PHOENIX –Grand Canyon University (GCU) has been named the second-best small company in the nation for the second straight year by Forbes magazine.

Grand Canyon Education, the parent company of GCU, trailed only Questcor Pharmaceuticals of California in Forbes’ annual rankings of the best small companies in America.

“With sales in the past 12 months of $558 million and a market cap of $1.84 billion, they’re schooling the competition,” Forbes wrote about GCU.

Forbes’ rankings are based on earnings growth, sales growth, return on equity and stock performance. Publicly traded firms with less than $1 billion in annual revenue are eligible for the list.

“It’s just a testament to a lot of hard work by a lot of people here at Grand Canyon University,” Brian Mueller, GCU’s president and CEO, said of the ranking. “Everything that we’ve been able to accomplish in a short amount of time is a reflection of that.
“People here care about doing what’s best for our students, they care about what’s best for our community and they find satisfaction in knowing they are working for a university that has a larger purpose and is doing a lot of good in the world.”

Ground campus enrollment at the private Christian university in the heart of Phoenix has tripled since 2010, to 8,500 students in 2013-14. GCU also has 47,000 students in its engaging online program, of which well over 40 percent are studying at the graduate level.

In a second announcement made Thursday, Grand Canyon University also released that it will freeze on-campus tuition costs in 2014-15 for the sixth straight year. Tuition for online students also will remain unchanged for the next academic year.

GCU’s annual tuition rates will remain at $16,500 for all current and incoming students – a figure that has remained constant since 2009. Most GCU students pay far less for tuition, thanks to extensive academic, athletic and transfer scholarships. With these scholarships, the average GCU student pays $7,800 per year in tuition – a figure comparable to public state universities and well below other private universities.

From 2009-12, GCU invested $308 million in capital expenditures in the university – well above its after-tax income of $182.5 million during that four-year period. An additional $100 million in capital expenditures is earmarked for 2013-14. The growth has come without increasing tuition for campus students. Tuition has remained at $16,500 per year since 2009, although most students pay far less. Thanks to extensive academic, athletic and transfer scholarships, the average GCU student pays $7,800 per year in tuition.

Grand Canyon University was founded in 1949 and is Arizona’s premier private Christian university. GCU is regionally accredited and emphasizes individual attention for both traditional undergraduate students and the working professional in seven colleges: the Ken Blanchard College of Business, the College of Education, the College of Nursing and Health Care Professions, the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Theology, the College of Fine Arts and Production, and the College of Doctoral Studies. GCU offers traditional programs on its growing campus, as well as online bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs. The University’s curriculum fuses academic and clinical rigor with Christian values to prepare its students to be skilled, caring professionals. For more information about GCU, visit https://www.gcu.edu

Tempe, AZ – First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) won’t be building any solar panels in Mesa after all , the company has agreed to sell the facility in Mesa, to an unidentified buyer at a loss of as much as $60 million against book value and move 80 jobs to its main office in Tempe.

The $300 million plant, which was to make First Solar thin-film panels destined for power plants in the Southwest, was announced in 2011 and had the promise of employing 600 people.

The company expects proceeds of more than $100 million from the sale, which will close this quarter, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing today from the Tempe, Arizona-based company. The site was intended to be a panel-production plant and was never commissioned.

The company expects the sale to close in the fourth quarter, and it will book a loss of between $55 million and $60 million in third quarter as a result of the sale. Another $5 million to $10 million in costs will be incurred for moving people.

First Solar spokesman Steve Krum said the company could not identify the buyer until it closes, which could be in the next 40- 60 days. The buyer is expected to use the facility for clean high-tech manufacturing.

Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist with the National Association of Realtor warns what to expect if the federal government fails to increase its borrowing authority prior to when the U.S. Treasury says it will run out of money to pay its bills. The government could decide to pay the interest on its debt, which is about 3% of the GDP, and ensure that global investors of U.S. Treasury bonds are made whole. That would help protect the dollar as the world reserve currency. But to do that, the government would have to curtail spending elsewhere.

Yun says that home sales would be expected to drop by 350,000 to 450,00 units for each 100 basis-point increase in mortgage rates.

In a four minute video, Yun talks about the looming debt crisis in an interview with REALTOR Magazine. To watch the video and see the full story Click here