Cramer Goes to School with American Public Education (APEI)

Jim Cramer highlighted shares of American Public Education (Nasdaq: APEI) as a speculative play on Friday's Mad Money. He touted the stock as a play on a company that makes money when more people lose their jobs.

Cramer pointed to American Public Education's two online-focused schools which offer substantially reduced tuition to students and noted that for every 1% rise in the unemployment rate, there's a 2% increase in college enrollments. Cramer also called American Public Education's business model unique as about 60% of it's students come from the military.

Given estimated sales growth of 41% in 2009, Cramer said he would be a buyer of American Public Education. At the same time, Cramer mentioned its recent secondary stock offering at $37.50 per share, and said that investors need to be patient and wait for the stock to hit the $37 level before pulling the trigger.

Shares of APEI opened today's trading session up about 3.5% -- possibly on the Cramer tout -- but as the indices traded down, so did APEI. The stock is now down about 2%, most recently trading at $36.40. Cramer would call today's slide a gift!

American Public Education, Inc. is a provider of online post-secondary education focused primarily on serving the military and public service communities.

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