ASGN Inc (ASGN) 2025 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the ASGN Incorporated first-quarter 2025 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

您好，歡迎參加 ASGN Incorporated 2025 年第一季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）提醒一下，本次會議正在錄音。

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Kimberly Esterkin, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

現在我很高興介紹您的主持人、投資者關係副總裁 Kimberly Esterkin。謝謝。你可以開始了。

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us today for ASGN's first-quarter 2025 conference call. With me are Ted Hanson, Chief Executive Officer; Shiv Iyer, President; Marie Perry, Chief Financial Officer; and Rand Blazer, Executive Vice Chairman.

午安.感謝您今天參加 ASGN 2025 年第一季電話會議。與我一起的還有執行長 Ted Hanson、總裁 Shiv Iyer、財務長 Marie Perry 和執行副董事長 Rand Blazer。

Before we get started, I would like to remind everyone that our commentary contains forward-looking statements. Although we believe these statements are reasonable, they are subject to risks and uncertainties, and as such, our actual results could differ materially from those statements. Certain of these risks and uncertainties are described in today's press release and in our SEC filings. We do not assume any obligation to update statements made on this call.

在我們開始之前，我想提醒大家，我們的評論包含前瞻性陳述。儘管我們認為這些陳述是合理的，但它們仍受風險和不確定性的影響，因此我們的實際結果可能與這些陳述有重大差異。今天的新聞稿和我們提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中描述了其中一些風險和不確定性。我們不承擔更新本次電話會議中所作聲明的任何義務。

For your convenience, our prepared remarks and supplemental materials can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website at investors.asgn.com. Please also note that on this call, we will be referencing certain non-GAAP measures, such as adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income and free cash flow. These non-GAAP measures are intended to supplement the comparable GAAP measures. Reconciliations between GAAP and non-GAAP measures are included in today's press release.

為方便起見，您可以在我們網站 investors.asgn.com 的「投資者關係」板塊找到我們準備好的評論和補充資料。另請注意，在本次電話會議上，我們將參考某些非公認會計準則 (non-GAAP) 指標，例如調整後息稅折舊攤銷前利潤 (EBITDA)、調整後淨收入和自由現金流。這些非公認會計準則衡量指標旨在補充可比較的公認會計準則衡量指標。今天的新聞稿中包含了 GAAP 和非 GAAP 指標之間的對帳。

I will now turn the call over to Ted Hanson, Chief Executive Officer.

現在我將把電話轉給執行長泰德漢森 (Ted Hanson)。

Thank you, Kim, and thank you for joining ASGN's first-quarter 2025 earnings call. As Kim noted, I'm pleased to welcome our new President, Shiv Iyer, to his very first ASGN earnings call. Shiv will make some brief remarks at the close and join us for the Q&A session. Despite macro uncertainty, revenues of $968.3 million and adjusted EBITDA margin of 9.7% were in line with our guidance expectations for the quarter. We continue to deliver solutions that cater to our clients' IT modernization, efficiency and cost containment requirements, leading to strong quarterly bookings for both our commercial and government segments.

謝謝你，Kim，也謝謝你參加 ASGN 2025 年第一季財報電話會議。正如 Kim 所說，我很高興歡迎我們的新總裁 Shiv Iyer 參加他的第一次 ASGN 收益電話會議。Shiv 將在會議結束時發表一些簡短的講話，並參加我們的問答環節。儘管存在宏觀不確定性，但 9.683 億美元的營收和 9.7% 的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率符合我們對本季的指導預期。我們將繼續提供滿足客戶 IT 現代化、效率和成本控制要求的解決方案，為我們的商業和政府部門帶來強勁的季度訂單。

Our IT consulting revenues also grew, reaching roughly 61% of total revenues for the first quarter up from 57% in the prior year period. As I noted last quarter, we entered the year with a renewed sense of business optimism from our client base. This improvement in confidence faded as the quarter progressed, with clients remaining cautious about increasing their IT spending. Nonetheless, ASGN's unique business model demonstrates resilience across economic cycles, primarily due to our business stabilizers that support our gross margin along with our variable cost structure, which aids in safeguarding our operating leverage.

我們的 IT 諮詢收入也有所成長，第一季佔總營收的約 61%，高於去年同期的 57%。正如我上個季度所指出的，我們帶著來自客戶群的全新商業樂觀情緒進入了新的一年。隨著本季的進展，這種信心的改善逐漸消退，客戶對於增加 IT 支出仍保持謹慎。儘管如此，ASGN 獨特的商業模式在經濟週期中表現出了韌性，這主要歸功於我們的業務穩定器支持我們的毛利率以及我們的可變成本結構，這有助於維護我們的經營槓桿。

Further, our business model also provides flexible onshore and nearshore teams that help reduce our clients' costs while maintaining a commitment to providing high-value IT services. Speaking of providing high-value services in March, we successfully closed our acquisition of TopBloc, a preferred started by Workday Services Partner and recently named Workday Business Impact Partner of the Year. The integration of TopBloc is going well and in a short period of time since the acquisition closed, our Apex and TopBloc teams have already partnered on a number of new consulting opportunities.

此外，我們的業務模式也提供靈活的在岸和近岸團隊，協助降低客戶成本，同時維持提供高價值 IT 服務的承諾。說到 3 月提供高價值服務，我們成功完成了對 TopBloc 的收購，TopBloc 是由 Workday 服務合作夥伴發起的優先股，最近被評為 Workday 年度商業影響力合作夥伴。TopBloc 的整合進展順利，自收購完成以來的短時間內，我們的 Apex 和 TopBloc 團隊已經在許多新的諮詢機會上建立了合作。

Importantly, TopBloc is tracking ahead of our bookings, revenue and adjusted EBITDA expectations. While market conditions remain volatile, we are confident that nurturing our longstanding client relationships, expanding our technology partnerships and enhancing our solution capabilities organically and through strategic acquisitions like TopBloc, we will position ASGN favorably for the future.

重要的是，TopBloc 的預訂量、收入和調整後的 EBITDA 都超出我們的預期。儘管市場條件仍然動盪，但我們相信，透過培育長期的客戶關係、擴大技術合作夥伴關係、有機增強解決方案能力以及透過 TopBloc 等策略收購，我們將為 ASGN 的未來奠定有利地位。

So let me provide some examples of our differentiated IT solution capabilities and discuss our segment performance for the first quarter beginning with Commercial. Our Commercial segment services Fortune 1000 and large mid-market companies. Revenues for this segment were again driven by growth in our consulting business, which improved 4.7% year over year. Consulting bookings of $336.9 million improved 4.2% as compared to the first quarter of 2024 and put our book-to-bill at 1.2 times for the quarter and 1.1 times on a trailing 12-month basis.

因此，讓我提供一些我們差異化 IT 解決方案能力的例子，並從商業開始討論我們第一季的分部表現。我們的商業部門為財富 1000 強企業和大型中型市場公司提供服務。該部門的收入再次受到諮詢業務成長的推動，諮詢業務年增 4.7%。諮詢訂單金額為 3.369 億美元，與 2024 年第一季相比成長了 4.2%，本季的訂單出貨比為 1.2 倍，過去 12 個月的訂單出貨比為 1.1 倍。

From an industry perspective, we saw growth in our Consumer and Industrial vertical, which improved mid-single digits year over year. Improvement in this vertical was driven by double-digit growth in Materials, Utilities and Consumer Discretionary accounts along with mid-single-digit growth in Industrial. While revenues for the remaining four commercial verticals were down year over year within our Healthcare vertical, Pharmaceutical and Biotech accounts were up low single digits as compared to the first quarter of 2024. Within our TMT vertical, e-Commerce accounts were up mid-teens year over year.

從產業角度來看，我們看到消費者和工業垂直領域的成長，較去年同期成長了中等個位數。這一垂直領域的改善得益於材料、公用事業和非必需消費品帳戶的兩位數增長以及工業的中等個位數增長。雖然醫療保健垂直領域其餘四個商業垂直領域的收入同比下降，但與 2024 年第一季相比，製藥和生技帳戶的收入成長了個位數。在我們的 TMT 垂直領域，電子商務帳戶年增了 15% 左右。

Finally, within the Financial Services vertical, Diversified Financial saw mid-single-digit growth and Regional Banks saw slight growth as compared to the first quarter of 2024. Although Financial Services industry is one of the highest spenders on IT, macroeconomic factors such as higher inflation and uncertainty regarding tariffs have driven cautiousness to spend on new projects across the banking sector.

最後，在金融服務垂直領域，與 2024 年第一季相比，多元化金融實現了中等個位數成長，區域銀行則略有成長。儘管金融服務業是 IT 支出最高的行業之一，但通貨膨脹率上升和關稅不確定性等宏觀經濟因素促使整個銀行業對新項目的支出持謹慎態度。

Despite these headwinds, our differentiated IT solutions remain in demand by our diverse US-based Fortune 1000 clients. Consulting engagements for the quarter focused on AI and data solutions, Gen AI, cybersecurity, cloud and digital engineering with projects specifically aimed at permitting cost savings and efficiency.

儘管面臨這些不利因素，我們差異化的 IT 解決方案仍受到美國財富 1000 強企業客戶的青睞。本季的顧問工作重點是人工智慧和數據解決方案、通用人工智慧、網路安全、雲端和數位工程，專案專門為節省成本和提高效率。

Let me provide a few examples. For Fortune 200 consumer and industrial clients in the process of modernizing their supply chain, our industry and technical leaders are helping develop and operationalize a data and AI strategy. We are providing a nearshore team of consultants to support the implementation of our clients' supply chain optimization solutions using Informatica's cloud-native and AI-augmented platform to support data and machine learning operations. Although enterprise-wide applications of Gen AI are still to come, we continue to see AI initiatives like this that focus on high-impact use cases to improve efficiency, reduce costs and provide deeper data insights.

讓我舉幾個例子。對於正在實現供應鏈現代化的財富 200 強消費者和工業客戶，我們的產業和技術領導者正在協助制定和實施資料和人工智慧策略。我們提供近岸顧問團隊，使用 Informatica 的雲端原生和 AI 增強平台來支援客戶實施供應鏈最佳化解決方案，以支援資料和機器學習操作。儘管 Gen AI 的企業級應用仍未出現，但我們繼續看到像這樣的 AI 計劃專注於高影響力的用例，以提高效率、降低成本並提供更深入的數據洞察。

In another example of a large health services company, we help build a scalable, secure and efficient identity and access management platform that supports our clients' growth, compliance and evolving business needs on migrating to a new IAM platform. Our client will be able to better manage data controls that provide appropriate access and governance across their organization. Our scope of work encompasses the application and integration basis of the new IAM platform including integration across hundreds of different applications, while optimizing workflows and performing thorough testing and validation.

在另一個大型醫療服務公司的例子中，我們協助建立了一個可擴展、安全和高效的身份和存取管理平台，該平台支援我們的客戶在遷移到新的 IAM 平台時的成長、合規性和不斷變化的業務需求。我們的客戶將能夠更好地管理資料控制，從而為整個組織提供適當的存取和治理。我們的工作範圍涵蓋新 IAM 平台的應用和集成基礎，包括跨數百個不同應用程式的集成，同時優化工作流程並進行徹底的測試和驗證。

Through innovative optimization techniques, we will enhanced automation, risk management and user experience for our client. Improving data processing, while at the same time driving efficiency and cost savings remain top priorities across our client base. For Fortune 100 oil and gas client, for example, we successfully implemented the Databricks Unity Catalog, a unified governance solution. By optimizing compute resources and nightly processing times, we significantly reduced our clients' Databricks costs.

透過創新的最佳化技術，我們將為客戶增強自動化、風險管理和使用者體驗。改善資料處理，同時提高效率和節省成本仍然是我們客戶群的首要任務。例如，對於財富 100 強石油和天然氣客戶，我們成功實施了統一治理解決方案 Databricks Unity Catalog。透過優化運算資源和夜間處理時間，我們大幅降低了客戶的 Databricks 成本。

Driving innovation and automation on cloud-based platforms is also a high debate. In the first quarter, we collaborated with a US banking client to create a cloud-first automation framework, integrating APIs and modern engineering practices. By eliminating manual file handling, our client achieved end-to-end automation of their costing process by which they assign fees to their products and services, thereby enhancing their overall workflow efficiency.

推動基於雲端的平台的創新和自動化也引起了激烈的爭論。第一季度，我們與美國銀行客戶合作創建了一個雲端優先自動化框架，整合了 API 和現代工程實踐。透過消除手動文件處理，我們的客戶實現了成本會計流程的端到端自動化，從而為其產品和服務分配費用，從而提高了整體工作流程效率。

Each of these consulting projects involve aspects of intelligent, data management and the usage of AI is increasingly becoming essential to successfully managing enterprise data. Even as companies limit their IT spend, our clients continue to scale their investments in AI. Clients early in their AI journeys are investing in AI workshops and AI literacy trainings to prepare their organization for future AI usage. Clients further along in their journeys are partnering with us on thought leadership pieces and innovation studies to drive competitive advantages.

這些諮詢項目均涉及智慧數據管理的各個方面，而人工智慧的使用對於成功管理企業數據變得越來越重要。即使公司限制 IT 支出，我們的客戶仍繼續擴大對 AI 的投資。處於 AI 早期階段的客戶正在投資 AI 研討會和 AI 素養培訓，為組織未來的 AI 使用做好準備。在發展歷程中不斷前進的客戶正在與我們合作，共同探討思想領導力和創新研究，以提升競爭優勢。

The most common AI use cases we are currently seeing include the development of agent assistants or copilots, the implementation of Gen AI to accelerate the software development life cycle, the usage of AI tools for code conversion and documentation, especially in banking and leveraging AI for IT operations.

我們目前看到的最常見的人工智慧用例包括開發代理助理或副駕駛員、實施 Gen AI 以加速軟體開發生命週期、使用 AI 工具進行程式碼轉換和文件編制，尤其是在銀行業和利用 AI 進行 IT 營運。

With that, let's turn to discuss our Federal Government segment. Our Federal Government segment provides advanced IT solutions for the Department of Defense, the intelligence community and other critical agencies in support of national security. Although the segment's quarterly revenues declined year over year, bookings were strong with new contract awards totaling $343.1 million for the first quarter. This put our book-to-bill at 1.2 times on both a quarterly and trailing 12-month basis.

接下來，讓我們來討論聯邦政府部分。我們的聯邦政府部門為國防部、情報部門和其他重要機構提供先進的 IT 解決方案，以支援國家安全。儘管該部門的季度營收年減，但訂單量強勁，第一季新簽訂的合約總額達 3.431 億美元。這使得我們的季度和過去 12 個月的訂單出貨比達到 1.2 倍。

In addition, contract backlog was over $3.1 billion at quarter end or a coverage ratio of 2.6 times the segment's trailing 12-month revenues. We are not immune to DOGE and our first-quarter federal government segment revenues and margins saw a slight impact from DOGE's cost-cutting efforts. That said, our solution capabilities and agency focus remain well aligned with the administration's priority. The government will gain efficiency through IT modernization that leverages AI, automation, and a commercial delivery model.

此外，季末的合約積壓金額超過 31 億美元，覆蓋率為該部門過去 12 個月收入的 2.6 倍。我們並不能免受 DOGE 的影響，我們第一季聯邦政府部門的收入和利潤受到了 DOGE 成本削減措施的輕微影響。也就是說，我們的解決方案能力和機構重點仍然與政府的優先事項保持一致。政府將透過利用人工智慧、自動化和商業交付模式的 IT 現代化來提高效率。

ASGN brings those exact services and delivery best practices to our customers with our core solution capabilities in AI, cybersecurity and digital modernization for mission-critical defense, national security and law enforcement programs. Our government teams consistently led the charge in IT innovation and during the quarter, we won a new five-year firm-fixed-price contract with the FBI's laboratory division to provide IT modernization services.

ASGN 利用我們在人工智慧、網路安全和數位現代化方面的核心解決方案能力，為關鍵任務國防、國家安全和執法計劃提供這些精確的服務和交付最佳實踐。我們的政府團隊始終引領 IT 創新，在本季度，我們與 FBI 實驗室部門贏得了一份新的五年固定價格合同，為該部門提供 IT 現代化服務。

As the prime awardee on this contract, our team will centralize and modernize information and operational technology or IT and OT by streamlining technology usage, powering the FBI services with AI tools and automating key processes that enhance the FBI's ability to solve cases and prevent acts of crime and terror.

作為該合約的主要中標人，我們的團隊將透過簡化技術使用、使用人工智慧工具為 FBI 服務提供支援以及自動化關鍵流程來集中和現代化資訊和營運技術或 IT 和 OT，從而增強 FBI 破案和預防犯罪和恐怖行為的能力。

Our services to the FBI include infrastructure support, cloud integration and modernization, enhanced cybersecurity protection and improved data governance. The FBI is a long-standing client of ASGN, and this contract represents an additional opportunity to promote the agency's essential missions.

我們為 FBI 提供的服務包括基礎設施支援、雲端整合和現代化、增強的網路安全保護和改進的資料治理。FBI 是 ASGN 的長期客戶，這份合約代表該機構又一次有機會推動其基本使命。

We also support the essential missions of the Department of Defense and during the first quarter, our Defense and Intel unit won additional work with the DoD's Chief Digital and AI office to operate the department's premier AI development environment or innovation at speed and scale. As a mission-critical partner, we will collaborate with the DoD on AI innovation work streams that provide improved operational insight and decision-making capabilities as well as enhance value across global war fighting domain.

我們也支持國防部的基本任務，在第一季度，我們的國防和英特爾部門贏得了國防部首席數位和人工智慧辦公室的額外工作，以快速和規模地運作該部門首屈一指的人工智慧開發環境或創新。作為關鍵任務合作夥伴，我們將與國防部合作進行人工智慧創新工作流程，以提供改進的營運洞察力和決策能力，並提升全球作戰領域的價值。

Also during the quarter, we secured a large recompete contract with a strategic logistics customer. By providing technical expertise and solutions to our customers' engineering and technical support center, we will help them reduce their costs while at the same time drive quality and innovation across their operations. As illustrated by these three examples, we continue to see a steady flow of work consistent with DOGE's efficiency and IT modernization missions.

此外，在本季度，我們也與一家策略物流客戶簽訂了一份大型再競爭合約。透過向客戶的工程和技術支援中心提供技術專業知識和解決方案，我們將幫助他們降低成本，同時推動整個營運的品質和創新。正如這三個例子所示，我們繼續看到與 DOGE 的效率和 IT 現代化使命一致的穩定工作流程。

Nonetheless, as is prudent, we are actively tracking DOGE activities and identifying ways to support our customers with additional work or to move the central work onto contracts with available ceilings. Although we remain in a continuing resolution through September, customers are extending current projects. We expect that Defense and National Security Programs along with essential citizen services, which together constitute the vast majority of our federal government support will remain priorities in the new government fiscal year.

儘管如此，出於謹慎考慮，我們正在積極追蹤 DOGE 活動，並尋找方法透過額外的工作來支持我們的客戶，或將中心工作轉移到具有可用上限的合約上。儘管我們仍將持續執行解決方案直至九月份，但客戶正在延長目前的專案。我們預計，國防和國家安全計畫以及基本公民服務（這些計畫構成了聯邦政府支持的絕大部分）將繼續成為新政府財政年度的優先事項。

With that, I'll turn the call over to Marie to discuss the first-quarter results in our second quarter 2025 guidance.

說完這些，我將把電話轉給瑪麗，討論我們 2025 年第二季指引中的第一季業績。

Thanks, Ted. For the first quarter, revenues totaled $968.3 million, a decrease of 7.7% year over year and in line with our guidance expectations. Given the timing of the acquisition close on March 4, TopBloc contributed less than one month to our first-quarter results. Revenues from our Commercial segment were $672.2 million, a decrease of 8.1% as compared to the prior year.

謝謝，泰德。第一季度，總營收為 9.683 億美元，年減 7.7%，符合我們的指導預期。鑑於收購於 3 月 4 日完成，TopBloc 對我們第一季業績的貢獻不到一個月。商業部門的收入為 6.722 億美元，比上年下降 8.1%。

Assignment revenue totaled $382.1 million a decrease of 16% year over year, reflecting continued softness in portions of our commercial segments that are more sensitive to changes in macroeconomic cycles. Revenues from commercial consulting, the highest of our high-margin revenue streams totaled $290.1 million, an increase of 4.7% year over year. Revenues from our Federal Government segment were $296.1 million, a decrease of 6.7% year over year, mainly due to a few programs ending and a slight impact from DOGE, as Ted previously noted.

任務收入總計 3.821 億美元，年減 16%，反映出我們商業部門中對宏觀經濟週期變化更為敏感的部分持續疲軟。商業諮詢收入是我們高利潤收入來源中最高的，總計 2.901 億美元，年增 4.7%。我們聯邦政府部門的收入為 2.961 億美元，年減 6.7%，主要原因是一些項目的結束以及 DOGE 的輕微影響，正如 Ted 之前指出的那樣。

Turning to margins. Gross margin for the first quarter of 2025 was 28.4%, an increase of 20 basis points from the first quarter of last year. Gross margin for the Commercial segment was 32.4%, up 40 basis points year over year, reflecting a higher mix of consulting revenue as well as margin expansion in these revenues. Gross margins for the federal government segment was 19.5%, a decline of 20 basis points year over year, primarily due to higher rates of fringe benefits.

轉向利潤。2025年第一季毛利率為28.4%，較去年第一季增加20個基點。商業部門的毛利率為 32.4%，比去年同期成長 40 個基點，反映出諮詢收入的增加以及這些收入的利潤率的擴大。聯邦政府部門的毛利率為 19.5%，較去年同期下降 20 個基點，主要原因是福利費率較高。

SG&A expense for the quarter was $214.5 million compared to $210.2 million in the first quarter of 2024. SG&A expenses included $3.3 million in acquisition, integration and strategic planning expenses and a $4.4 million one-time write-off related to previously capitalized costs for software enhancements that will no longer be placed into service. As a reminder, these types of costs are not included in our guidance estimates. Excluding these onetime items as well as non-cash expenses, such as depreciation and stock-based compensation, SG&A declined by approximately $6 million year over year. For the first quarter, net income was $20.9 million.

本季銷售、一般及行政費用為 2.145 億美元，而 2024 年第一季為 2.102 億美元。銷售、一般及行政費用包括 330 萬美元的收購、整合和策略規劃費用，以及 440 萬美元的一次性註銷，與先前資本化的軟體增強成本有關，這些軟體增強成本將不再投入使用。提醒一下，這些類型的成本不包括在我們的指導估計中。不包括這些一次性項目以及折舊和股票薪酬等非現金支出，銷售、一般和行政費用較去年同期下降約 600 萬美元。第一季淨收入為2090萬美元。

Adjusted EBITDA was $93.6 million, and adjusted EBITDA margin was 9.7%. In the quarter, as discussed, we completed our acquisition of TopBloc for $340 million, consisting of 10% equity and 90% cash of which approximately $56 million came from our cash balance and the rest was a drawdown on our revolver. In addition, we deployed $50.4 million to repurchase approximately 0.6 million shares at an average share price of $78.44. At quarter end, we had approximately $478.6 million remaining under $750 million share repurchase authorization.

調整後的 EBITDA 為 9,360 萬美元，調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率為 9.7%。如所討論的，在本季度，我們以 3.4 億美元完成了對 TopBloc 的收購，其中包括 10% 的股權和 90% 的現金，其中約 5,600 萬美元來自我們的現金餘額，其餘部分來自我們的循環信貸額度。此外，我們也動用了5,040萬美元，以平均每股78.44美元的價格回購了約60萬股股票。截至本季末，我們在7.5億美元股票回購授權中剩餘約4.786億美元。

Also at quarter end, cash and cash equivalents were $107 million, and we had $250 million available on our $500 million senior secured revolver. This brings our net leverage ratio to 2.6 times at the end of the first quarter. Free cash flow totaled $6.6 million for the first quarter. Free cash flow was lower than we typically see in the quarter, primarily due to an increase in DSO driven by timing issues of certain enterprise accounts. We expect DSO to improve on a go-forward basis.

此外，截至本季末，現金和現金等價物為 1.07 億美元，而我們的 5 億美元優先擔保循環信貸中有 2.5 億美元可用。這使得我們的淨槓桿率在第一季末達到2.6倍。第一季自由現金流總計 660 萬美元。本季的自由現金流低於我們通常看到的水平，主要是由於某些企業帳戶的時間問題導致 DSO 增加。我們預計 DSO 未來將會有所改善。

Turning to guidance. Our financial estimates for the second quarter of 2025 are set forth in our earnings release and supplemental materials. These estimates are based on current market conditions and assumes no further deterioration in the markets we serve. Guidance also assumes 63.25 billable days in the second quarter, which is 0.25 billable days fewer than a year ago period and 1.25 days more than the first quarter.

轉向指導。我們對 2025 年第二季的財務預測載於我們的收益報告和補充資料。這些估計是基於當前的市場狀況，並假設我們所服務的市場不會進一步惡化。該指引還假設第二季的可計費天數為 63.25 天，比去年同期減少 0.25 天，比第一季增加 1.25 天。

Given the overall macro uncertainty, we are widening our revenue guidance range for the quarter. Our revenue estimates incorporate less than a 2% impact from DOGE. In terms of our second quarter margins, while we no longer have as large of an impact from our payroll tax reset that we did in the first quarter, we anticipate that margins will be negatively impacted by the loss of some of our higher gross margin federal work as a result of DOGE cancellations. With that as background, for Q2 2025, we're estimating revenues of $985 million to $1.015 billion, net income of $29.3 million to $34.3 million, adjusted EBITDA of $101 million to $108 million and adjusted EBITDA margin of 10.3% to 10.6%.

鑑於整體宏觀的不確定性，我們擴大了本季的營收預期範圍。我們的收入估計包含不到 2% 的 DOGE 影響。就我們第二季的利潤率而言，雖然我們不再像第一季那樣受到工資稅重置的巨大影響，但我們預計，由於 DOGE 取消導致我們失去一些毛利率較高的聯邦工作，利潤率將受到負面影響。基於此，我們預計 2025 年第二季的營收為 9.85 億美元至 10.15 億美元，淨收入為 2,930 萬美元至 3,430 萬美元，調整後 EBITDA 為 1.01 億美元至 1.08 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 10.3% 至 10.3% 至 10.3% 至 10.3% 至 10.3%。

Thank you, I'll now turn the call back over to Ted.

謝謝，現在我將把電話轉回給泰德。

Thanks, Marie. Even in the face of macroeconomic uncertainty and factors beyond our control, ASGN performed in line with our revenue and adjusted EBITDA expectations for the first quarter. Our unique operating model positions us for sustained progress in delivering higher-end, high-value IT services and despite client IT spending hesitations, our commitment to innovation, customer satisfaction enabled us to deliver strong bookings.

謝謝，瑪麗。即使面臨宏觀經濟不確定性和我們無法控制的因素，ASGN 的第一季業績仍符合我們的營收和調整後 EBITDA 預期。我們獨特的營運模式使我們能夠在提供更高端、高價值的 IT 服務方面持續取得進展，儘管客戶對 IT 支出猶豫不決，但我們對創新和客戶滿意度的承諾使我們能夠獲得強勁的預訂量。

The appointment of Shiv as President and the acquisition of TopBloc for pivotal developments that underscore our adaptive and forward-thinking approach and as I noted previously, TopBloc is already exceeding our bookings, revenue and adjusted EBITDA expectations. Looking ahead, the resiliency and versatility of our offerings and AI data in cybersecurity, in particular, continue to drive demand and affirm our go-to-market approach in these critical areas of client needs.

任命 Shiv 為總裁以及收購 TopBloc 是關鍵發展，凸顯了我們的適應性和前瞻性方法，正如我之前提到的，TopBloc 已經超出了我們的預訂量、收入和調整後的 EBITDA 預期。展望未來，我們產品的彈性和多功能性，尤其是網路安全領域的人工智慧數據，將繼續推動需求，並肯定我們在這些關鍵客戶需求領域的行銷方法。

Our ability to maintain robust client relationships while expanding our technology partnerships provide us confidence that we are well prepared to capture future opportunities and enhance shareholder value. We remain cautious but hopeful about the go forward, knowing that our unique delivery model is the fastest and best way for our clients to accelerate their IT investments. It is precisely our innovative contingent labor model and the vast prospects it provides that inspired Shiv, among other reasons, to join the ASGN team.

我們在擴大技術夥伴關係的同時，也能維持穩固的客戶關係，這使我們有信心做好充分準備，抓住未來的機會並提升股東價值。我們對未來保持謹慎但充滿希望，因為我們知道我們獨特的交付模式是客戶加速 IT 投資的最快和最佳方式。正是我們創新的臨時工模式及其提供的廣闊前景，激勵了 Shiv 加入 ASGN 團隊。

So let me pass the call over to Shiv to share is insights and wrap up our prepared remarks.

因此，請允許我將電話轉給 Shiv，讓他分享他的見解並總結我們準備好的發言。

Thanks, Ted. I'm excited to be part of my first ASGN earnings call. It's a great time for me to join the team and immediately make a positive impact on our company. Over the past seven weeks, I've hit the ground running, collaborating closely with our segment teams and engaging with our dynamic leadership.

謝謝，泰德。我很高興參加我的第一次 ASGN 收益電話會議。對我來說，現在加入團隊並立即為公司帶來正面影響是一個好時機。在過去的七周里，我全力以赴，與我們的部門團隊密切合作，並與我們充滿活力的領導層進行交流。

The pace of technological change is staggering, and our clients are constantly looking for the right talent with deep targeted skills. I'm confident that our model leverages a combination of internal capabilities and a highly skilled contingent labor force, is the optimal approach in this rapidly evolving technological landscape where maintaining the right IT skill sets is exceedingly challenging through a permanent bench model.

技術變革的速度令人震驚，我們的客戶一直在尋找具有深厚目標技能的合適人才。我相信，我們的模式充分利用了內部能力和高技能的臨時勞動力，這是在這個快速發展的技術環境中的最佳方法，因為透過永久性的替補模型來維持正確的 IT 技能組合極具挑戰性。

In my initial weeks at ASGN, I've been immersing myself with our commercial consulting teams, rapidly climbing the learning curve while inserting my own expertise when applicable. Since the past two decades in the consulting industry, I'm thrilled to bring my experience to ASGN to help evolve our strategy and differentiation. Unfortunately, we are at a point in time where clients must exercise caution with their IT spend. Nonetheless, I've been through these economic cycles before each time learning something new, growing my knowledge base to emerge even stronger on the other end.

在加入 ASGN 的最初幾週，我一直沉浸在我們的商業諮詢團隊中，快速攀升學習曲線，並在適用時融入我自己的專業知識。在過去二十年從事顧問業以來，我很高興能將我的經驗帶到 ASGN，幫助我們發展策略和差異化。不幸的是，我們正處於客戶必須謹慎對待 IT 支出的階段。儘管如此，我經歷過這些經濟週期，每次都學到新的東西，擴大我的知識基礎，變得更強大。

While we may be experiencing increased market volatility at the present moment, that is doubt in my mind that having access to a diverse pool of talent, continuing to focus on our strong account base and providing the right solutions will allow our company to stay ahead of the competition. I look forward to seeing ASGN continue to take market share.

雖然我們目前可能正在經歷市場波動加劇，但我懷疑，擁有多元化的人才庫、繼續專注於我們強大的客戶群並提供正確的解決方案是否能讓我們的公司在競爭中保持領先地位。我期待看到 ASGN 繼續佔領市場份額。

Thank you again for joining ASGN's first-quarter 2025 earnings call. We will now open up the call to your questions.

再次感謝您參加 ASGN 2025 年第一季財報電話會議。我們現在將開始回答您的問題。

(Operator Instructions) Tobey Sommer, Truist Securities.

（操作員指示） Tobey Sommer，Truist Securities。

Thank you. I wanted to ask about your bookings in the quarter across different businesses. Could you characterize them from a new customer and new project kind of new work perspective versus renewal of existing work? And then I'll have a follow up.

謝謝。我想詢問您本季在不同業務的預訂情況。您能否從新客戶和新專案的新工作角度與現有工作的更新來描述它們？然後我會跟進。

Sure. Tobey, this is Ted. Thanks for the question. If you think about the commercial side of things where we continue to see consistently good bookings there a mix of renewal work and new work and renewal is still a larger percentage than the new, but the new is progressing. So the trend there hasn't really changed.

當然。托比，這是泰德。謝謝你的提問。如果你考慮商業方面的事情，我們會發現我們持續看到良好的預訂，其中續約工作和新工作混合在一起，續約工作所佔比例仍然大於新工作，但新工作正在取得進展。所以那裡的趨勢其實並沒有改變。

On the Federal side, our bookings this quarter, which were very strong, keep us moving up, if you will, in book-to-bill now 1 point to on a trailing 12-month basis, again, same characterization. We had some recompete work that we won. We had some new work that we won. And in addition, some of that -- I should have said some of that recompete work also had expansions of work. So it varies, but I wouldn't say any different trends there, Tobey, than what we've seen in the latter quarters.

在聯邦方面，我們本季的訂單量非常強勁，如果您願意的話，訂單出貨比現在比過去 12 個月上升了 1 個百分點，同樣是同樣的特徵。我們有一些贏得的重新競爭工作。我們有一些新作品並獲得了勝利。此外，我應該說，其中一些重新競爭的工作也得到了擴展。所以它是多種多樣的，但托比，我不會說那裡的趨勢與我們在後幾個季度看到的趨勢有什麼不同。

Then, if I could pivot based on that response and ask a question about DOGE and the impact in the Federal business. Is there a way to characterize -- I mean, you put some numbers there, but from a type of work or type of customer perspective, is there a way to describe where you're seeing the impact and how?

然後，我是否可以基於該回應提出一個有關 DOGE 及其對聯邦業務的影響的問題。有沒有辦法來描述——我的意思是，你在那裡放了一些數字，但是從某種工作類型或客戶類型的角度來看，有沒有辦法來描述你在哪裡看到的影響以及如何看到的影響？

Sure. So Tobey, I don't think this will be inconsistent with maybe what we're seeing in other -- across the industry with other players. But where we've had small interruptions of work, it's been less more on the Fed civilian side, not so much on the Defense and Intel side.

當然。所以托比，我不認為這會與我們在整個行業中看到的其他參與者的情況不一致。但是，在我們工作出現小中斷的地方，聯準會民事方面的中斷較少，國防和英特爾方面的中斷則較少。

It may have been three pieces of work where we were doing more what I'll call maybe traditional management consulting program oversight was probably the nature of the work. If we look at the work where we're really good hands-on technical work, with a scope to get the customer to a certain outcome or objective, which is the highest propensity of our work. That's been steady, remains in place and so hopefully, that gives you a little bit of a flavor.

這可能是三項工作，我們做的更多，我稱之為傳統的管理諮詢專案監督，這可能是工作的性質。如果我們將工作視為真正擅長實際操作的技術工作，目的是讓客戶達到某個結果或目標，這是我們工作的最高傾向。它一直很穩定，保持不變，因此希望這能給你一點樂趣。

It does. With respect to that program management consultative work, how much does that represent in the business? Maybe that describes a couple of points of impact. Is there much that remains? Or does that sort of zero out the category?

確實如此。就該專案管理顧問工作而言，它在業務中佔多大比重？也許這描述了幾個影響點。還剩下多少？或者這會將該類別歸零？

Yes. It's a small piece of what we do, Tobey. I mean, most of our work is kind of categorized as real good technical work in AI, data, cybersecurity, helping manage IT systems and operations. We did very little work on the general management consulting side and in the regulatory-type federal civilian agencies.

是的。這只是我們所做工作的一小部分，托比。我的意思是，我們的大部分工作都被歸類為人工智慧、資料、網路安全、幫助管理 IT 系統和營運等領域的真正優秀的技術工作。我們在一般管理諮詢方面和監管型聯邦民事機構方面做的工作很少。

Thanks, Ted.

謝謝，泰德。

Mark Marcon, Baird.

馬克馬孔，貝爾德。

Hey, good afternoon, Ted, Rand, Shiv, and Marie. I want to -- you've did a really impressive job in terms of maintaining the margins here during the quarter. I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about -- and the guide also reflects strong margins. And so I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about how you've been able to raise the margins -- the gross margins through the mix.

嘿，下午好，Ted、Rand、Shiv 和 Marie。我想——你們在本季維持利潤率方面做得非常出色。我想知道您是否可以稍微談談——該指南也反映了強勁的利潤率。所以我想知道您是否可以談談您是如何透過組合來提高利潤率——毛利率的。

If we were to look at things from an apples-to-apples perspective, in terms of project to project, would it also show that the consulting margins are holding steady in terms of like-for-like type projects? And how should we think about the SG&A going forward, particularly if things soften a little bit. I think most people are still at an early stage in terms of trying to determine what the environment is going to be like.

如果我們從同類的角度來看事物，就專案而言，是否也顯示同類專案的諮詢利潤率保持穩定？我們應該如何看待未來的銷售、一般和行政費用，特別是如果情況稍微好轉的話。我認為大多數人仍處於早期階段，試圖確定環境將會是什麼樣子。

Great. Well, Mark, if you think about the nature of the commercial consulting work as we do more, and it becomes a bigger percentage of the business, obviously, that's going to lever up our gross margins and will continue to contribute to expanding EBITDA margins. If you think about adding capabilities like TopBloc and Workday, what we do in ServiceNow, more work that we're doing in AI and data, those are all areas where we can get an expanded gross margin. So on a like-for-like basis, just based on the nature of the work and the value proposition for the customer, you're seeing that expand in and of itself to your first question.

偉大的。好吧，馬克，如果你考慮商業諮詢工作的性質，隨著我們做得越來越多，它在業務中所佔的比例越來越大，顯然，這將提高我們的毛利率，並將繼續有助於提高 EBITDA 利潤率。如果您考慮添加 TopBloc 和 Workday 等功能、我們在 ServiceNow 中所做的工作以及我們在 AI 和數據方面所做的更多工作，這些都是我們可以提高毛利率的領域。因此，在同類基礎上，僅基於工作性質和客戶的價值主張，您就會看到它本身擴展到您的第一個問題。

And then as it relates to SG&A, we -- this will -- our model, which is bringing the talent for this work on a contingent basis is going to continue to support the business, whether revenues move up or down. We have business stabilizers that will help us both at the gross profit and gross margin level. And then it's a highly variable cost structure in SG&A, and that's going to continue to be an important stabilizer of the business.

然後，就銷售、一般和行政費用而言，我們的模式，即以偶然的方式為這項工作引進人才，將繼續支持業務，無論收入是上升還是下降。我們擁有業務穩定器，可以幫助我們提高毛利和毛利率。然後，銷售、一般和行政費用 (SG&A) 的成本結構變化很大，這將繼續成為業務的重要穩定因素。

So you see all this working kind of real time. Remember, it doesn't always happen in the moment. So in the month or the quarter, we may have a little bit of a lead or a lag as it relates to the business stabilizers kind of flowing through, but if you look over a period of quarters, you can kind of consistently see that the SG&A and the stabilizers there in around our model are working as they should.

所以你會看到所有這些都是實時工作的。請記住，它並不總是立即發生。因此，在一個月或一個季度中，我們可能會有一點點領先或滯後，因為它與業務穩定器的流動有關，但如果你回顧一個季度，你可以持續看到銷售、一般和行政費用以及我們模型中的穩定器都在正常運轉。

It certainly is evident. Just for my follow up real quickly, can you talk a little bit -- maybe this is a question for Ted or Shiv or Rand, but what are you hearing from your commercial clients with regards to not the ongoing projects, but projects that they may have been contemplating starting up a month from now, six months from now, later on, like how -- what's the level of certainty that some of those projects are going to go through versus we're kind of in a wait-and-see mode? And how variable do you think that could be based on your cumulative experience through multiple cycles?

這確實是顯而易見的。為了我的後續問題，您能否簡單談談——也許這個問題應該問 Ted、Shiv 或 Rand，但您從商業客戶那裡聽到了什麼，不是關於正在進行的項目，而是關於他們可能正在考慮在一個月後、六個月後或更晚的時候啟動的項目，比如——這些項目中某些項目能夠順利進行的確定性程度如何，而我們目前處於觀望狀態？您認為根據您多個週期的累積經驗，這會有多大的改變？

Shiv, do you want to take that?

Shiv，你想接受這個嗎？

Sure. Mark. Well, so far, what we're seeing is clients are still continuing to expand in areas of strategic importance like AI and cybersecurity. And I don't think there's evidence of them slowing some of that down. Obviously, with the macros that we see with some of the uncertainty around, we're waiting and watching across all sectors. But so far, we're not seeing evidence in strategic areas of technology investment, whether it's around cloud, innovation on cloud, data AI, cybersecurity, there's any sort of slowdown.

當然。標記。嗯，到目前為止，我們看到客戶仍在人工智慧和網路安全等具有戰略重要性的領域繼續擴張。我不認為有證據表明他們正在放慢這一進程。顯然，我們看到宏觀環境存在一些不確定性，我們正在對所有領域進行觀望。但到目前為止，我們還沒有看到技術投資策略領域出現任何放緩的跡象，無論是圍繞雲端運算、雲端創新、資料人工智慧或網路安全。

So Mark, if you think about the commercial customers by industry, they're all a little bit in a wait-and-see mode just to add to what Shiv said which ultimately is going to make them cautious here. They're going to stick with it in certain areas. And I think to Shiv's point, they're going to play their cards here for a little while before they dive in at higher levels of spend. I mean even if you look at a third-party data point like ISG, I think they've come out and said that basically IT services right now are going to be kind of flat based on the cautiousness and the latency mode, if you will, around tariffs and what's going on in the market.

所以馬克，如果你考慮一下按行業劃分的商業客戶，他們全都處於觀望狀態，這補充了 Shiv 所說的，最終會讓他們在這裡變得謹慎。他們會在某些領域堅持下去。我認為，正如 Shiv 所說，他們會先在這裡打一會兒牌，然後再投入更大的資金。我的意思是，即使你查看像 ISG 這樣的第三方數據點，我認為他們已經表示，基本上，目前的 IT 服務將基於謹慎性和延遲模式、圍繞關稅和市場情況而持平。

So there -- and look, I think -- we think about our business the same way. There are certain critical areas of advancement that we need to make in our own systems around data, the use of generative AI and other things that we think are going to be critical for the future. And then there are some areas that is more discretionary, we can hold back on right now. And so I always think our clients are thinking about this and managing it the same way we look at our own business.

所以——你看，我認為——我們以同樣的方式思考我們的業務。我們需要在自己的系統中圍繞數據、生成式人工智慧的使用以及我們認為對未來至關重要的其他方面取得某些關鍵進展。還有一些領域是比較自由的，我們現在可以暫時保留。因此，我一直認為我們的客戶正在考慮這個問題，並像我們看待自己的業務一樣來管理它。

Thanks for the color and congrats on the margins.

感謝顏色並祝賀邊緣。

Kevin McVeigh, UBS.

瑞銀的凱文·麥克維。

Great, thank you so much, and thanks for the detail. Could you just drill down and help us understand how much TopBloc contributed to the first quarter in terms of revenue and how it impacts the Q2 guidance, I guess, in terms of revenue, EPS. Just want to start there, if I could.

太好了，非常感謝，也謝謝你的詳細說明。您能否深入了解一下，幫助我們了解 TopBloc 對第一季的營收貢獻有多大，以及它對第二季營收和每股盈餘的預期有何影響。如果可以的話，我只想從那裡開始。

Yes. So Kevin, we gave when we made the acquisition, what our expectations were for the year for TopBloc, I'd just refer you back to that. We only owned it for a few weeks during March. So it was -- contribution was kind of immaterial, if you will, to the broader results. And again, as it relates to what may entail for the second quarter or the rest of the year, I mean pretty easy to do the math and what we laid out before.

是的。所以凱文，我們在收購時給出了對 TopBloc 今年的期望，我只是讓你回顧一下這一點。我們在三月只擁有了它幾個星期。所以 — — 如果你願意的話，對於更廣泛的結果來說，貢獻是無關緊要的。再說一次，至於它與第二季或今年剩餘時間可能發生的情況有關，我的意思是很容易進行計算，就像我們之前所列出的一樣。

Okay. And then I guess, I know you talked about some initial DOGE impact, Ted, but do you think we're through the process at this point? Or do you think there could be more potential adjustments? Or how are you thinking about that and have the conversations changed at the federal level at all?

好的。然後我想，我知道你談到了一些最初 DOGE 的影響，泰德，但你認為我們現在已經完成了這個過程嗎？或者您認為可能會有更多調整？或者您對此有何看法？聯邦層級的對話是否有所改變？

Rand, do you want to take that one?

蘭德，你想拿那個嗎？

Yes. I mean, I think we've keep in touch with this day to day. And we think that, listen, DOGE will still continue to seep into clients' environment. But most of our discussions are with the clients and around the technology and what they're spending money on. So I mean, I guess I would say, Ted, that DOGE is not the premier person that's second guessing anything at this point.

是的。我的意思是，我認為我們每天都保持聯繫。我們認為，DOGE 仍將繼續滲透到客戶的環境中。但我們的大部分討論都是與客戶進行的，涉及技術以及他們的支出。所以我的意思是，泰德，我想我會說，DOGE 並不是目前對任何事情都懷疑的首要人物。

Clients are trying to do a good job of controlling their own spend. And that's been true for a while, and that's kind of what continues on, so I think we're not looking over our shoulder. We're just trying to do good work that provides cost efficiency and modernization of their systems.

客戶正在努力控制好自己的支出。這種情況已經持續了一段時間，而且這種情況還在繼續，所以我認為我們不會再擔心。我們只是想做好工作，提高成本效率並實現系統的現代化。

And remember, on the Federal side, Kevin, we're very involved in what I call the enablement of Mission Systems where, as Ted alluded earlier, we do very little in just the general program management consulting area of the business. So we're much more close to the mission, the systems and even the weapon systems around security, around connectivity of the technology.

請記住，凱文，在聯邦方面，我們非常參與我所說的任務系統的支持，正如泰德之前提到的，我們在業務的一般專案管理諮詢領域做得很少。因此，我們更接近任務、系統甚至武器系統的安全性和技術的連結性。

Very helpful. Thank you.

非常有幫助。謝謝。

Trevor Romeo, William Blair.

特雷弗羅密歐、威廉布萊爾。

Hi, thank you very much for taking the questions. First one I had was just on the guidance, I guess, I appreciate it's certainly being a bit wider than normal in this environment. And thanks Marie for comment on the DOGE impact. But I was just wondering if you could maybe speak a bit more specifically to what's embedded in the guidance for each segment and maybe where some of the upside or downside could be there?

您好，非常感謝您回答這些問題。我首先想到的只是指導，我想，我很欣賞在這種環境下它肯定比正常情況下要寬泛一些。並感謝瑪麗對 DOGE 影響的評論。但我只是想知道您是否可以更具體地說明每個細分市場的指導中包含的內容，以及可能存在的一些好處或壞處？

Yes, hi, Trevor. So from a guidance perspective, the information that we give is really on a consolidated basis. So to your point, we did highlight the potential impact of DOGE, which was less than 2% on total revenues and then provided the other factors from the guidance perspective.

是的，你好，特雷弗。因此，從指導角度來看，我們提供的資訊實際上是基於合併的基礎。所以對於您的觀點，我們確實強調了 DOGE 的潛在影響，它對總收入的影響不到 2%，然後從指導角度提供了其他因素。

If you just think about the kind of commentary around all of it, Trevor, I mean, I think we would say things are pretty steady. So as you -- maybe as you just think about, we've been in kind of a pretty stable environment year as it relates to revenue per billable day coming out of the second half of the year and into the first half of the year.

特雷弗，如果你只是考慮圍繞這一切的評論，我的意思是，我認為我們會說事情相當穩定。所以，正如您所想的，今年我們的環境相當穩定，因為它與下半年和上半年的每計費日收入有關。

We had kind of a normal viewpoints of adjustment that we would always see at the beginning of the year, especially in our commercial business, that's just natural as projects kind of come to an end and then begin to ramp up. And I don't think our outlook on the go forward here is going to -- we would say anything different, but continued stability here. So if you just think about that our revenue per billable day basis, that's probably the best way just to give it some color.

我們有一種正常的調整觀點，我們總是會在年初看到這種調整，特別是在我們的商業業務中，這很自然，因為專案會結束，然後開始增加。我認為，我們對未來的展望不會——我們會說任何不同的話，但這裡將繼續保持穩定。因此，如果您只是考慮我們按計費日計算的收入，這可能是給它一些說明的最佳方法。

Okay. Thanks, Ted, Marie. That's helpful. And then for the follow up, just thinking, I guess, as clients may even look to go further into cost-cutting mode potentially here, how are you thinking about the opportunity for your Mexico near-shoring capability? Is that an area where you're either seeing or you would expect to see a little bit more resilience in demand in this type of environment?

好的。謝謝，泰德，瑪麗。這很有幫助。然後對於後續問題，我只是在想，因為客戶甚至可能希望進一步進入削減成本模式，您如何看待墨西哥近岸外包能力的機會？在這種環境下，您是否看到或預期該領域的需求會更具彈性？

Rand, do you want to take that one?

蘭德，你想拿那個嗎？

Well, the answer is yes. We've seen that over the past year, 1.5 years, 2 years, we've had and built Mexico up. So the fact that it continues to grow is indicative of the cost pursuit that clients have. But I think the future is really around our ability to weave technology together. Shiv would use the word digital engineering across the different data domains, cloud domains and technologies. So will Mexico be a part of all that? Yes, it will be.

嗯，答案是肯定的。我們看到，在過去的一年、一年半、兩年裡，我們已經擁有並建造了墨西哥。所以它持續成長的事實顯示了客戶的成本追求。但我認為未來真正取決於我們將科技結合在一起的能力。Shiv 會在不同的資料領域、雲端領域和技術中使用數位工程這個詞。那麼墨西哥會參與其中嗎？是的，會的。

Okay, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

好的，非常感謝。非常感謝。

Jeff Silber, BMO Capital Markets.

傑夫·西爾伯（Jeff Silber），BMO 資本市場。

Thank you so much. I wanted to shift back to the federal government segment. If we could just step back, maybe you could just describe what are the mechanics if an agency wanted to cut a contract short before it expires? How much notice do they have to give you? Any details around that and the implications would be great.

太感謝了。我想轉回聯邦政府部門。如果我們可以退一步來看，也許您可以描述一下如果一家機構想在合約到期前終止合同，需要採取哪些機制？他們必須給你多久通知期？有關此事及其影響的任何細節都很重要。

Yes. Well, look, a lot of this is new, Jeff, right? So we're kind of seeing this for the first time. I think that if you think about what's been going on, there's -- it's maybe two levels that the DOGE Group has been pursuing certain contracts that happen to be on the radar screen for whatever reason that they are, right? And there was an initial wave of that. And then following that, there was an edict unit to the agency heads to find certain cost savings or efficiencies and report back on those, and they've been going through that for the last few months.

是的。嗯，你看，其中很多都是新的，傑夫，對吧？這是我們第一次看到這種情況。我認為，如果你思考一下正在發生的事情，那麼 DOGE 集團可能在兩個層面上一直在追求某些恰好出現在雷達屏幕上的合同，無論出於什麼原因，對嗎？最初的浪潮就是這樣的。隨後，有一個法令部門要求各機構負責人找到某些成本節約或效率提升的方法並報告，過去幾個月他們一直在這樣做。

On the second part of that, as I mentioned, we've been engaged with our customer on a one-by-one basis as they look at the contracts and look at the delivery and whether they're getting the value that they're getting for those. And then once they make those decisions, they'll decide to make a -- what I'll just call a modification to that arrangement or to leave it in place. And so we do that real time with them as that comes up.

關於第二部分，正如我所提到的，我們一直在與客戶進行逐一接觸，讓他們審查合約、查看交付情況以及他們是否獲得了相應的價值。一旦他們做出這些決定，他們就會決定對該安排進行修改或維持原樣。因此，當問題出現時，我們會即時與他們溝通。

And so I think that it's -- I don't need to be overly vague about your question, but I don't think that there's a very specific set of rules here to follow as they go through this. Obviously, they can do what they say is terminate a contract for convenience and give a certain time period in order for that to come to an end, and that gives us time to react as well as the other contractors to react on that. But again, I think as the client goes through this, it's kind of real-time contemplation.

所以我認為——我不需要對你的問題含糊其辭，但我不認為這裡有一套非常具體的規則需要他們遵守。顯然，他們可以按照他們所說的那樣，為了方便而終止合同，並給出一定的時間來終止合同，這給了我們以及其他承包商做出反應的時間。但我再次認為，當客戶經歷這個過程時，這是一種即時的思考。

Okay. I understand. And obviously, a lot has changed since you set your budget for 2025. And I'm just curious about your own internal plans in terms of investing, hiring, capital allocation. Any changes being made to that for the rest of the year?

好的。我明白。顯然，自從你制定了 2025 年的預算以來，很多事情都改變了。我只是好奇您在投資、招募、資本配置方面的內部規劃。今年剩餘時間會對此做出任何改變嗎？

Look, I guess we're making real-time assessments about where to allocate investment inside of the business where we see that there's real opportunity. I think Shiv did a great job going through areas where we still see good solid demand with our clients and new bookings. And so we're making sure that if there are areas where we're not getting the bang for the bucket investment that we're reallocating it to those areas. I think that's probably the most important thing, Jeff.

看，我想我們正在對在業務內部分配投資的位置進行即時評估，我們發現那裡存在真正的機會。我認為 Shiv 在那些我們仍然看到客戶和新預訂有良好需求的領域做得很好。因此，我們要確保，如果有些領域的投資沒有帶來效益，我們會將資金重新分配到這些領域。我認為這可能是最重要的事情，傑夫。

Our principles around capital allocation don't change too much here. I mean, those are kind of longer-term thoughts about what is the best allocation of capital for the business and for investors. And we talk about strategic M&A. We talk about next to that, the opportunity to repurchase shares and return capital to investors and -- so those things don't change on just a one- or two-quarter basis. I mean that's kind of a principle of the business, if you will, going forward.

我們圍繞資本配置的原則在這裡不會有太大改變。我的意思是，這些都是關於如何為企業和投資者實現最佳資本配置的長期思考。我們討論戰略併購。接下來，我們討論的是回購股票和向投資者返還資本的機會——因此這些事情不會在一兩個季度內發生變化。我的意思是，如果你願意的話，這是一種未來的商業原則。

So anyway, hopefully, that helps. And I think we just have to play this as we go through the year because obviously, things are developing real time here. And so being really smart about scrutinizing every expense in the business, making sure that it's pointed towards place where we can get a good productive outcome and ultimately, EBITDA margin for that is critical.

無論如何，希望這會有所幫助。我認為我們必須在一年中不斷演進，因為顯然這裡的事情正在實時發展。因此，要真正明智地審查業務中的每項支出，確保其用於能夠獲得良好生產結果的地方，並最終實現 EBITDA 利潤率，這一點至關重要。

I understand. Thanks so much for the color.

我明白。非常感謝這個顏色。

Surinder Thind, Jefferies.

蘇林德‧廷德（Surinder Thind），傑富瑞集團（Jefferies）。

Thank you. One of the questions I'd like to start with is just kind of how we should be thinking about intra-quarter visibility at this point and the willingness of clients to change minds, start projects, delay projects relative to how they've maybe been behaving over the last six months or so given that you guys did widen the range? Like I would have assumed intra-quarter visibility would have been very high, right, 95%, 98%.

謝謝。我想首先問的一個問題是，我們現在應該如何考慮季度內的可見性，以及鑑於你們確實擴大了範圍，客戶改變主意、啟動專案、推遲專案的意願相對於過去六個月左右的表現如何？就像我假設季度內可見度會非常高，對，95%，98%。

Yes. Well, thanks, Surinder. I mean I'll let Rand take the overall question. I will tell you that I think it's just the right thing to do here to widen the range because there's a new piece of news almost daily here that all of our clients are reacting to as either relates to tariffs or DOGE. So I think just good caution is what's behind widening the range. Rand, on the first part of that in terms of what you're seeing starting, stopping projects?

是的。好吧，謝謝你，Surinder。我的意思是我會讓蘭德來回答整個問題。我會告訴你，我認為擴大範圍是正確的做法，因為幾乎每天都會有一條新訊息，我們所有的客戶都會對此做出反應，無論是與關稅還是 DOGE 有關。所以我認為擴大範圍的背後是謹慎。蘭德，關於第一部分，您看到哪些計畫啟動了，哪些計畫停止了？

Listen, on the government side, as we just discussed with Jeff, it's -- they have provisions in the contracting process to be able to stop work for convenience, and that can be pretty quickly or real time, as Ted said. On the commercial side, I think Surinder, we've seen for the last six months, cautiousness and ensure that when they're going to spend money on IT that they're going to get some value and return and cost saving drive driven toward cost savings.

聽著，在政府方面，正如我們剛剛與傑夫討論的那樣，他們在承包過程中有規定可以為了方便而停止工作，而且這可以非常迅速或實時地進行，正如泰德所說的那樣。在商業方面，我認為，在過去的六個月裡，我們看到 Surinder 非常謹慎，並確保當他們在 IT 上花錢時，他們會獲得一些價值和回報，並推動成本節約。

I don't think we've seen a change in the behavior of the client on the commercial side on that side. So -- it's just prudence, if you will, to be focused on their cost, and I think they're very focused on their cost today just as much as they were six months ago. So I'd say it's pretty steady.

我認為我們還沒有看到商業方面客戶的行為改變。所以——如果你願意的話，關注他們的成本只是謹慎之舉，我認為他們今天非常關注他們的成本，就像六個月前一樣。所以我認為它相當穩定。

Got it. That's helpful. So I think the interpretation would that be is the caution is coming more from the government side or the ECS side of the business in terms of widening the range. That's where the greater amount of uncertainty is because I think that's the way I would interpret your comments.

知道了。這很有幫助。因此，我認為這種解釋是，在擴大範圍方面，謹慎更多地來自政府方面或 ECS 業務方面。這就是更大的不確定性所在，因為我認為這就是我對你的評論的解讀方式。

Well, I don't know if I would interpret that way.

嗯，我不知道我是否會這樣理解。

If there's no change in commercial?

如果商業上沒有改變呢？

Yes. I don't know if I would interpret it that way, Surinder. I think generally, there are macro issues in both market segments. And so we're just recognizing that. Look, if we were having a problem with projects in commercial being stopped, we would report it to you. You would see low bookings because we would have debookings and we're not seeing that.

是的。我不知道我是否會這樣解釋，Surinder。我認為總體而言，兩個細分市場都存在宏觀問題。所以我們只是認識到了這一點。你看，如果我們在商業專案停止時遇到問題，我們會向你報告。您會看到預訂量較低，因為我們會有取消預訂的情況，但我們沒有看到這種情況。

But we are seeing a lot of customers think hard about the go forward because they're wondering how they may be impacted either by tariffs, inflation remaining high or other things that affect their ultimate marketplace and then could in turn affect their investment. So I would just interpret it as just general caution.

但我們看到許多客戶正在認真思考未來的發展，因為他們想知道關稅、高通膨或其他影響其最終市場的因素會如何影響他們，進而影響他們的投資。因此，我只是將其理解為一般的警告。

And look, we only expanded the range by $10 million on the top and a few million on the bottom. So it wasn't like this. This is not as draconian as you will, as maybe if you think back to COVID, we actually didn't give guidance for the second quarter. We gave a pretty dramatic two scenario set of ranges or potential outcomes, I shouldn't call it a range, potential outcomes. So this is nowhere near that.

你看，我們只是將範圍擴大了 1000 萬美元，最低擴大了幾百萬美元。所以事實並非如此。這並不像你想像的那麼嚴厲，因為如果你回想一下 COVID，我們實際上並沒有給出第二季的指導。我們給了兩種相當戲劇性的情境範圍或潛在結果，我不應該稱之為範圍，而是潛在結果。所以這根本不是那樣。

Okay. That's actually quite helpful. And then as a follow up, just in terms of when I think about the 2Q margins, at least relative to my expectations, the quarter-over-quarter improvement isn't quite as significant as it has been in the past. You kind of walked through the puts and takes of the loss of some high-margin contracts and so forth.

好的。這實際上非常有幫助。然後作為後續問題，就我考慮第二季度利潤率而言，至少相對於我的預期，季度環比增長並不像過去那麼顯著。您大致了解了一些高利潤合約的損失及其後果等等。

I would have expected TopBloc to offset that. And so can you help me understand the margin dynamic here because I think, unlike the second person that asked the question on the call, I view it as there's more margin weakness here than anticipated relative to the second question's comments or the second Q&A person.

我原本希望 TopBloc 能彌補這一點。那麼，您能幫助我理解這裡的利潤動態嗎？因為我認為，與電話中提出問題的第二個人不同，我認為相對於第二個問題的評論或第二個問答人員而言，這裡的利潤疲軟程度比預期的要大。

Go ahead, Marie.

繼續吧，瑪麗。

Yes. Surinder, when you think about the Q2, there's a couple of factors to consider, first, from a business mix perspective. So we have a slightly higher mix of federal revenue, as you know, carries a lower margin than commercial. And then what you just referenced and we've been talking about, even on the federal side, it multiplies slightly because of the impact of DOGE and DOGE revenues have higher margins. So the combination of that offset by the incremental for TopBloc gets us to where our range is.

是的。Surinder，當您考慮第二季時，有幾個因素需要考慮，首先，從業務組合的角度來看。因此，我們的聯邦收入結構略高，但如你所知，利潤率低於商業收入。然後您剛才提到並且我們也一直在談論，即使在聯邦方面，由於 DOGE 的影響，它也會略微增加，而且 DOGE 收入的利潤率更高。因此，偏移量與 TopBloc 增量的組合可以讓我們得到我們的範圍。

Got it. So I guess put it another way, then 2Q should be kind of the average run rate going forward? Or is that starting point on a go-forward basis?

知道了。所以我想換句話說，第二季應該是未來的平均運行率？或者說這是向前邁進的起點？

Yes.

是的。

Okay, thank you.

好的，謝謝。

Joseph Vafi, Canaccord Genuity.

Canaccord Genuity 的 Joseph Vafi。

Hey, everyone, good afternoon. Welcome on board, Shiv. Could we drill down a bit on the financial services commentary, Ted? I know at least last quarter, it sounded like some of the bigger banks were starting to act just a bit better, heard your commentary. But just wondering kind of how you see the cadence of momentum with those larger bank customers share kind of real time versus kind of what we saw in Q1. I have a quick follow up.

大家好，下午好。歡迎加入，Shiv。泰德，我們可以深入探討一下金融服務評論嗎？我知道至少上個季度，聽起來一些較大的銀行開始表現得更好一些，聽到了你的評論。但我只是想了解一下，您如何看待這些大型銀行客戶份額的動態節奏，與我們在第一季看到的情況相比，即時情況如何？我有一個快速的跟進。

Rand?

蘭德？

Yes, Joseph. Ted did mention, I think, in the last quarter that we saw an uptick in rec flow, for example, some big banks that's on the assignment side and some good pipeline in the consulting side. What we've seen in the first quarter was it just leveled off, just stayed pretty consistent from the first week to the last week that basically showed flatness in the business flow, if you will, from the big banks.

是的，約瑟夫。我認為，泰德確實提到，上個季度，我們看到了接收流量的上升，例如，一些從事任務方面的大銀行和諮詢方面的一些良好管道。我們在第一季看到的情況是，它只是趨於平穩，從第一周到最後一周保持相當穩定，基本上表明大型銀行的業務流持平。

But actually, we've talked to some of the big banks, and I think some of them are just doing what we've just talked about in the last couple of minutes with Jeff and Surinder. They're just waiting for to see how the macros go, make sure they have their things lined up on individual projects, and we haven't seen any major movement back up yet from the financials -- from the big banks. Other sectors or other parts of the sector, I think Ted commented on during the script, but not from the big banks.

但實際上，我們已經與一些大銀行進行了交談，我認為其中一些銀行正在做我們剛剛與 Jeff 和 Surinder 討論過的事情。他們只是在等待宏觀經濟情勢如何發展，確保他們在各個項目上都安排妥當，但我們還沒有看到金融領域——大型銀行——出現任何重大回升。我認為泰德在劇本中評論了其他行業或行業的其他部分，但不是來自大銀行。

Got it. And then just one more on DOGE. I mean we kind of talked about some scope changes and other things, areas where there's focus area where it's not. Just in general, I was wondering if you have commentary on kind of velocity of adjudications going on, if you're seeing that, the DOGE effect kind of ripple into slower decision-making on adjudications? Or is it just really more from the existing book and backlog?

知道了。然後再說一個關於 DOGE 的事情。我的意思是，我們討論了一些範圍變化和其他事情，有些領域是重點，有些領域不是。總的來說，我想知道您是否對正在進行的裁決速度有何評論，如果您看到 DOGE 效應對裁決決策速度產生連鎖反應，那麼裁決速度是否會減慢？或者它實際上只是來自現有書籍和積壓內容的更多內容？

Rand, do you want to take that?

蘭德，你想接受這個嗎？

Yes, yes. That's a really good question. And what we've seen is in the velocity from DOGE to our -- and clients, I mean agency heads. That velocity is less visible to us. What we have seen is agencies making sure that up and down the chain of command that they're in alignment with what they're doing, whether it's curtailing work or more importantly, continuing work.

是的，是的。這真是一個好問題。我們看到的是從 DOGE 到我們的客戶（我指的是機構負責人）的速度。對我們來說，這個速度就不太明顯。我們看到的是，各機構正在確保上下級的指揮系統與他們正在做的事情保持一致，無論是縮減工作量，還是更重要的是繼續工作。

As Ted mentioned, we've won a few pieces of work in this quarter in a couple of key client areas. And every piece of work that gets funded after the contract is getting checked off by more levels in the agency. So it's more in the agency, I think, is what we would say to you, Joseph, not so much the DOGE interaction with the agency. And of course, that's -- we wouldn't be privy to that at any rate.

正如 Ted 所提到的，本季度我們在幾個關鍵客戶領域贏得了一些工作。合約簽訂後，每一項獲得資助的工作都要經過機構內更高層級的審核。所以我想對你說的是，約瑟夫，這更多的是機構內部的問題，而不是 DOGE 與機構之間的互動。當然，無論如何我們都不會知道這些。

Sure, that makes sense, and thanks for that color. Thanks, Rand. Thanks, everybody.

當然，這是有道理的，謝謝你的顏色。謝謝，蘭德。謝謝大家。

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back to Ted Hanson, CEO, for any closing comments.

問答環節到此結束。我想把發言權交還給執行長泰德漢森 (Ted Hanson)，請他發表最後評論。

As we conclude, I'd like to express my gratitude to the entire fabulous ASGN team for your dedication and hard work throughout the past quarter. We have an exceptional team. And together, we'll continue to advance our business. Thank you again for joining us today. We look forward to speaking in July on our second-quarter call.

最後，我要向整個出色的 ASGN 團隊表示感謝，感謝你們在過去一個季度的奉獻和辛勤工作。我們擁有一支出色的團隊。我們將共同繼續推進我們的業務。再次感謝您今天加入我們。我們期待在七月召開第二季電話會議。

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you again for your participation.

今天的電話會議到此結束。現在您可以斷開線路。再次感謝您的參與。