Graham on Track with Strategic Takeovers
Graham Holdings Company (GHC) is well on track to expand its business by investing in companies with proven earnings potential and strong management teams. The company has grown into a diversified media and education company through acquisitions.
As part of this strategy, last week, Graham Holdings acquired a majority interest in Residential Healthcare Group, Inc., the parent company of Residential Home Health and Residential Hospice. Based in Michigan and Illinois, Residential Healthcare Group is a leading provider of skilled home health care and hospice services. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Headquartered in Washington, D.C., Graham Holdings operates through a mix of education, media, publishing and other smaller companies. Its subsidiaries include Kaplan — a provider of educational services; Post–Newsweek Stations, Inc. — owns six TV stations across the U.S.; Cable One, Inc. — a leading U.S Cable Company; The Slate Group and Foreign Policy Group — publishes online and print magazines and websites; SocialCode — a marketing solutions provider; Celtic Healthcare — provider of home health and hospice services; Trove — a digital innovation team and Forney Corporation — a global supplier of products and systems to control and monitor combustion processes in electric utility and industrial application.
The recent takeover closely follows the acquisition of Joyce/Dayton Corp last month. Joyce Dayton is a manufacturer of screw jacks and other linear motion systems. In the same month, Kaplan, Graham’s education division, acquired Dev Bootcamp, an originator of the software coding boot camp model.
In April, another Graham subsidiary, Celtic Healthcare, acquired VNA-TIP Healthcare, a provider of home health and hospice services which operates from Missouri and Illinois. Earlier this year, Graham Holdings acquired a small business under the Kaplan education division.
During 2013, Graham Holdings acquired six businesses totaling approximately $23.8 million. In Aug 2013, the company acquired Forney which publishes online and print magazines and websites. The company also acquired four small divisions in other businesses and one small unit in Kaplan. In the second quarter of 2013, Kaplan purchased the remaining 15% non-controlling interest in Kaplan China.
Other Stocks to Consider
Graham Holdings has not been assigned a Zacks Rank yet. Other stocks in the education industry that are worth considering include Strayer Education Inc. (STRA), TAL Education Group (XRS) and Capella Education Inc. (CPLA). While Strayer sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), TAL Education and Capella Education carry a Zacks rank #2 (Buy).
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