What smart money is saying about Lincoln Educational Services
2 funds in our archive have pitched Lincoln Educational Services, most recently Praetorian Capital Fund LLC in September 2026.
Lincoln Educational Services Corporation, along with its affiliated entities, specializes in providing vocational and technical post-secondary education to both recent high school graduates and working adults throughout the United States. The company's operations are structured around two primary divisions: Transportation and Skilled Trades, and Healthcare and Other Professions. It delivers a diverse array of programs, culminating in associate's degrees, diplomas, or certificates. These offerings span a wide spectrum of career fields, encompassing automotive technology; various skilled trades such as electrical work, HVAC repair, welding, computerized numerical control (CNC), and electrical/electronic systems; health sciences, including nursing, dental and medical assisting, claims examination, and medical administrative support; hospitality services like culinary arts, therapeutic massage, cosmetology, and aesthetics; and information technology. Operating 22 campuses across 14 states, the company utilizes well-known brand names such as Lincoln Technical Institute, Lincoln College of Technology, Lincoln Culinary Institute, and Euphoria Institute of Beauty Arts and Sciences, among others. As of December 31, 2021, these 22 locations collectively served an enrollment of 13,059 students. Founded in 1946, Lincoln Educational Services maintains its corporate headquarters in Parsippany, New Jersey.
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Position history
Between Q2 2026 and Q3 2026, 2 fund letters reported a position in Lincoln Educational Services, with 1 buy (opened or added).
| Quarter | Letters | Bought | Sold | Theses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q3 2026 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Q2 2026 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Bought and Sold count moves: the same sentence published by several funds of one house in a quarter counts once.
Fund activity · 2 positions · 1 move
- September 2026
“Offsetting some rather material gains in our refining names, we saw prior unrealized gains in our two trade schools (Lincoln Education – LINC and Universal Technical Institute – UTI) turn into rather sizable unrealized losses. The proximate cause for this reversal was weak guidance on calendar Q3 student enrollments as LLMs have disintermediated the Google Search funnel that both companies have traditionally relied on. Given that this is the most significant change to digital marketing over the past two decades, the magnitude of the guide-down is rather immaterial, showing just how strong the underlying macro trend of individuals enrolling at trade schools is. Further buttressing my view on the strength of demand, both companies are rapidly expanding by opening new campuses. Unfortunately, new campuses take a year or two to reach profitability, and those near- term losses are depressing earnings. In the past, investors would focus on the pro-forma earnings of the core business and ignore the costs of growth. Instead, in the current environment, quant models often overwhelm the handful of remaining active investors, and analyst earnings estimates that show year-over- year declines are driving the share prices instead of the value creation from these new campuses. This too shall pass if the tailwind remains strong. As I noted in last quarter’s letter to you, I believe that trade schools have become one of the primary bottlenecks to regrowing the US industrial economy. As AI continues to eliminate office jobs, millions of existing workers will need to be re-skilled, as will millions of future workers who would have previously attended a 4-year college. Every datapoint says that demand for trade schools is rapidly accelerating, and I believe that LINC and UTI will adjust to the changes in their student acquisition channel before long. While the overhang from weaker near-term earnings will persist for a few quarters as new campuses ramp up, I also think that this pullback creates an incredible opportunity to buy one of the best macro tailwinds in the US markets for a low single-digit cash earnings multiple on our 2030 estimate (net of growth spending), and around a ten times multiple on our 2027 cash earnings estimate (net of growth spending). As you can imagine, I used the decline during the third quarter to very aggressively buy shares in both companies.”
Lincoln Educational Services - June 2026
“We’ve purchased shares of the two largest technical colleges in the US (more below in the positions section),”
Lincoln Educational Services
Fund coverage · 2 theses
- Praetorian Capital Fund LLCSeptember 2026
Lincoln Educational Services is viewed as a beneficiary of accelerating demand for trade-school training, AI-driven reskilling, campus expansion, and attractive long-term earnings multiples despite near-term enrollment softness.
Read the full thesis - Praetorian Capital Fund LLCJune 2026
Lincoln Educational Services trains skilled trades and medical workers and is seen as a cheap, high-growth beneficiary of AI-driven reskilling with margin expansion potential.
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