through a full life cycle, full spectrum approach. New Oriental Home assembled our education service, East Buy offerings and cultural tourism products into one unified ecosystem in a single app. Families can conveniently access, manage and redeem service tailored to each member, enable seamless cross-category engagement and deeper household level relationships. The platform has demonstrated strong early traction with scenario-based marketing and integrated service anchoring solid user activation, retention and acquisition. Notably, we have seen retention for Grade 7 students increased by 10 basis points from summer to autumn this year. Customers find the earn and redeem experience rewarding and are engaged to explore a broader range of the offerings within our ecosystem, thereby lowering our cost of spend on customer acquisition as well. This integrated loyalty framework has been particularly effective as it's not only strengthen retention, but also transform customer engagement into actionable data, enabling us to create incentives for our customers and staff. At the same time, the leverage synergies New Oriental Home generated across all business lines, including East Buy, combined with highly personalized offerings have overall accelerated cross-selling, improved conversion efficiency and optimized overall operating cost. We have launched this pilot program in 69 cities as test beds, including Hangzhou, Suzhou, Xi'an and [indiscernible] with over 950,000 registered families by the end of this quarter. The platform has achieved cumulative activity participation rates of around 70% and the latest campaign activation rate is 23%, significantly outperforming many public domain e-commerce platforms. These results affirm the high reach and precision advantage of our education-focused private domain ecosystem, and we look forward to build on the promising momentum in the quarter ahead. Now I will turn the call over to Sisi to share with you about the key financials. Sisi, please go ahead.

Okay. Thank you, Stephen. Let me now walk you through the key financial highlights for the quarter. Operating costs and expenses for the quarter were $1,443.7 million, representing a 15.3% increase year-over-year. Cost of revenues increased by 25.9% year-over-year to $717.3 million. Selling and marketing expense increased by 23.9% year-over-year to $262.5 million. G&A expenses for the quarter increased by 13.2% year-over-year to $463.9 million. Impairment of goodwill was nil compared to $60.3 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year. Total share-based compensation expenses, which were allocated to related operating costs and expenses, decreased by 20.7% to $22.7 million in this quarter. Operating income was $85.8 million compared to an operating loss of $8.7 million in the prior-year period. Non-GAAP income from operations for the quarter, excluding share-based compensation expenses, amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisition and impairment of goodwill was $110 million, representing a 34.7% increase year-over-year. Net income attributable to New Oriental for the quarter was $62.2 million, representing a 775.8% increase year-over-year. Basic and diluted net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental were $0.40 and $0.39, respectively. Non-GAAP net income attributable to New Oriental for the quarter was $87.8 million, representing a decrease of 10.5% year-over-year. Non-GAAP basic and diluted net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental were $0.56 and $0.55, respectively. Net cash inflow generated from operations for the fourth quarter of 2026 was approximately $518.7 million and capital expenditure for the quarter were $99 million. Turning to the balance sheet. As of May 31, 2026, New Oriental had cash and cash equivalents of $1,821.2 million. In addition, the company had $1,366.8 million in term deposits and $2,372.3 million in short-term investments. New Oriental's deferred revenue, which represents cash collected upfront from customers and related revenue that will be recognized as the services or goods are delivered at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026 was $2,242.9 million, an increase of 14.8% as compared to $1,954.5 million year-over-year. Now I'll hand over to Stephen to go through our outlook and guidance.

Thank you, Sisi. The healthy results we have delivered in fiscal year 2026 have given us both the fuel and conviction to pursue resilience, sustainable growth and ever-improving service in the year ahead. Approaching summer vacation, we're particularly confident in sustaining momentum for the coming first quarter of fiscal year 2027, with expectations that improving enrollment trends will drive an accelerated revenue growth and the higher overall operational efficiency will bolster our optimism in growing our margins. We will continue to strategically expand capacity and talent, deepening our presence in markets with proven top and bottom line performance while maintaining rigorous resource allocation. Expansion decision will be carefully calibrated throughout the year, guided by the operational readiness and financial results. Alongside our pursuit of new creative initiatives, sustainable profitability and cost discipline remain cornerstones of our business. In the coming quarter, we expect meaningful cost improvement to emerge from the restructuring of our overseas business, which will pave the way for the greater operational efficiency and stronger margin profile in the new year. Looking ahead, we enter fiscal year 2027 with deep confidence in our core education business and new initiatives driven by a genuine passion to create lasting value. We will continue to drive sustainable and healthy growth through product enhancements and quality improvement while further optimizing cost structure and to enhance efficiency and profitability. Our focus remains on long-term value creation, offering investors a clearer view of our strategic trajectory and durable growth we're building for the future. Considering the positive momentum and cost management measures across our business line, we expect total net revenue for the Group in fiscal year 2027 to be in the range of $6,453.9 million to $6,680.3 million, representing a year-over-year increase in the range of 14% to 18%. These expectations reflect our current outlook based on the recent regulatory development and prevailing market conditions, both of which remain subject to change. Additionally, we announced a share repurchase program under which New Oriental is authorized to purchase -- to repurchase up to $300 million of its ADS or common shares over the subsequent 12 months. As of July 28, 2026, yesterday, we had repurchased a total of approximately 51.5 million common shares, including common shares represented by ADS for aggregate consideration of the approximately $274 million from the open market and the share repurchase program. We expect to roll out the share repurchase program for the remainder of the duration in accordance with its terms. Furthermore, to implement our 3-year shareholder return plan adopted in July 2025 for fiscal year 2027, the Board of the Directors of the company has approved an ordinary cash dividend and a new share repurchase program with the total amount of the capital return for the fiscal year 2027 is expected to be approximately $500 million. I would like to go through details in the following. The aggregate amount of the cash dividend for the fiscal year 2027 is expected to approximately $300 million to be paid in 2 installments in December 2026 and June 2027, respectively. Further details regarding the cash dividend program will be decided by the Board of Directors and announced by the company in due course. Pursuant to the share repurchase program for fiscal year 2027, the company may repurchase up to $200 million of its ADS or common shares over the subsequent 12 months following the Board approval. The company's proposed repurchase may be made from time-to-time in the open market at prevailing market price in privately negotiated transactions in block trades and/or through other legally permissible means, depending on market conditions and in accordance with the applicable rules and regulations. The Board of Directors of the company will review this share repurchase program periodically and may authorize adjustment of term and size. The company expects to fund the repurchase out of its existing cash balance. To conclude, New Oriental is steadfastly committed to driving sustainable growth, promising exceptional value to our customers and shareholders and generating long-term returns to our shareholders. We continue to collaborate closely with government authorities across province and municipalities in China, ensuring full compliance with the relevant policies and regulations while adapting our operations responsibly to meet evolving requirements. This is the end of our fiscal year 2026 Q4 summary. At this point, I would like to open the floor for questions. Operator, please open the call for these.

[Operator Instructions] We will now take our first question from the line of Elsie Sheng from CLSA.

Congratulations on the very strong results. And it seems the guidance on the 2027 financial year is also higher than expectation. So my question is, can you help us break down the financial year '27 guidance into quarters, especially the trend that you expect in the first quarter of the financial year '27 in terms of revenues and margin?

Okay. Thank you. Yes. As you know, I think our strategy in fiscal year 2026 is to enhance the product and service quality. And I think we have seen the good results. The better quality drives the student retention rate up and the Q4 marks another quarter with solid results. And so given the positive momentum, I think including the healthy growth of our K-12 business and the recovery of the East Buy, I think we are now in a more optimistic position regarding our business outlook in fiscal year 2027. So we gave the guidance of the annual guidance in fiscal year 2027 in the range of 14% to 18%. I must mention that, as always, we're still conservative to give the annual guidance. We do expect to beat our annual guidance in fiscal year '27. And from this year, we are making a change to give the guidance on an annual basis. I think it's more -- I think we believe this change better reflects our long-term strategic focus and encourage the investors to evaluate our business performance over a longer term than -- rather than the quarter-to-quarter. And I believe you still interested in the Q1 forecast. And I must say that we are quite confident in sustaining our momentum for the coming first quarter of fiscal year 2027. You saw our deferred revenue at Q4 end was increased by roughly 15%. So I think that's a good sign of the coming quarter of the revenue growth. And we expect the improving summer enrollment trends that we have seen will drive accelerated revenue growth of the education business and the higher operational efficiency. And also, I do believe the East Buy will -- the revenue will be accelerated in Q1. So East Buy will contribute more profit and revenue to the group. And so the -- yes, repeat again, we're quite optimistic about the Q1 performance. Your question is about the margin as well. The margin, we got the margin expansion in Q4 in this quarter, even though we need some margin drag from the overseas-related business and the one-off expenses, roughly $10 million to $15 million from our internal management restructuring in this quarter, but we still getting good margin expansion by 60 basis points up in this quarter. And the -- as for the margin outlook for the next year, fiscal year 2027, I think we'll continue to focus on profitability across all business lines. We'll keep doing the cost control, and we will -- I think we will improve the operational efficiency and to bring more operating leverage in the coming year. So we expect the margin will be expanded in the coming year. And the Q1 margin outlook, I think we're quite confident on the margin expansion in the coming Q1.

We will now take our next question from the line of Jenny Yuan from UBS.

Congrats on the strong quarter results. So my question regarding our revenue outlook, specifically for our K-12 business. So [indiscernible] service acceleration in the fourth quarter, how should we project the revenue growth outlook for the upcoming first quarter and next fiscal year 2027?

Yes, we -- I think we had a strong year of the K-12 business growth in fiscal year '26. And as for the guidance of the K-12 business in the new year, I think we -- I would like to guide the K-12 business in total, the K-9 and high school in total, roughly will be expected to increase roughly close to 20%, or around 20% year-over-year. And because I think this enrollment growth trend is good. And also, I think the Q1 revenue growth will be stronger. So this is my guidance of the K-12 business. And don't forget, I think the K-12 business will bring us the higher margin in the coming new year.

We will now take our next question. And the next question comes from Alice Cai from Citi.

Congratulations on the solid and strong result. My question is about the capacity expansion in FY '27 because you've talked about discipline on capacity expansion in FY '26, and that's been part of the margin story. So what -- wondering what's the plan for FY '27? And where is the utilization running now? And also, I have another question about the compliance because we've seen some reports about inspection and individual learning centers. Wondering if there is any risk we should be aware of?

Okay. Yes. Thank you, Alice. We -- in fiscal year '26, we added 13% new capacity in total. I think it's based on the expansion control, and we -- I think we did well in the last year. And in the coming new year, we plan to open 10% to 15% new capacity. I think most of the new openings will be in the performance with the top performance of the bottom line and top line in the last year. I think we're happy to see the student retention rate improvement, which will drive the utilization rate up in the existing learning centers. And I think we're quite optimistic on the OMO or some online business development. And so that means we don't need to open too many learning centers in the coming new year. So in one word, I think the top line growth in the coming new year will be higher than the learning center expansion. So it will drive the average utilization rate up again in the coming new year. Your second question is about the regulation. I think, yes, anyway, I think the -- we obey the rules, the policy requirements, I think it's fine because in the last 4, 5 years, we passed all the requirements of the government. I think going forward, my personal view is on the regulation side, I think for me, it's neutral to positive on the regulatory environment.

We will now take our next question. And our next question comes from Timothy Zhao from Goldman Sachs.

Congrats on the very solid results. I think my question is regarding the overseas test prep and consulting business. Just wondering if you can give us an update on what you are seeing on the ground and what you have seen from the summer vacation period in terms of the overseas test prep growth? And how do you think about the growth trajectory for this year for this specific segment? And I believe last year, you did a segment merger or integration between the 2 separate business. Just wondering -- wonder if you can give us our -- some margin outlook for this business line? What was the operating margin or contribution margin for the overseas business really last year? And what is your expectation for this year?

Thank you, Tim. Your question is about the overseas-related business. I think, yes, everybody knows due to the impact of the economic environment and the international situation, our overseas-related business need some growth pressure in last year. But I think we have shown the resilience in last year. And we believe that we were taking -- I think we are taking the market share, as I said, as always. And so in the coming new year, we expect our overseas-related business will be flattish or low single-digit growth in the coming new year. And I think the Q1 -- roughly the Q1, we -- I think we still believe that we can get some low single-digit growth of the overseas-related business. Yes, we merged the overseas test prep business and the consulting business in Q3 last year. I think the reason that we put it together is to restructure the 2 different management team and to provide the customers one-stop service and to enhance the cost control, reduce some cost and expenses. And roughly the margin of the overseas-related business last year is roughly 15% roughly last year.

Including both test prep and consulting.

Yes, we put it together. And in the coming year, we believe the margin will be expanded for the overseas-related business because of the cost control, because of the merge of the restructuring, the new team. So yes, we -- I think we have done a lot of jobs, and we will keep doing the cost control in the coming new year. It will drive the margin up of the overseas-related business in the coming new year.

We will now take our next question from the line of Lucy Yu from Bank of America Securities.

I have a question on the sales and marketing distribution expense in the last quarter. It was up a bit both on a Q-on-Q and Y-o-Y basis. Could you elaborate why is that? And how should we think about the selling and distribution expense in FY '27, especially we have the Oriental Home in place?

I think in Q4, the East Buy spend a little bit more money on the marketing that -- it drive the revenue growth up a lot. And so in the coming new year, I do believe the selling and marketing expenses as a percentage of the revenue for the whole group will be down. So it will drive the margin up in the coming new year, Lucy.

And maybe one more. So for the fourth quarter non-GAAP operating margin expansion, if we excluding East Buy, how about the rest of the education? Is it like flattish or expand as well?

If we take out the East Buy's contribution of the Q4, the margin contribution from the East Buy, I think our education business margin roughly flattish. But don't forget, we take the one-off expenses of the restructuring merge of the overseas-related business in Q4. So roughly, we recorded $10 million to $15 million as a one-off expenses in Q4. So if you add it back, the margin is up of the core business, Lucy.

We will now take our next question from the line of D. S. Kim from JPMorgan.

Thanks for another strong [ dividend ] rate. I think this is now third time in a row. I have a very quick 2 questions, if okay. First, you just mentioned about the cost optimization initiative. And can I ask if this is already done behind us or shall we expect, I don't know, like $5 million, $10 million or some more of this one-off in first quarter? And more importantly, can we try to quantify roughly how much fixed cost savings can we enjoy in 2027 from this? And I have one small follow-up.

Thank you D. S. Your question is about the cost control. We started to do the cost control since March last year. And I think we did a great job in the whole year, fiscal year '26. Roughly, we saved $100 million roughly in fiscal year '26. So now we're closely to the end of the Phase 1, cost control Phase 1. So we're [ steady ] into the Phase 2. As I said, in the cost control Phase 2, we will do more like the restructuring of the management teams to do more cost control. And we will use more AI to save the legacy staff cost or extra. So I think in the coming year, we expect the cost control can save more amount than that of last year. So this is our target.

That's very helpful. Second, a small question. Can I ask, I saw we spent $250 million CapEx, capital expenditure last year. And can I check if we have a budget for 2027?

Yes. The CapEx, yes, last year, roughly $250 million. In the coming new year, roughly $250 million to $300 million as the new capacity or some -- the CapEx on the learning path model or some others. So roughly $250 million to $300 million.

Got it. Just on that, I mean, not to pick on this, but last year, I think our new opening like absolute number of stores were down 40% from a year ago. I think we opened like 170 stores. The year before it was like 270, yet CapEx was flat. And this coming year, CapEx to go up. Is that the delta, the gap because of East Buy? Can I understand that way or if you could comment on that, is it related to new initiative of the East Buy offline store or anything else I'm missing?

East Buy is offline store, the CapEx is very tiny. It's very, very, very small number. And I think the -- yes, as I said -- last year, we opened 13% new capacity in terms of the square meters. And in the coming new year, we plan to open 10% to 15% new capacity. And we believe the new capacity growth or new capacity numbers will be lower than the top line growth. So that means it will drive the utilization rate up. And your question about the CapEx, yes, we're building up the new headquarters in [ Chongqing ] and it cost a little bit more money. So the CapEx in the new year will be a little bit more higher than that of last year.

That makes a lot of sense. Yes, that makes a lot of sense.

We will now go to our next question. And our next question comes from Yikun Zheng from CITIC.

Congrats on the strong results. My question is about the competition. Well, last year, the competition in summer season is quite strong. So how do you think of the competition for this summer? And considering the impact of the decline in population and the competition, can we have a 3-year outlook for the K-12 business?

The competition, I think in this summer, I think the competition is less than that of last year. I remember in last year's summer, the competition situation. And this year, I think it's better. And so that's why we can give the Q1 guidance higher revenue acceleration in the coming Q1. And so the K-12 business in the coming Q1 and even the whole new year will be accelerated than that of last year. And as for the population, I think, yes, it's an issue. But I think the parents will choose the education company for their kids will be more healthy. And I think the parents love to give their kids the best education in the coming new like 3 or 5 years. And so that means the big players will take more market share from the market. So this is in my opinion based on the current estimation.

[Operator Instructions] We will now take our next question. And the next question comes from Jing Yuan from CICC.

My question is about the AI adoption, like with the rapid development of AI technology and could management share how the company is leveraging AI in its teaching and learning process? And do you see AI primarily as a tool to transform the teaching model or like a way to improve operational efficiency?

Yes. Actually, as for the AI, we have been devoting a lot of efforts and resources into implementing the AI technology into education sector. And in total, for 3 aspects. One is that for all the existing educational products, we are implementing AI technology to enhance the product quality and also enhance the student learning experience. For example, like we embedded AI new functions into our learning device business and also even in class we use the AI tools to help students to improve the teaching and learning efficiency and the learning experience. And also after school, they can use the AI new tools to enhance the learning efficiency. So all these are differentiating us much more than before, more differentiating from all the other competitors because we have enough capital and also we have the technology and all the -- and also the teaching knowledge to use the AI technology to make our products better. So this is one aspect. And the other thing is that we are using AI is even more exciting is that we are piloting a lot of new AI new products. It's not only products, but as we announced this quarter that we have a new platform launched recently. And to use the AI technology and also using our teaching and learning experience and all the teaching and learning settings that we have all these combined together to come up with some new solution. So it's based on the -- to help students how to learn and how to use our teaching knowledge and using all the new AI tools to have some new products. So this is something that we are piloting and still in early stage, but we believe that the platform will be more and more better in the future. And also, we have a series of new products coming. So that's some exciting ones. And also third thing that we are doing is using our -- using the AI technology to improve the working efficiency so that we can save more labor cost. For all functions, like all the teachers and also our teacher assistants and from the -- for all aspects of their working process, we can use AI tools to help them to improve the efficiency so that we don't need to hire as much as new staff -- as many as new staff as before so that we can handle more work than before. So the HR cost can be saved more and efficiency can be improved and also a function of supporting staff as well. So that's all the things that we are using AI to do. And I think in total, we are more differentiating and have more advantage than other competitors in terms of using AI. Yes. So we have the good solution and also can have the AI technology used more and more, better and better in the education sector.

Thank you. That's very comprehensive.

We are now approaching the end of the conference call. I'll now turn the call over to New Oriental's Executive President and CFO, Stephen Yang, for his closing remarks.

Again, thank you for joining us today. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or any of our Investor Relations representatives. Thank you very much.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect your lines.