Crawford & Co (CRD.A) 2025 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. My name is Carly, and I will be your conference facilitator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Crawford & Company third-quarter 2025 earnings release conference call. In conjunction with this call, a supplementary financial presentation is available on our website at www.crawco.com under the Investor Relations section. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, this conference is being recorded today, Tuesday, November 4, 2025.

Now, I would like to introduce Tami Stevenson, Crawford & Company's General Counsel.

Thank you, Carly. Some of the matters to be discussed in this conference call and in the supplementary financial presentation may include forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements may relate to, among other things, our expected future operating results and financial condition, our ability to grow our revenues and reduce our operating earning expenses; expectations regarding our anticipated contributions to our underfunded defined benefit pension plans, collectability of our billed and unbilled accounts receivable, financial results from our recently completed acquisitions, our continued compliance with the financial and other covenants contained in our financing agreements, our long-term capital resource and liquidity requirements and our ability to pay dividends in the future.

The company's actual results achieved in future quarters could differ materially from results that may be implied by such forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly release revisions to any forward-looking statements made in this conference call to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of the call or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

In addition, you are reminded that operating results from any historical period are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected for any future period. For a complete discussion regarding factors which could affect the company's financial performance, please refer to the company's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2025, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly the information under the headings Risk Factors and Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations as well as subsequent company filings with the SEC.

This presentation also includes certain non-GAAP financial measures as defined under SEC rules. As required, a reconciliation is provided for those measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. I would now like to introduce Mr. Rohit Verma, CEO of Crawford & Company. Rohit?

Thank you, Tami. Good morning, and welcome to our third-quarter 2025 earnings call. Joining me today is Bruce Swain, our Chief Financial Officer; and Tami Stevenson, our General Counsel. After our prepared remarks, we will open the call for your questions.

Crawford & Company delivered a solid third quarter with improved operating earnings across three segments and improved margins across all segments, reflecting the strength of our diversified business lines. Broadspire and International performed particularly well. Consolidated revenues came in slightly below the prior year due to the continued absence of significant weather and lower US claims activity in North America Loss Adjusting. Broadspire achieved record quarterly revenue performance with improved margins and International operations delivered record revenue growth with margin expansion across key markets.

Consolidated operating earnings improved significantly, up 22% year over year, reflecting the strength of our core portfolio and disciplined cost management.

This morning, I'll review our segment operations for the third quarter before handing it over to Bruce for a deeper dive into our financial performance. Crawford & Company combines global scale with deep expertise to tackle the widest variety of claims anywhere in the world. Operating in over 70 countries with a team of 10,000 professionals, we have the capability to manage claims of any size or complexity. Each year, we handle billions of dollars in claims, underscoring the confidence that top insurers, corporations and public entities place in our services.

Our expertise, experience and technical knowledge enable us to deliver solutions across diverse markets, while our global footprint allows us to establish and sustain strong relationships with clients navigating increasingly complex risks. This unique combination of scale, skill and reliability provides a clear competitive advantage in the claims management industry. With over 8 decades of experience, Crawford has continually evolved its business model to address the increasingly complex and dynamic claims environment.

Our growth trajectory is supported by a set of long-term drivers that position us to create sustainable value. First, severe weather events around the world create opportunities for Crawford's weather-related services. Our scale and expertise enable us to respond quickly and effectively, providing support to carriers when claims are most urgent. We have diversified Crawford's model with a multiline, multi-geography approach, which allows us to balance performance across economic as well as weather cycles to create a strong foundation for consistent profitability and long-term value creation.

US carriers increasingly seek established, reliable partners, and Crawford is well positioned with our focus on operational excellence, our scale and our specialized expertise to grow our market share in a fragmented space. Across all business segments, we continue to expand and deepen relationships with key clients and partners. These partnerships enhance cross-segment opportunities, generate new business and reinforce our position as a trusted partner for complex claims management solutions globally.

Finally, Crawford's combination of specialized knowledge and advanced technology platforms strengthens both efficiency and client outcomes. By leveraging proprietary systems, automation and data analytics, we enhance service quality and further differentiate ourselves in the marketplace. Turning to our quarterly results. Crawford & Company delivered a solid performance this quarter. Consolidated revenues were slightly lower than the third quarter of 2024, primarily due to reduced US property claims activity. However, operating earnings grew 22% year over year with margin expansion across all 4 segments, demonstrating the benefits of our diversified business model and ongoing initiatives to improve operational efficiency.

This quarter, we saw continued momentum at Broadspire, which delivered a record quarterly revenue performance, contributing meaningfully to revenue and margin growth. International operations also had a record quarter, expanding both top line results and margin across key segments. Revenue for North America Loss Adjusting and Platform Solutions was impacted by the absence of significant weather events and lower US claims activity, but our North America Loss Adjusting business saw strong operating earnings growth, thanks to the operational efficiency and solid performance from the US Global Technical Services business.

Non-GAAP EPS was $0.32 for both CRD-A and CRD-B, and the company paid a quarterly dividend of $0.075 per share. In the third quarter, we added $29 million in new business, reflecting the continued strength of our pipeline and the depth of our client relationships. This takes our total new business added in the year to $78 million. Our strong balance sheet and liquidity remain key strengths, providing the foundation for our continued investment in growth initiatives. The leverage ratio remains low at 1.64x EBITDA, reflecting disciplined capital management and cash flow generation.

We have a disciplined approach to capital deployment with focus on long-term growth through strategic initiatives, including targeted M&A, acquihires to expand capabilities and ongoing capital expenditures. We remain committed to returning capital to shareholders. In addition to the dividend, we opportunistically repurchased shares. In the third quarter, we repurchased over 275,000 shares of CRD-A and CRD-B. And subsequent to the close of the quarter, our Board of Directors authorized the addition of 2 million shares of common stock to the stock repurchase program and extended the program termination date to December 31, 2027.

With that, let me turn the call over to Bruce for a deeper look at our segment operational and financial performance.

Thank you, Rohit. Crawford operates through our four core segments that represent the global reach of our business. North America Loss Adjusting, which includes our Loss Adjusting operations in the US and Canada, accounted for 24% of third-quarter 2025 revenues. International operations, covering all service lines outside North America, contributed 35% of quarterly revenues.

And Broadspire, our US-based third-party administration business, represented 32% of quarterly revenues. Platform Solutions, which includes Contractor Connection, Networks and Subrogation services, accounted for 9% of revenues. In North America Loss Adjusting, revenue decreased 2.9% year-over-year, primarily reflecting lower significant weather and property claim activity in the US Despite the revenue headwind, operating earnings increased 28% compared to the prior year, driven by strong performance in our GTS business and improvements in our Canadian operations.

Operating margins expanded 215 basis points, reflecting both mix shift towards higher-margin services and ongoing operational efficiencies. North America Loss Adjusting continues to attract top-tier insurance adjusting talent, a key competitive advantage in delivering expertise and high-quality service to our clients. With our current visibility, we expect the lower claims activity to persist through the fourth quarter of 2025. However, we anticipate a return to more typical claims activity over the coming 12 to 18 months.

International operations showed continued momentum with revenue growth of 6.7% and operating earnings increasing 45% year-over-year. Improvements were driven by a combination of weather-related claims in Australia and Asia and new client wins, demonstrating the segment's ability to capture opportunities across key regions, including the UK, Europe, Asia and Australia. Operating margins expanded 174 basis points, reflecting disciplined execution, efficient operations and strong pricing. We're pleased with the continued progress in our international business as we capitalize on our recognition as a trusted partner capable of delivering expertise and consistent results for insurers and corporations worldwide. We anticipate some moderation in the fourth quarter related to the absence of onetime benefits we realized in the fourth quarter of 2024, but the underlying long-term trajectory of the business remains strong.

Broadspire delivered record quarterly revenues of $103.4 million in the third quarter, reflecting year-over-year growth of 4.4%. Operating earnings increased 8.1% and operating margins expanded 51 basis points, reflecting the segment's scale, efficiency and consistent execution. Client retention remained strong at 93.5%, underscoring the trust and long-term relationships Broadspire has built across its customer base, and our new business pipeline is robust. These results reflect Broadspire's growing leadership position in the TPA market and its critical role in Crawford's growth strategy.

Platform Solutions experienced a challenging quarter, with revenues down 36% year-over-year due to ongoing weather-related declines in the CAT and Contractor Connection business lines. Operating earnings decreased 33% compared to the prior year, although operating margins improved by 47 basis points, reflecting our progress in managing costs and improving efficiencies.

On this slide, you can see the decline in storm activity, which continues to impact results for our North America Loss Adjusting and Platform Solutions segments. In the third quarter, storm activity was down 35% year-over-year, contributing to a 16% decline in weather-related revenue. At the same time, our non-weather business delivered revenue growth of 3.4%, highlighting the resilience of our diversified model and the ability to partially mitigate volatility in weather-dependent segments. The reduced frequency of US property claims continues to reflect market dynamics, including affordability considerations and higher deductibles.

As the broader insurance market stabilizes, we expect weather-related claims activity to return to more typical levels over the next 12 to 18 months. Meanwhile, the strength of our non-weather businesses, including Broadspire and international operations continues to provide steady revenue and earnings support, demonstrating the value of our multiline, multi-geography model.

Now, for a look at our consolidated results, in the 2025 third quarter, company-wide revenues before reimbursements were $322.2 million, a decrease of 2.2% compared to the prior year period. Foreign exchange rates increased revenues before reimbursements by $3.4 million or 1.1%. GAAP net income attributable to shareholders totaled $12.4 million compared to $9.5 million in the same period of 2024. GAAP diluted EPS in the 2025 third quarter was $0.25 for both CRD-A and CRD-B, an increase from $0.19 for both share classes in the 2024 period.

On a non-GAAP basis, diluted EPS was $0.32 for both CRD-A and CRD-B, increasing from $0.22 for both share classes in the prior year period. The company's non-GAAP operating earnings totaled $26.6 million in the 2025 third quarter or 8.3% of revenues compared to $21.8 million or 6.6% of revenues in the prior year period. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA was $36.3 million in the 2025 third quarter or 11.3% of revenues, increasing from $29.6 million or 9% of revenues in the 2024 quarter.

The company's cash and cash equivalents as of September 30, 2025, totaled $68.8 million compared to $55.4 million at December 31, 2024. Total receivables were $263.3 million as of September 30, 2025, down $9.8 million from the 2024 year-end. The company's total debt outstanding as of September 30, 2025 totaled $218.1 million, consistent with total debt outstanding as of September 30, 2024. Net debt was $149.3 million as of September 30, 2025, while our US pension liability was $20.4 million, reflecting a funded ratio of 93.1%.

We made no discretionary contributions to our US defined benefit pension plan during the third quarter of 2025, and we do not intend to make contributions through the remainder of the year.

Operating cash flow through the third quarter of 2025 was $51.7 million with free cash flow of $24.1 million. This compares to $11.1 million in operating cash flow last year with free cash flow of negative $18.4 million. The significant improvement in operating and free cash flow in the 2025 year-to-date period was primarily due to improved earnings and improvement in working capital levels.

Unallocated corporate costs were $5.9 million in the 2025 third quarter compared to cost of $7 million in the 2024 period. The decrease was due to lower professional fees and nonrecurring items, partially offset by higher self-insured medical costs. During the 2025 third quarter, non-service pension costs were $2.4 million, consistent with the same period of 2024. We recognized pretax contingent earn-out costs of less than $100,000 in the 2025 third quarter compared to a credit of $2.1 million in the 2024 period. During the third quarter of 2025, the company repurchased approximately 275,000 shares of CRD-A and CRD-B.

As Rohit mentioned, we are increasing our share repurchase authorization with the addition of 2 million shares. And as a result, approximately 2.8 million shares are eligible to be repurchased under our 2021 share repurchase authorization. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Rohit for concluding remarks.

Thank you, Bruce. Crawford delivered a solid third quarter with strong earnings improvement as our diversified model continues to provide stability to weather and market fluctuations. We remain focused on investing in long-term growth while returning capital to shareholders, and our balance sheet and low leverage ratio provide us the financial flexibility to explore opportunities while maintaining our commitment to the dividend and share repurchase programs.

As Bruce mentioned, in looking forward, the close of this year, we expect the continued absence of significant weather events and lower US claims activity to impact results. We anticipate that fourth quarter 2025 revenue will not repeat the $30 million revenue lift we saw in the last year's fourth quarter from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which will make for a difficult comparison of Q4 2025 to Q4 2024.

Moving forward, we remain focused on the elements of our business that we can control, achieving operational efficiency, delivering quality customer service, winning new clients and expanding our business with existing customers. We remain committed to creating long-term value through a balanced approach to investment, cost discipline and returning capital to shareholders.

Thank you for your time today. Carly, please open the call for questions.

(Operator Instructions) Mark Hughes, Truist.

The North American Loss Adjusting margin seems like it was pretty strong with the top line decline. How much of that was a mix shift? You talked about the GTS in Canada. I know you've been pursuing more long-term operational efficiencies. How sticky is that better margin there?

Mark, if you think about the business, as you rightly pointed out, it really has three component parts to it. We've got in the US, our large and complex business, which we call our Global Technical Services. We have our Field Operations business and then obviously Canada. Our large and complex business continues to do well. As a matter of fact, on a full year basis, that business is growing.

And if you look at on a year-to-date basis as well, that North America Loss Adjusting has a slight growth, about 1% for the full year. The weakness that we're seeing is in our smaller size or I would say, residential claims activity. And depending on the quarter, that can have a strong bearing.

So typically, in Q3, we have higher residential claims activity that's coming from both severe convective storms as well as hurricanes. We did not see that, as a result of which the mix was more towards the large and complex side and you saw a better margin. We continue to grow our large and complex side. Like I said, it's grown this year already despite the no real weather activity. So we believe that as that business continues to grow and takes a bigger hold in the portfolio, we should see a continued improvement in the margin.

We're seeing the margins in that business stick, in fact, to some extent, getting better for our large and complex that is.

Yes. Very good. You made an interesting point last quarter about higher insurance costs, higher deductibles, fear about insurance companies raising rates if consumers report a claim that, that was suppressing some of these residential claims like you might have assumed in 3Q. Any update on that point?

Yes. I think, Mark, what we're seeing is sort of a duality where you're seeing the commercial lines, the rate adequacy starting to get passed to customers. You're actually seeing rate declines that are going to customers on the commercial side, and we believe that claims activity there has resumed to normal other than, of course, the lack of activity from weather. On the residential side, we still don't see that being passed on to the consumer. I don't know how your property insurance looks like, but my home insurance just continues to go up.

And really, it's starting to turn more into CAT cover.

Historically, if you look at insurance markets, once the carriers achieve rate adequacy, one of the carriers does go out and starts to discount and then eventually the market follows. So our belief still is, as Bruce mentioned in his remarks, that in 12 to 18 months, we should start to see the deductibles come down and normal claims activity resume. But we have not seen that happen yet despite a view that the property market has achieved rate adequacy.

Yes. The international margin was also up. Was that just incremental flow-through from weather claims? Was that -- was there a GTS impact there as well?

International, as you know, has been an important push for us from both growth as well as profitability perspective with the main focus being on profitability. There was definitely weather. In Q3, we saw weather in Australia. We saw weather in UK and then we have seen weather in Europe in earlier part of the year.

That is still sort of flowing through the system. Again, our target is to get international to a 10% margin in the medium to long term, and that is the journey we're on. As we've shared with you before, we will see probably quarterly fluctuations because of weather and other cyclicality reasons in our business, but our trend is to keep moving international up.

Yes. And then any more you can say about the business pipeline in Broadspire? Is this your sales initiatives? Is there just a little more movement in the market? What is contributing to that?

Yes. We had actually seen a slowdown in the RFP activity in the Q2. We've kind of seen that pick back up in Q3. As you know, the sales cycles on this business are long, but we've been growing at a nice clip. I think this quarter, we reported almost 4% growth.

I think for the full year, we're still looking at -- or I should say, year-to-date, the 9 months, we're looking at somewhere around that 3% to 4% as well. That's the kind of growth that we expect to continue seeing on an organic basis.

But margins are healthy. Margins improved this quarter. I think you'll recall that last quarter, we had a discussion about a slight drop in margins. It was about 50 or 70 basis points, I think. And we had said that, that's within the realm of tolerance.

So we continue to invest in that business. We believe there is still a strong trajectory for that business and expect that business to continue growing as the months and quarters go by.

Kevin Steinke, Barrington Research.

I wanted to start off continuing the discussion on the insurance affordability. It sounds like you're not seeing that in your international markets. It's just kind of a US specific only at this point. Is that correct?

We believe that. It is a phenomenon that we are seeing more in the US market. We did see that in the international markets, but they recovered far more quickly than what we've seen in the US.l

Okay. And you talked about the Broadspire margin there. You had a nice ramp up sequentially. And yes, you talked about last quarter kind of the bandwidth that you would expect those margins to remain in. But I was just wondering if there's anything specific that helped the margin sequentially in the third quarter versus second quarter, if that was just more revenue ramping up or if there are any cost items to call out there?

Not really, Kevin. I think we had mentioned that we had -- we always try to hire for Broadspire in advance so that as the clients are coming on, we know when the clients are coming on. So sometimes they straddle quarter boundaries. So we will see that we've taken the cost on a little bit sooner than what the revenue is coming in just because of the straddling over those boundaries. We're not -- we feel very good about the Broadspire business, and we believe that we will continue to see growth.

I think the margin will remain in this band because we still believe there is room for investment in that business from a technology perspective. We believe that AI can be a major enabler in that business rather than a disruptor for us. And we are identifying opportunities where we can deploy AI. So in the short term, we might see some more capital expense going into that business and -- or some more investment going in that business. But longer term, I think it should just continue to help the margins and make it an important contributor to profitability for the company.

Okay. Good. I thought it was interesting or somewhat impressive that the last couple of quarters, particularly this quarter with the significant decline in Platform Solutions revenue related to weather events and insurance affordability despite that revenue decline, you actually improved the margin year-over-year for Platform Solutions. So can you kind of talk about how you were able to accomplish that?

Some of that, as we've talked about before, is a little bit of a mix shift. We've got, as you know, that there are really three predominant businesses in there. We've got a Catastrophe business, our Subrogation business, which goes by the name of Praxis, and our Contractor Connection business. The Catastrophe business is, as the name suggests, is to serve clients during the times of catastrophe. That usually creates big revenue, but the margin profile on that is not the same as the margin profile in the other 2 businesses.

So when there is a mix shift, we tend to see the margin improve because of the mix shift. But ideally, we would like to see this business grow, and we believe that as normal claims reporting patterns resume and normal weather patterns resume, we will start to see this business come back up.

Okay. Great. Bruce, you had called out for international related to the fourth quarter, some onetime benefits in the year ago quarter. I have in my notes here that you had a onetime tax benefit that helped you in the year ago quarter on the margin in international. But is there anything else that we should be aware of there?

Yes. The tax benefit is one item. Last year, at the end of the year, we had some pretty significant revenue in our Middle East business related to floods that had occurred earlier in the year. We also had some higher revenues in Asia, particularly in Taiwan, related to some earthquake claims and had some flooding losses in Latin America. So those kind of 4 items when you bunch in, the tax benefit kind of equally contributed to the outperformance in last year's fourth quarter.

And we just don't expect that to repeat, notwithstanding the fact that we still expect the international results trajectory to remain strong. And -- but it's just not going to be the same quarterly result as we had last year.

Okay. Understood. That's helpful. And in relation to the increase in the share repurchase authorization, maybe just talk about how active you expect to be there? And kind of the rationale you see for continuing to repurchase shares?

Sure. So we think of our shares as trading well below their intrinsic value, and it's recognized by the Board as well. We have kind of an open market share repurchase plan that we execute on, kind of given the trading volumes that we have, you don't see hugely significant amounts that are being repurchased in this last quarter. It was 275,000 shares. And in the absence of any large blocks or significant changes in the trading volume, that's probably about the level that you would see, again, kind of depending on the price as well.

We're disciplined buyers. We're not buyers at any price.

To the extent there are blocks that come up, we would certainly be interested in looking at those to the extent that there -- that our stock is trading significantly below what our assessment of intrinsic value is. So I think it's something that you'll continue to see us active in through the end of '27 based on the current authorization.

Carly, if you can check to see if there are any other questions?

(Operator Instructions) There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Verma for any closing remarks.

Thank you, Carly. And a big thank you to all our employees, clients, and shareholders for your continued commitment to Crawford & Company. We look forward to seeing you next quarter. Thank you and God bless.

Thank you for participating in today's Crawford & Company conference call. This call will be available for replay beginning at 11:30 AM Eastern Time today through 11:59 PM Eastern Time on November 11, 2025. The conference ID number for the replay is 3506432#. The number to dial for the replay is 1 (800) 770-2030. Thank you. You may now disconnect.