UPDATE 3-Apollo says SEC begins informal probe; shares fall

* SEC begins informal probe into rev recognition practice

* Details scant, Apollo says will cooperate

* Q4 adj. EPS $1.06 vs Wall St. view $1.04

* Shares fall 20.5 percent (Adds analyst and DeVry comments, details from call, byline)

By Aarthi Sivaraman/Amulya Nagaraj

SEATTLE/BANGALORE, Oct 27 (Reuters) - For-profit education provider Apollo Group Inc (APOL.O) said regulatory authorities have launched an informal inquiry over its revenue recognition practices, and its shares fell 20.5 percent.

Apollo, parent of the University of Phoenix, said on Tuesday that it intends to cooperate with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's inquiry, but did not give further details. The scope, duration or outcome of the inquiry could not be determined, Apollo said.

A spokeswoman for Apollo, Sara Jones, said the information in the statement was all it had at the moment.

Apollo executives said in a conference call that the company became aware of the inquiry last week, but Tuesday seemed "the appropriate time" to reveal it since it reported quarterly results and filed its annual report with the SEC.

Other education stocks like Corinthian Colleges Inc (COCO.O) and Career Education Corp (CECO.O) also fell after Apollo's announcement.

"What is very disconcerting is that the SEC targeted Apollo which is a large, publicly-traded, for profit institution," said Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Ariel Sokol.

The inquiry could point to more than possible issues at Apollo itself, Signal Hill analyst Trace Urdan suggested.

"It is either something related to Apollo and we just don't know what it is, or it is related to the industry, about how it recognizes revenue related to student attendance, and they just picked on Apollo because it is the biggest player in the space, Urdan said.

NOT THE FIRST TIME

Apollo, which was founded in 1973, counts adults for half of its students, 80 percent of whom work full-time. But this is not the first time it has run into accounting troubles.

In 1999, the U.S. Department of Education completed a year-long review of its accounting methods for student enrollments, withdrawals and tuition payments. As a result of the review, Apollo was required to pay the U.S. Department of Education and other lenders about $650,000.