TALエデュケーション・グループ（TAL）2027年度第2四半期決算説明会：デバイス成長の鈍化に伴い利益率が拡大

要点

• TALエデュケーション・グループ（TAL）の2027年会計年度第2四半期純売上高は9億9,500万ドルとなり、前年同期比で米ドルベースで15%増、人民元ベースで9%増となりました。
• Non-GAAP営業利益は前年同期の1億800万ドルから2億4,900万ドルに増加し、Non-GAAP営業利益率は、営業レバレッジの拡大、効率性の向上、規律あるリソース配分により、12.5%から24.9%へ拡大しました。
• 学而思培優（Peiyou）の対面授業プログラムは主に受講生数の増加に牽引され、二桁の増収を達成しました。学而思培優の素養教育クラスにおける継続率は80%を超えました。
• 学習用端末事業は、市場全体の二桁縮小、激しい競争、チップコストの上昇により、会社全体の売上成長の重荷となりました。
• 経営陣は全体の売上成長が緩やかになると見込んでいます。また、2027年度の営業利益率は2026年度から改善すると予想しており、学習用端末事業による通期での大幅な赤字は想定していません。
• TALは普通株1株当たり0.30ドル（ADS 1株当たり0.10ドルに相当）の特別現金配当を実施することを発表しました。支払総額は約5,520万ドルとなります。

主要財務データ

2026年8月31日時点で、TALは現金および現金同等物約20億ドル、短期投資7億9,600万ドル、流動・非流動制限付現金2億5,400万ドルを保有していました。

事業および営業業績

培優（Peiyou）対面プログラム

培優の対面事業の売上高は二桁増となり、受講生数の増加が成長に最も大きく貢献しました。経営陣によると、対面学習の需要は堅調に推移し、全体の継続率も良好でした。培優の素養教育クラスにおける継続率は80%を超えました。

同社は引き続き、学習センターネットワーク全体での指導の質、講師の育成、サービスの均一性に注力しました。

オンライン素養教育

TALは特に科学関連の科目において、オンライン指導と実践的なアクティビティを組み合わせたコースの開発を継続しました。経営陣によると、オンライン素養教育事業の成長は当四半期中に緩やかになりました。

学習用端末

学習用端末はTAL全体の成長率の足かせとなりました。経営陣は、市場全体の二桁台の縮小、激しい競争、消費マインドの変化、およびチップコストの上昇をその要因として挙げました。

それにもかかわらず、ユーザーエンゲージメントは安定を維持しました。TALの学習用端末ユーザー層における週平均アクティブ率は約80%で、アクティブ端末の1日あたりの平均利用時間は1時間でした。

同社は、コストとリソース配分の規律を一層強化しながら、コンテンツ、テクノロジー、プロダクト体験への投資を継続する計画です。

経営陣による業績見通し（ガイダンス）

経営陣は、会社の規模拡大と学習用端末事業が引き続き業界の逆風に直面していることから、TAL全体の売上成長が減速すると見込んでいます。

収益性については、経営陣は2027年度の営業利益率が2026年度と比較して改善すると見込んでいます。ただし、季節性、市場環境、投資のタイミングにより、四半期ごとの収益性が変動する可能性があると警告しました。

経営陣はまた、学習用端末事業において通期で大幅な赤字が発生することは想定していないと述べました。

リスクと注視すべきポイント

• 学習用端末市場の継続的な縮小と激しい競争は、連結売上高の伸びの重荷であり続ける可能性があります。
• チップおよび部品コストの上昇が、端末の価格設定と業界の収益構造を圧迫しています。
• TALの投資ポートフォリオにおける公正価値の変動により、四半期ごとにその他収益または費用が大きく変動する可能性があります。
• 法人税費用の増加は、主に源泉徴収税に関連する繰延税金負債の変動によるものです。
• 営業利益率は、季節性、市場環境、投資タイミングによって四半期ごとに変動する可能性があります。

アナリスト質疑応答のハイライト

売上見通し：経営陣は、成長の減速について、TALの収益基盤の拡大と事業部門間の業績の乖離によるものと説明しました。培優の対面プログラムは堅調を維持したものの、学習用端末が連結成長の圧迫要因となり、オンライン素養教育の成長も減速しました。

学習用端末戦略：TALは、学習用端末を家庭での自立学習において戦略的に重要であると引き続き位置づけています。短期的な優先事項は、製品およびコンテンツの改善、規律ある支出、そして通期での大幅な赤字回避です。

利益率の拡大：経営陣は、営業利益率の改善を、規模の拡大、コスト効率化、およびより規律あるリソース配分によるものと説明しました。収益性の向上は、継続的な製品投資と並ぶ優先事項であり続けています。

投資の変動性と株主還元：1億9,000万ドルのその他費用は、主に特定の投資の公正価値下落によるものです。TALは、財務状況、事業上のニーズ、投資機会、市場環境に応じて、配当や自社株買いを資本配分のアプローチにおいてより体系的な部分にしていくと述べました。2026年7月29日から10月23日までの間に、TALは約200万ドルで64,226株の普通株式を買い戻しました。

決算説明会文字起こし全文

決算説明会の完全なトランスクリプト

経営陣による説明

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to TAL Education Group's Fiscal 2027 Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

Please be informed today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Ms. Fang Liu, Investor Relations Director. Please go ahead.

Fang Liu

Thank you all for joining us today for TAL Education Group's Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2027 Earnings Conference Call. The earnings release was distributed earlier today, and you may find a copy on the company's IR website or through the Newswire.

During this call, you will hear from Mr. Alex Peng, President and Chief Financial Officer; and Mr. Jackson Ding, Deputy Chief Financial Officer. Following the prepared remarks, Mr. Peng and Mr. Ding will be available to answer your questions.

Before we continue, please note that today's discussion 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 are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations.

Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those outlined in our public filings with the SEC. For more information about these risks and uncertainties, please refer to our filings with the SEC.

Also, our earnings release and this call include discussions of certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our earnings release, which contains a reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures.

I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Alex Peng. Alex, please go ahead.

Zhuangzhuang Peng

Thank you, Fang, and thanks to everybody for joining today's conference call. For more than 20 years, TAL has been committed to helping students learn and grow.

Today, we do this through our learning services, content solutions and other products. Across all of these offerings, we remain committed to delivering meaningful learning experiences and building lasting relationships with the students and families we serve.

Let me start with an overview of our second quarter performance. Our overall revenue continued to grow, although at a slower pace than in previous quarters.

As our business has grown in scale, we expect our overall growth rate to moderate. The picture across our businesses, however, is different. Our Peiyou offline programs continue to grow at a healthy pace. Demand for face-to-face learning remains solid and student retention remains healthy.

We believe that interaction between teachers and students continues to play an important role in learning.

Our learning device business, on the other hand, is facing a challenging industry environment, respectable competition, shifting consumer sentiment and rising component costs have put pressure on the market. These conditions have affected our business and have become a drag on our overall revenue growth.

Despite these near-term challenges, we continue to see a strategic role for learning devices in helping students to learn independently at home. We're focused on improving our content and product experience while managing the business with discipline.

Turning briefly to our financial results. Second quarter net revenues were USD 995 million or RMB 6.7 billion, representing a year-over-year increase of 15% and 9% in U.S. dollar and RMB terms, respectively.

Our non-GAAP income from operations was USD 248 million, representing a year-over-year increase of more than 100%. Our non-GAAP operating margin increased to 24.9% from 12.5% for the same period last year. The continued improvement in our operating margin reflects operating leverage, efficiency gains, and disciplined resource allocation.

With that, I will turn the call over to Jackson, who will cover operational progress across our core business lines and review our financial performance for the second fiscal quarter. Jackson, over to you.

Jackson Ding

Thank you, Alex. I will start with the operational progress across our core business lines and then review our financial results.

Starting with our Peiyou offline programs. Revenue grew by double digits year-over-year in the second quarter. Enrollment growth was the largest growth contributor of revenue growth in this business line.

Our overall retention rate remains healthy. Take Peiyou enrichment learning classes as an example, the retention rate was over 80%, reflecting the continued trust from students and families.

We continue to see steady demand for face-to-face learning. Beyond helping students to knowledge, the classroom gives them a place to interact with teachers and peers, ask questions and develop confidence. These interactions are an important part of the learning experience, and they remain at the heart of our Peiyou programs.

During the summer, our learning center network was well positioned to serve our students and families. We continue to focus on teaching quality, teacher development and the consistency of our services across learning centers. As the business grows, our priority is to remain a high-quality experience for students while managing our network in a disciplined manner.

For our online enrichment learning business, we continued to develop learning experiences that respond to students' interests and needs. In our science-related courses, for example, we combined online learning with hands-on activities to help students explore science and technology beyond the classroom.

During the quarter, we launched our first National Youth [ Makrosoft ]. The event encouraged students to draw inspiration from everyday life, develop their own ideas and turn those ideas into practical projects. We believe these experiences can help students build curiosity and learn through practice.

Turning to our learning device business. The industry is going through a challenging period. The overall market has contracted by double digits year-over-year and competition remains intense.

At the same time, rising chip costs are putting pressure on device pricing and adding to the challenges facing the industry. These conditions are affecting our business as well. While our learning device business has grown in recent years, the current market environment is weighing on its performance, especially on the top line.

In this quarter, learning device was a drag on our company level growth rate. We expect this business to continue to face pressure as the industry works through these challenges.

Against this backdrop, we remain focused on serving our users and improving the learning experience through our learning devices. As a result, user engagement remained stable during the quarter.

The average weekly active rate across our learning device user base was around 80% and the active devices were used for an average of 1 hour per day. We believe this reflects the value our products continue to provide to students even as the market faces pressure.

Next, I will walk you through our key financial results for the second fiscal quarter. Please note that all financial data for the quarter are unaudited. Our net revenues were USD 995 million or RMB 6.7 billion, representing a year-over-year increase of 15% and 9% in U.S. dollar and RMB terms, respectively.

Cost of revenues increased by 8% year-over-year to USD 400 million. On a non-GAAP basis, excluding share-based compensation expenses, cost of revenues also increased by 8% year-over-year to USD 399 million. Gross profit increased by 21% year-over-year to USD 595 million. Gross margin for the second quarter of fiscal year 2027 was 59.8% compared to 57.0% in the same period of the prior year.

Turning to operating expenses. Non-GAAP selling and marketing expenses, which excluded share-based compensation expenses, decreased by 16% to USD 223 million from USD 264 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2026. Non-GAAP general and administrative expenses, which excluded share-based compensation expenses, increased by 4% to USD 124 million from USD 119 million in the second quarter of fiscal year 2026.

Non-GAAP income from operations, which excluded share-based compensation expenses, was USD 249 million compared to non-GAAP income from operations of USD 108 million in the same period of the prior year.

Other expense was USD 190 million for the second quarter of fiscal year 2026 -- excuse me, other expense was USD 190 million for the second quarter of fiscal year 2027 compared to other income of USD 67 million in the second quarter of fiscal year 2026. The change was mainly driven by fluctuations in the fair value of certain investments.

Income tax expense was USD 136 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2027 compared to USD 51 million of income tax expense in the second quarter of fiscal year 2026. The increase in income tax expense was mainly due to changes in deferred tax liabilities relating to withholding tax.

Non-GAAP net loss attributable to TAL, which excluded share-based compensation expenses, was USD 36 million compared to non-GAAP net income attributable to TAL of USD 136 million in the second quarter of fiscal year 2026.

Moving on to our balance sheet. As of August 31, 2026, the company had approximately USD 2.0 billion of cash and cash equivalents, USD 796 million of short-term investments and USD 254 million in current and noncurrent restricted cash. Our deferred revenue balance was approximately USD 930 million as of the end of the second fiscal quarter. Net cash used in operating activities for the second quarter of fiscal year 2027 was USD 179 million.

Finally, a brief update on shareholder returns, including our cash dividend. Between July 29, 2026, and October 23, 2026, the company repurchased approximately 64,226 common shares at an aggregate consideration of approximately USD 2 million. The company's Board of Directors has approved the declaration and payment of a special cash dividend to our shareholders out of the company's cash balance in an amount of USD 0.30 per common share equivalent to USD 0.10 per ADS, representing an aggregate dividend payment of approximately USD 55.2 million to all shareholders of the company.

That concludes my review. I will now hand the call back to Alex for his comments on the strategy and outlook. Alex, please go ahead.

Zhuangzhuang Peng

Thanks, Jackson. Let me close with a few thoughts on our strategy and outlook. Our businesses serve students in different ways. In our learning services, teachers help students develop knowledge, confidence and curiosity through direct interaction.

In our content and technology products, we help students build ability to learn more independently. We believe both are important parts of a student's learning journey. We'll continue to bring together our experience in education and our capabilities in technology to improve the learning experience.

Looking ahead, we expect our overall revenue growth to moderate as our business grows in scale and our learning device business continues to face industry headwinds. As the educator Jiang Xueqin wrote in his reconstruction and philosophy, a person is always in process of growth.

At TAL, we are grateful for the opportunity to support our students in that process, and we remain committed to learning and growing alongside them.

So that concludes my prepared remarks. Operator, we are ready to open the call for questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from Eddy Wang from Morgan Stanley.

質疑応答

Eddy Wang

My question is regarding the revenue growth. We saw the year-over-year revenue growth moderate in the second quarter. Can you walk us through the top line performance across the major business lines? And how should we think about the growth outlook going forward?

Zhuangzhuang Peng

Yes, Eddy, this is Alex. Let me take that one on. So as we just mentioned, our overall revenue growth moderated in the second quarter, and we expect growth to become more moderate going forward.

This really reflects both the increasing scale of our business and the different conditions we're seeing across our business lines. So our Peiyou offline programs continue to perform well. The business delivered double-digit revenue growth in the quarter, supported primarily by enrollment growth.

Student retention remained healthy, and we continue to see steady demand for face-to-face learning experience. Our learning device business, as both myself and Jackson just mentioned, the business is facing a more difficult market.

The industry as a whole for learning devices has contracted, as noted by several independent third-party market reports. And these conditions have affected our performance. So as a result, learning devices have become a drag on our overall revenue growth. We also saw growth in our online enrichment business moderate during the quarter.

So overall, we see our learning services business continuing to develop on a healthy foundation, while the learning device business works through a more challenging period in the broader industry environment. So Eddy, I hope that answered your question.

Operator

And the next question comes from Jenny Yuan from UBS.

Yicheng Yuan

And my question is on our learning device business. So given the current challenges in the market, how are you navigating the business? And how should we think about the trade-off between revenue growth and profitability? And are you prioritizing one over the other?

Zhuangzhuang Peng

Thanks, Jenny. This is Alex. Let me take this question on as well. So let me start by saying that we continue to believe learning devices have a strategic role to play in supporting students learning at home.

Over the past few years, we've built a sizable user base, and we remain committed to providing these students and families with quality content and a great learning experience.

That said, the industry is going through a challenging period as we just talked about. The market has contracted. Competition remains intense and rising component costs have added pressure across the industry. Our business has not been really -- it has not been immune to these conditions. We expect learning devices to continue to weigh on the company's overall revenue growth rate.

So in this environment, what's our focus? Our focus is on managing the business in a disciplined way. We'll continue to invest in content, technology, and the product experience, but we'll also be thoughtful about how we allocate resources and manage costs. We do not anticipate significant losses from the learning device business for the full fiscal year.

Looking ahead, what do we see? We believe there is still a strategic opportunity to use technology to support students' independent learning. We want to continue developing this business with a long-term perspective while making sure that our near-term decisions reflect the market conditions we're facing today. So Jenny, I hope that answered your question.

Operator

And the next question comes from Timothy Zhao from Goldman Sachs.

Yucen Liu

This is Eunice Liu from Goldman Sachs. I'm asking question on behalf of our analyst, Timothy Zhao. In this quarter, company's operating margin improved significantly. We want to ask what drove the improvement? And how should we think about the profitability going forward?

Jackson Ding

Eunice, thank you for the question. This is Jackson. Let me take this one. The improvement this quarter in operating margin reflects progress across several areas. As our business has grown in scale, we have been able to serve more students and users while also managing our costs more efficiently. We've also become more disciplined in how we allocate our resources across the organization.

Looking ahead, improving profitability remains a priority for us. We'll continue to invest in products and services while also driving greater operating efficiency.

And as you've seen in the last couple of quarters, we expect our operating margin for fiscal 2027 to improve compared with fiscal 2026. At the same time, as always, profitability may vary from quarter-to-quarter due to seasonality, market conditions and the timing of our investments. We believe it is more useful to look at our progress over a longer period of time. Eunice, I hope that answers your question.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And our next question comes from Elsie Sheng from CLSA.

Yiran Sheng

I'm Elsie. And my question is about other income and shareholder return. So I noticed that other income declined significantly this quarter, and the company also declared a cash dividend for the first time. So could you explain what is the driver behind the change in other income and also share how you think about the shareholder return?

Jackson Ding

Elsie, thank you for the question. This is Jackson again. Let me take this. And that's like a 2-part question, the first part about other income and the second part about shareholder return. So maybe let me tackle them piece by piece.

So first, other income, as part of our capital allocation strategy, look, we maintain an investment portfolio that includes a variety of investment products, ranging from wealth management products to minority equity investments and others.

During the quarter, the fair value of certain investments declined, which was a primary driver of the sequential decrease in other income. The value of these investments can change with market conditions. So our other income line may fluctuate from quarter-to-quarter.

The second part of the question was about shareholder returns. Returning value to shareholders is and has always been an important part of our capital allocation strategy.

The dividend declared this quarter complements our ongoing share repurchase program. Looking ahead, we intend to make shareholder returns a more systematic part of our capital allocation approach using both dividends and share repurchases.

Our decisions on the form and the scale of returns will take into account our financial position, the needs of our business, investment opportunity and market conditions. Elsie, I hope that answers your question.

Operator

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

Zhuangzhuang Peng

So again, thanks to everybody for joining us today, and we'll see you next quarter. Bye-bye.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.