Revenue during the quarter surged 31.25 percent to $31.98 million from $24.37 million in the previous year period. Gross margin for the quarter expanded 762 basis points over the previous year period to 59.95 percent. Total expenses were 75.12 percent of quarterly revenues, down from 85.53 percent for the same period last year. This has led to an improvement of 1040 basis points in operating margin to 24.88 percent.

Operating income for the quarter was $7.96 million, compared with $3.53 million in the previous year period.

However, the adjusted operating income for the quarter stood at $8.46 million compared to $4.04 million in the prior year period. At the same time, adjusted operating margin improved 987 basis points in the quarter to 26.44 percent from 16.57 percent in the last year period.

Mr. Zhengdong Zhu, chairman and chief executive officer of CDEL, said, "We are pleased to kick off fiscal 2017 by achieving strong financial results driven by net revenue growth of 31.2% and net income growth that more than doubled from the same period of last year. We exceeded our first quarter revenue guidance range by benefiting primarily from the earlier-than-anticipated release of exam results from certain healthcare examinations, resulting in the early recognition of $3.1 million of revenue in the first quarter for the related healthcare premium courses."

For the second-quarter, China Distance Education Holdings projects revenue to be in the range of $21.70 million to $22.90 million.