Apollo Group Inc, the parent company of the University of Phoenix, said the company and several of its executives have been named defendants in a purported class action lawsuit.

The lawsuit states that the company made misleading statements between Dec 2009 and Aug 2010 about Apollo and its business "in violation of federal securities laws."

These statements artificially inflated the trading price of the company's shares, the lawsuit states and is seeking compensatory damages.

In June this year, the company had to pay damages as an appeals court reversed a lower court judgment related to a securities class action lawsuit.

The company, which is considered the bellwether of the for-profit education group in the U.S., has been under pressure along with its peers as the U.S. government is scrutinizing the sector.

Rules in the education sector are being overhauled to ensure that students do not graduate with unwieldy debt and the programs undertaken prepare them for the jobs in the field.