Kforce Inc (KFRC) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Hello, and thank you for standing by. My name is Regina, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Kforce Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions)

你好，謝謝你的支持。我叫 Regina，今天我將擔任你們的會議接線員。在此，歡迎大家參加 Kforce 2022 年第四季度財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）

I would now like to turn the conference over to Joe Liberatore, President and CEO. Please go ahead.

我現在想將會議轉交給總裁兼首席執行官 Joe Liberatore。請繼續。

Good afternoon. This call contains certain statements that are forward looking. These statements are based upon current assumptions and expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may vary materially from the factors listed in Kforce's public filing offerings and other reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We cannot undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements. You can find additional information about our results in our earnings release and our SEC filings. In addition, we have published our prepared remarks within our Investor Relation portion of our website.

下午好。此電話會議包含某些前瞻性陳述。這些陳述基於當前的假設和預期，並受到風險和不確定性的影響。實際結果可能與 Kforce 公開備案的產品以及向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他報告和備案中列出的因素存在重大差異。我們不承擔更新任何前瞻性陳述的義務。您可以在我們的收益發布和美國證券交易委員會備案文件中找到有關我們結果的更多信息。此外，我們還在我們網站的投資者關係部分發布了我們準備好的評論。

On this call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP items. The non-GAAP financial measures provided should not be considered as a substitute for or superior to the measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. They are included as an additional clarifying items to aid investors in further understanding the impact of these items and events have on our financial results. Our earnings press release provides a reconciliation difference between GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures.

在這次電話會議上，我們將討論某些非 GAAP 項目。所提供的非 GAAP 財務指標不應被視為替代或優於根據 GAAP 編制的財務業績指標。它們作為額外的澄清項目包括在內，以幫助投資者進一步了解這些項目和事件對我們財務業績的影響。我們的收益新聞稿提供了 GAAP 和非 GAAP 財務指標之間的調節差異。

Let me begin by offering some commentary about the current operating environment, which is informed by our internal metrics and discussions with our clients and our associates. As we've mentioned on prior earnings call, we experienced unprecedented demand in Technology business beginning in 2021 and continuing largely for the first half of 2022 driven by our clients' acceleration of their digital spend and transformation efforts geared towards employee engagement in a more remote-centric environment and their customer experiences.

讓我首先對當前的運營環境發表一些評論，這是根據我們的內部指標以及與客戶和員工的討論得出的。正如我們在之前的財報電話會議上提到的那樣，我們在技術業務方面經歷了前所未有的需求，從 2021 年開始，並在很大程度上持續到 2022 年上半年，這是由於我們的客戶加速了他們的數字支出和轉型努力，旨在讓員工參與到更偏遠的地方- 為中心的環境和他們的客戶體驗。

The unprecedented demand fueled the 2-year growth rate in our Technology business of approximately 44%, which had again significantly exceeded market benchmarks. We had previously noted a slowdown in demand during the second half of the year and more recently have seen a higher level of project scrutiny being exercised by our clients given the macroeconomic uncertainty. However, technology spend on critical technology initiatives across industries is still proceeding and provides a strong underpinning for our technology business.

前所未有的需求推動我們技術業務的 2 年增長率達到約 44%，再次大大超過市場基準。我們之前曾注意到今年下半年需求放緩，最近我們看到，鑑於宏觀經濟的不確定性，我們的客戶正在對項目進行更高級別的審查。然而，跨行業關鍵技術計劃的技術支出仍在繼續，為我們的技術業務提供了強大的支撐。

We continue to have an unwavering belief and expectation that the long-term secular drivers of demand and technology spend are more present than ever, irrespective of how the economic environment plays out. The strength of our secular drivers of demand in technology accelerated coming out of the Great Recession by advancements in mobility, big data, cloud and the rapid expansion of consumer-facing technology initiatives. The pandemic has only accelerated the strategic imperative for businesses to further digitize their business to enhance the consumer and employee experiences.

我們繼續堅信和期望需求和技術支出的長期長期驅動因素比以往任何時候都更加存在，無論經濟環境如何發揮作用。通過移動性、大數據、雲計算的進步以及面向消費者的技術計劃的快速擴張，我們對技術需求的長期驅動力量加速走出大蕭條。大流行只是加速了企業進一步數字化業務以增強消費者和員工體驗的戰略需要。

Technology is not optional and is core to all business strategies regardless of industry, and we don't see that changing. While our business is not immune from the impacts of economic turbulence, trends during periods of economic softness suggest that technology spend is increasingly resilient and less correlated than other areas where companies utilize flexible talent. This is informed by our performance in the Great Recession where our Technology business is down approximately 7% versus general staffing market declines of roughly 25% to 30%, and the 2020 pandemic where our Technology business was virtually flat in comparison to general staffing market, which experienced 10% to 15% declines.

技術不是可有可無的，它是所有業務戰略的核心，無論行業如何，我們認為這種情況不會改變。雖然我們的業務無法免受經濟動蕩的影響，但經濟疲軟時期的趨勢表明，與公司利用靈活人才的其他領域相比，技術支出的彈性越來越大，相關性也越來越低。這是從我們在大蕭條中的表現得知的，當時我們的技術業務下降了約 7%，而一般人員配置市場下降了大約 25% 至 30%，而 2020 年的大流行中，我們的技術業務與一般人員配置市場相比幾乎持平，經歷了 10% 到 15% 的下降。

We also believe that our focus on organic growth for the last 15 years and the divestiture of noncore businesses has dramatically sharpened our focus and contributed to our sustained success. It has also resulted in a clean balance sheet with virtually no debt and allowed us to return a tremendous amount of capital to our shareholders. Today's announcement of a 20% increase in our dividend, the fifth increase in 4 years, and an increase in our share repurchase authorization is further evidence of our confidence in our business and our intention in prioritizing return of capital going forward.

我們還相信，過去 15 年我們對有機增長的關注以及對非核心業務的剝離極大地加強了我們的關注點，並為我們的持續成功做出了貢獻。它還導致了一個乾淨的資產負債表，幾乎沒有債務，並使我們能夠向股東返還大量資本。今天宣布我們的股息增加 20%，這是 4 年來的第五次增加，並且我們的股票回購授權增加，進一步證明了我們對我們的業務充滿信心以及我們打算優先考慮未來的資本回報。

We have significantly improved our profitability levels as evidenced by our nearly 300 basis point increase in operating margin since 2016. This has been accomplished while also reducing our concentration of cyclically sensitive direct hire revenues to less than 3% of revenues in the fourth quarter of 2022 versus 7.5% immediately preceding the Great Recession and 19.4% preceding the dot-com recession. The quality of our business and revenue stream continues to improve.

自 2016 年以來，我們的營業利潤率增長了近 300 個基點，這證明了我們的盈利水平得到了顯著提高。在實現這一目標的同時，我們在 2022 年第四季度將對周期敏感的直接僱傭收入的集中度降低到不到收入的 3%大蕭條前為 7.5%，互聯網衰退前為 19.4%。我們的業務和收入流的質量不斷提高。

To that point, 2022 was an extremely successful year for Kforce. We met the financial objectives we outlined at the beginning of the year despite the softening in demand we began to experience in the second half of 2022. We grew revenues in our Technology business by 18% on top of more than 22% growth in 2021. In addition, we further improved our profitability by 20% in 2022 over 2021 levels. Strategically, we advanced our integrated sales strategy to further integrate our managed teams and project solutions capability within our Technology business. We advanced the repositioning of our FA business towards more highly skilled positions.

就這一點而言，2022 年對 Kforce 來說是極其成功的一年。儘管我們在 2022 年下半年開始經歷需求疲軟，但我們實現了年初制定的財務目標。我們的技術業務收入在 2021 年增長超過 22% 的基礎上增長了 18%。此外，我們在 2022 年的盈利能力比 2021 年的水平進一步提高了 20%。在戰略上，我們推進了我們的綜合銷售戰略，以進一步整合我們的技術業務中的管理團隊和項目解決方案能力。我們推進了 FA 業務的重新定位，轉向更高技能的職位。

Our team made significant progress on the multiyear effort to transform our back office, and we fully transition to a hybrid work environment across all markets and opened our new state-of-the-art headquarters in Tampa. Our office-occasional work environment provides our people with maximum flexibility and choice in designing their workdays that is grounded in our trust in them and supported by technology. This has resulted in improved retention of our associates and positioned Kforce as a destination for top talent.

我們的團隊在多年的後台轉型努力中取得了重大進展，我們全面過渡到跨所有市場的混合工作環境，並在坦帕開設了我們最先進的新總部。我們的辦公室偶爾工作環境為我們的員工提供了最大的靈活性和選擇，以設計他們的工作日，這是基於我們對他們的信任和技術的支持。這提高了我們員工的保留率，並將 Kforce 定位為頂尖人才的目的地。

Kforce is proud to be certified as a Great Place to Work, which distinguishes Kforce as one of the best companies to work for in the country. As we look ahead to 2023, we will continue to make necessary investments in our business to further advance our integrated sales strategy and the transformation of our back office to sustain our long-term growth ambitions and attain double-digit operating margins. We have built a solid foundation of Kforce and are partnering with world-class companies to solve complex problems and help them transform their businesses. There is simply no other market we would want to be focused on other than domestic technology talent solution space.

Kforce 很自豪能夠被認證為“最佳工作場所”，這使 Kforce 成為該國最適合工作的公司之一。展望 2023 年，我們將繼續對我們的業務進行必要的投資，以進一步推進我們的綜合銷售戰略和後台轉型，以維持我們的長期增長目標並實現兩位數的營業利潤率。我們已經建立了 Kforce 的堅實基礎，並正在與世界一流的公司合作，以解決複雜的問題並幫助他們實現業務轉型。除了國內技術人才解決方案空間之外，我們根本不想關注其他市場。

In a macro sense, the near term is uncertain, but our path forward couldn't be clearer, and we will remain consistent with the principles under which we've been operating so successfully. We have a solid, highly tenured team in place with the expectation of continuing to capture additional market share and are prepared for the long term and whatever the near-term environment may bring. We have a long track record of expanding our market share, particularly in times of market turbulence, and intend on continuing to deliver above-market performance.

從宏觀意義上講，短期內不確定，但我們前進的道路再清楚不過了，我們將繼續堅持我們一直以來如此成功運作所遵循的原則。我們擁有一支穩固、經驗豐富的團隊，期望繼續獲得更多的市場份額，並為長期和短期環境可能帶來的任何變化做好準備。我們在擴大市場份額方面有著長期的記錄，尤其是在市場動盪時期，並打算繼續提供高於市場的業績。

I am thankful for the tireless efforts of all Kforcers, from our incredible leadership team, our sales and delivery associates, to our revenue enablement team and our executive leadership team who have been together through multiple economic cycles. I cannot be prouder of what these teams have achieved in executing our strategy over so many years.

我感謝所有 Kforcers 的不懈努力，從我們令人難以置信的領導團隊、我們的銷售和交付助理，到我們的收入支持團隊和我們的執行領導團隊，他們一起經歷了多個經濟周期。我為這些團隊多年來在執行我們的戰略方面所取得的成就感到無比自豪。

Kye Mitchell, our Chief Operations Officer, will now give greater insight into our performance and recent operating trends. Dave Kelly, Kforce's Chief Financial Officer, will then provide additional detail on our financial results as well as our future financial expectations. Kye?

我們的首席運營官 Kye Mitchell 現在將更深入地了解我們的業績和近期運營趨勢。 Kforce 的首席財務官 Dave Kelly 隨後將提供有關我們財務業績的更多詳細信息以及我們未來的財務預期。凱？

Thank you, Joe. Overall revenues grew slightly more than 2% year-over-year in the fourth quarter. Our Technology business, which continues to be the primary driver of our success, performed slightly ahead of our expectations with year-over-year growth of nearly 8% in the fourth quarter and 18% growth for the full year of 2022. Our Technology business now has an annual run rate of $1.5 billion and represents approximately 90% of our total revenues. We believe our strong, consistent outperformance of the market over many years has resulted from our execution and dedicated focus in the domestic technology market.

謝謝你，喬。第四季度總收入同比增長略高於 2%。我們的技術業務仍然是我們成功的主要驅動力，其表現略高於我們的預期，第四季度同比增長近 8%，2022 年全年增長 18%。我們的技術業務現在的年運行率為 15 億美元，約占我們總收入的 90%。我們相信，我們多年來強勁、持續的市場表現源於我們對國內技術市場的執行力和專注。

As Joe mentioned in his commentary, our recent operating trends and activity levels have experienced a degree of softening as clients appear to be more cautious given the uncertain macroeconomic environment. This trend began in the second half of 2022 and has continued into the new year. Sales cycles are becoming longer due to extended interview processes and more scrutiny around budgets. Year-end assignment attrition was also slightly higher compared to the last few years. However, our clients continue to pursue essential technology projects even as they become cautious due to the economic uncertainty.

正如喬在他的評論中提到的那樣，我們最近的經營趨勢和活動水平經歷了一定程度的疲軟，因為客戶在不確定的宏觀經濟環境下似乎更加謹慎。這種趨勢從 2022 年下半年開始，一直持續到新的一年。由於面談過程的延長和對預算的更多審查，銷售週期變得越來越長。與過去幾年相比，年終分配流失率也略有上升。然而，儘管我們的客戶因經濟不確定性而變得謹慎，但他們仍在繼續追求重要的技術項目。

Overall average bill rates in Technology continued to improve with 1.7% sequential growth to approximately $90 per hour. While the pace of bill rate growth may moderate in the near term, we expect that the continued scarcity of highly skilled technology talent will drive continued bill rate expansion over time. Further, as our portfolio of managed teams and solution engagements continues to grow, we would expect average bill rates to expand along with improved revenue visibility and margins.

技術領域的總體平均賬單費率繼續提高，環比增長 1.7%，達到每小時約 90 美元。雖然短期內賬單利率的增長速度可能放緩，但我們預計高技能技術人才的持續稀缺將推動賬單利率隨著時間的推移持續擴張。此外，隨著我們的管理團隊和解決方案參與的組合不斷增長，我們預計平均賬單費率會隨著收入可見度和利潤率的提高而擴大。

Critical technology initiatives continue with our clients in areas of cloud, digital, UI/UX, data analytics, project and program management. Conversations with our clients suggest that they will continue to prioritize significant technology investments to remain competitive regardless of the economic environment. Many of our engagements are multiyear initiatives that we expect to continue despite any changes in the macroeconomic environment.

我們的客戶在雲、數字、UI/UX、數據分析、項目和程序管理等領域繼續開展關鍵技術計劃。與我們客戶的對話表明，無論經濟環境如何，他們都將繼續優先考慮重大技術投資以保持競爭力。儘管宏觀經濟環境發生任何變化，我們的許多合作都是多年計劃，我們希望這些計劃能夠繼續下去。

Clients continue to look to us to provide managed teams and project solutions engagements. Our integrated sales strategy allows our people to leverage their long-term relationships in this space as we seek to solve our clients' challenges. Clients are looking for us to continue to move up the value chain, providing more complex solutions. We feel an integrated strategy allows us to leverage our existing sales, recruiters and consultants to effectively deliver in the solutions space.

客戶繼續指望我們提供管理團隊和項目解決方案。我們的綜合銷售戰略使我們的員工能夠在我們尋求解決客戶挑戰的過程中利用他們在該領域的長期關係。客戶期待我們繼續提升價值鏈，提供更複雜的解決方案。我們認為綜合戰略使我們能夠利用現有的銷售人員、招聘人員和顧問，有效地提供解決方案領域的服務。

Our year-over-year growth was driven by a diverse set of industries. Sequentially, we are still seeing broad-based demand, but with select softening. We have not yet seen any particular industry vertical as a whole experience acute reductions in demand. This remains true through the first month of 2023. We have a very diverse client portfolio of large market-leading customers that are prioritizing technology spend, which we believe will be a positive catalyst to our long-term sustainable above-market growth. While we may be susceptible to short-term disruption with specific clients or industry-specific dynamics, we expect our diversification and concentration in world-class companies to serve our shareholders well over the long term.

我們的同比增長是由多種行業推動的。因此，我們仍然看到廣泛的需求，但有部分需求疲軟。我們還沒有看到任何特定的垂直行業作為一個整體經歷需求的急劇減少。到 2023 年的第一個月，情況仍然如此。我們擁有非常多樣化的客戶組合，其中包括大型市場領先客戶，這些客戶優先考慮技術支出，我們相信這將成為我們長期可持續高於市場增長的積極催化劑。雖然我們可能容易受到特定客戶或特定行業動態的短期干擾，但我們希望我們在世界一流公司的多元化和集中化能夠長期為我們的股東服務。

We expect first quarter revenues in our Technology business to grow in the low to mid-single digits year-over-year and decline in the mid-single digits sequentially, which contemplates the softness we experienced at the beginning of the year. Our overall FA business declined 26.4% year-over-year, which reflects the continued runoff of business we are no longer pursuing due to our repositioning efforts. Sequentially, our FA business experienced 4.7% growth, primarily due to a short-term project in support of Hurricane Ian recovery efforts with a strategic client. This project essentially ended in late January.

我們預計我們技術業務的第一季度收入將同比增長中低個位數，並連續下降中個位數，這反映了我們在年初經歷的疲軟。我們的整體 FA 業務同比下降 26.4%，這反映出由於我們的重新定位努力，我們不再追求的業務持續流失。相繼，我們的 FA 業務增長了 4.7%，這主要是由於與戰略客戶一起支持颶風伊恩恢復工作的短期項目。這個項目基本上在一月下旬結束。

We expect revenues to decline in the low to mid-teens sequentially and year-over-year to be down in the mid-20% range. We continue to support our FA business and improve its alignment with our Technology business. Evidence of this progress is that our average bill rate in FA, excluding the Hurricane Ian project in the fourth quarter of 2022, is $51 compared to $37 in the fourth quarter of 2019.

我們預計收入將連續下降到十幾歲左右，同比下降 20% 左右。我們繼續支持我們的 FA 業務，並改善其與我們的技術業務的一致性。這一進展的證據是，我們在 FA 的平均賬單費率（不包括 2022 年第四季度的颶風伊恩項目）為 51 美元，而 2019 年第四季度為 37 美元。

As Joe mentioned, Direct Hire comprises less than 3% of total revenues. We made the intentional decision to curtail investment to grow our Direct Hire business due to the volatility we typically see in this revenue stream in uncertain economic times. Our expectations for Direct Hire are for continued declines in the first quarter. We are pleased that we are not reliant on this business to make significant contributions to our growth and profitability. We believe the scalability of a flexible model is the best foundation for predictable, sustainable and profitable growth.

正如 Joe 所提到的，直接僱用佔總收入的不到 3%。由於在不確定的經濟時期我們通常會在該收入流中看到波動，因此我們有意決定減少投資以發展我們的直接僱用業務。我們對 Direct Hire 的預期是第一季度繼續下降。我們很高興我們不依賴這項業務為我們的增長和盈利能力做出重大貢獻。我們相信，靈活模式的可擴展性是實現可預測、可持續和盈利增長的最佳基礎。

The investments we continue to make in our strategic priorities along with process improvements to increase productivity levels and our associate population provide capacity to grow. While capacity exists, we have continued to make targeted investments in associate headcount to drive sustainable growth. This investment is predominantly in our managed teams and project solutions capabilities within our Technology business as we evolve to meet customer requests and grow share. We have supported and retained our best people, and we have made significant changes to our -- to give our employees flexibility and choice in our office-occasional work environment.

我們繼續對我們的戰略優先事項進行投資，並改進流程以提高生產力水平，我們的相關人員提供增長能力。儘管存在產能，但我們繼續對員工人數進行有針對性的投資，以推動可持續增長。隨著我們為滿足客戶要求和擴大份額而不斷發展，這項投資主要用於我們技術業務中的管理團隊和項目解決方案能力。我們支持並留住了我們最優秀的人才，我們對我們的工作進行了重大改變——讓我們的員工在我們的辦公室臨時工作環境中具有靈活性和選擇權。

As mentioned last quarter, Kforce has earned Glassdoor's OpenCompany designation, which recognizes employers that proactively promote and embrace workplace transparency through sharing workplace culture, being responsive to all reviews and sharing our updates related to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts along with our ESG priorities. I am grateful for the trust our clients, consultants and candidates have in Kforce. I would like to thank our amazing people who helped our fourth quarter results and impressive 2022 performance. They are the backbone of our success.

正如上個季度所述，Kforce 已獲得 Glassdoor 的 OpenCompany 稱號，該稱號認可那些通過分享工作場所文化、響應所有評論並分享我們在多元化、公平和包容性方面的最新進展以及我們的 ESG 優先事項來積極促進和擁抱工作場所透明度的雇主。我很感謝我們的客戶、顧問和求職者對 Kforce 的信任。我要感謝我們出色的員工，他們幫助我們取得了第四季度的業績和令人印象深刻的 2022 年業績。他們是我們成功的支柱。

I will now turn the call over to Dave Kelly, Kforce's Chief Financial Officer. Dave?

我現在將把電話轉給 Kforce 的首席財務官 Dave Kelly。戴夫？

Thank you, Kye. We are pleased with our performance in 2022 as full year revenues of approximately $1.71 billion increased nearly 8% year-over-year, led again by market share gains in our Technology business. GAAP earnings per share were $3.68. Normalized for impairment charges related to our joint venture, adjusted earnings per share of $4.25 improved approximately 20% year-over-year.

謝謝你，凱。我們對 2022 年的業績感到滿意，全年收入約為 17.1 億美元，同比增長近 8%，這再次得益於我們技術業務的市場份額增長。 GAAP 每股收益為 3.68 美元。將與我們的合資企業相關的減值費用標準化後，調整後的每股收益為 4.25 美元，同比增長約 20%。

Fourth quarter revenues of $419.7 million grew 2.3% year-over-year, and adjusted earnings per share were $0.93. Overall gross margins decreased 70 basis points year-over-year and 50 basis points sequentially to 28.5% in the fourth quarter principally due to a lower mix of Direct Hire revenue.

第四季度收入為 4.197 億美元，同比增長 2.3%，調整後每股收益為 0.93 美元。第四季度總體毛利率同比下降 70 個基點，環比下降 50 個基點至 28.5%，這主要是由於直接僱傭收入的組合較低。

Flex margins of 26.1% in our Technology business, which met our expectations in the fourth quarter, increased 10 basis points sequentially and declined 30 basis points year-over-year. For the full year 2022, Flex margins in Technology of 26.4% were unchanged from 2021 levels.

我們技術業務的 Flex 利潤率為 26.1%，符合我們在第四季度的預期，環比增長 10 個基點，同比下降 30 個基點。 2022 年全年，Flex 在技術領域的利潤率為 26.4%，與 2021 年的水平持平。

Top technology talent remains scarce. And we've been -- when we've seen consistent wage increases over many years. We've had good success passing through these increases to our clients due to the critical work our consultants perform. This has led to relative stability in the margin profile of our Technology business throughout economic expansions and declines, which is our expectation as we move forward.

頂尖技術人才仍然稀缺。而且我們一直 - 當我們看到多年來工資持續增長時。由於我們的顧問所做的重要工作，我們已經成功地將這些增長傳遞給了我們的客戶。這導致我們技術業務的利潤率在整個經濟擴張和衰退期間相對穩定，這是我們前進的預期。

Flex margins in our FA business declined 210 basis points sequentially as a result of a short-term lower margin project associated with Hurricane Ian relief. As we look forward to Q1, we expect spreads in our Technology business to be stable with fourth quarter levels, though overall technology Flex margins will be lower due to seasonal payroll tax resets.

由於與颶風伊恩救濟相關的短期低利潤項目，我們 FA 業務的靈活利潤率連續下降 210 個基點。在我們展望第一季度時，我們預計我們的技術業務的利差將與第四季度的水平保持穩定，儘管由於季節性工資稅重置，整體技術 Flex 利潤率將降低。

Overall gross margins are also expected to decline due to the lower Direct Hire revenues. While we believe the clients may be slightly more price sensitive in the current macroeconomic environment, we believe our nearly 90% concentration in technology provides relative margin stability over the long term due to the desire by our clients to increasingly engage us for projects critical to their ongoing success. We also expect that business in the managed teams and project solutions space should remain resilient in this environment, and those initiatives bring higher margins to the overall portfolio.

由於直接僱用收入減少，預計整體毛利率也將下降。雖然我們認為客戶在當前的宏觀經濟環境中可能對價格略微敏感，但我們相信我們將近 90% 的技術集中度在長期內提供了相對的利潤率穩定性，因為我們的客戶希望越來越多地讓我們參與對他們至關重要的項目持續的成功。我們還預計，託管團隊和項目解決方案領域的業務在這種環境下應保持彈性，而這些舉措將為整體投資組合帶來更高的利潤。

Overall SG&A expenses as adjusted for the impairment charges as a percent of revenue decreased 90 basis points year-over-year, which is predominantly driven by lower performance-based compensation as it was elevated in 2021 due to extraordinary growth levels. We have a high degree of variable compensation within our plans, which creates operating leverage as growth slows. We've also been successful in driving greater cost efficiencies from our real estate portfolio given our office-occasion model, which has allowed us to reduce overall square footage by approximately 40%. As leases expire, we will continue to transition to the new office footprint, which will lead to further declines in real estate costs.

經減值費用調整後的總體 SG&A 費用佔收入的百分比同比下降 90 個基點，這主要是由於基於績效的薪酬較低，因為非凡的增長水平在 2021 年有所提高。我們的計劃中有高度的可變薪酬，隨著增長放緩，這會產生經營槓桿。鑑於我們的辦公場合模型，我們還成功地從我們的房地產投資組合中提高了成本效率，這使我們能夠將總面積減少約 40%。隨著租約到期，我們將繼續過渡到新的辦公空間，這將導致房地產成本進一步下降。

We expect SG&A expenses as a percentage of revenue to increase sequentially due to the annual payroll tax reset in the first quarter. Our fourth quarter operating margin as adjusted for the impairment charges was 6.2% and improved 20 basis points over the fourth quarter of 2021 as a result of the reduction in SG&A expense.

由於第一季度年度工資稅的重置，我們預計 SG&A 費用佔收入的百分比將依次增加。由於 SG&A 費用的減少，我們第四季度經減值費用調整後的營業利潤率為 6.2%，比 2021 年第四季度提高了 20 個基點。

Our effective tax rate in the fourth quarter was 23.1%, which was higher than we anticipated because of a lower tax benefit on the vesting of restricted stock and other year-end tax adjustments.

我們第四季度的實際稅率為 23.1%，高於我們的預期，因為歸屬限制性股票和其他年終稅收調整的稅收優惠較低。

Operating cash flows were $12.7 million and as expected, were negatively impacted by the final settlement of $20 million related to payroll taxes previously deferred under the CARES Act.

經營現金流為 1270 萬美元，正如預期的那樣，受到與先前根據 CARES 法案遞延的工資稅相關的 2000 萬美元最終結算的負面影響。

We generated $141 million in EBITDA in 2022, which represents an increase of 11.4% year-over-year. Operating cash flows were $90.8 million in 2022. When adjusted for cash outflows in 2022 related to the settlement of our terminated pension plan and the deferred payroll taxes, operating cash flows would have been approximately $130 million. We returned slightly in excess of 100% of operating cash flows in 2022 to our shareholders through $24 million in dividends and nearly $68 million in open market repurchases. Our return on invested capital was approximately 46% in the fourth quarter.

我們在 2022 年產生了 1.41 億美元的 EBITDA，同比增長 11.4%。 2022 年的運營現金流為 9080 萬美元。如果對 2022 年與我們終止的養老金計劃和遞延工資稅的結算相關的現金流出進行調整，運營現金流約為 1.3 億美元。我們通過 2400 萬美元的股息和近 6800 萬美元的公開市場回購向股東返還了 2022 年略高於 100% 的運營現金流。我們在第四季度的投資資本回報率約為 46%。

As Joe mentioned, our Board of Directors approved a 20% increase to our dividend to $1.44 per share and increased our share repurchase authorization to $100 million. Since we initiated our dividend in 2014, we have now increased it 360%. The current dividend yield is 2.6%. In addition, since 2007, we've reduced our weighted average shares outstanding from 42.3 million to 20.5 million or slightly more than 50%.

正如喬提到的，我們的董事會批准將我們的股息增加 20% 至每股 1.44 美元，並將我們的股票回購授權增加至 1 億美元。自從我們在 2014 年開始派發股息以來，我們現在已經增加了 360%。目前的股息收益率為2.6%。此外，自 2007 年以來，我們已將加權平均流通股從 4230 萬股減少到 2050 萬股或略高於 50%。

All in, we've returned in excess of $830 million in capital to our shareholders since 2007, which has represented approximately 75% of the cash we generated while significantly expanding our business. The increase in our dividend and share repurchase authorization demonstrates both our financial flexibility due to the strength of our balance sheet and our confidence in our organic growth model. We remain committed to returning capital to our shareholders regardless of the economic climate.

總而言之，自 2007 年以來，我們已向股東返還超過 8.3 億美元的資本，這占我們在大幅擴展業務時產生的現金的大約 75%。我們的股息和股票回購授權的增加既表明了我們由於資產負債表的實力而具有的財務靈活性，也表明了我們對我們的有機增長模式的信心。無論經濟形勢如何，我們仍然致力於向股東返還資本。

With respect to guidance, the first quarter had 64 billing days, which is 3 additional days in the fourth quarter of 2022 and the same as the first quarter of 2022. We expect Q1 revenues to be in the range of $406 million to $414 million and earnings per share to be between $0.78 and $0.86. First quarter earnings per share is impacted by approximately $0.15 due to seasonal impacts on annual payroll tax resets. Our guidance does not consider the potential impact of unusual or nonrecurring items that may occur.

關於指導，第一季度有 64 個計費日，比 2022 年第四季度增加了 3 天，與 2022 年第一季度相同。我們預計第一季度的收入將在 4.06 億美元至 4.14 億美元之間，並且每股收益在 0.78 美元至 0.86 美元之間。由於對年度工資稅重置的季節性影響，第一季度每股收益受到約 0.15 美元的影響。我們的指南未考慮可能發生的異常或非經常性項目的潛在影響。

Our performance has put us in an excellent position to continue to make incremental investments in our business even in an uncertain environment. These include selective additions in our managed teams and project solutions capability and continued investments in our back-office transformation efforts. We believe these ongoing investments will benefit our shareholders in the long term and are important drivers to our attainment of double-digit operating margins.

我們的業績使我們處於有利地位，即使在不確定的環境中也能繼續對我們的業務進行增量投資。其中包括有選擇地增加我們的管理團隊和項目解決方案能力，以及對我們後台轉型工作的持續投資。我們相信，這些正在進行的投資將使我們的股東長期受益，並且是我們實現兩位數營業利潤率的重要推動力。

Overall, we believe our strategy has put us in an exceptional place, and we are fully prepared for the various economic possibilities that may lie ahead. On behalf of our entire management team, I'd like to extend a sincere thank you to our teams for all their efforts.

總的來說，我們相信我們的戰略使我們處於一個特殊的位置，我們為未來可能出現的各種經濟可能性做好了充分的準備。我謹代表我們整個管理團隊，向我們團隊的所有努力表示衷心的感謝。

Operator, we would now like to return the call over for questions.

接線員，我們現在想回電話詢問問題。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question will come from the line of Mark Marcon with Baird.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題將來自 Mark Marcon 與 Baird 的對話。

Wondering if you can provide a little bit more color in terms of what you're seeing with regards to the clients on the IT Flex side. You mentioned that for the most part, the impacts are relatively moderate by vertical, but can you talk a little bit about which verticals? I know there's no drastic impacts, but any sort of like changes that you're seeing just on the margin at certain verticals. Which ones are the strongest? Which ones are showing a little bit more of the macro uncertainty?

想知道您是否可以根據您所看到的有關 IT Flex 客戶端的內容提供更多顏色。你提到在大多數情況下，垂直方面的影響相對適中，但你能談談哪些垂直方面的影響嗎？我知道沒有太大的影響，但是你在某些垂直領域的邊緣看到的任何類似的變化。哪些最強？哪些表現出更多的宏觀不確定性？

This is Kye Mitchell. We didn't see a lot of significant client-wide trends. Most of it has been very much pruning by select clients. There's nothing to indicate that any industry or any particular client is down significantly. It's just in pruning levels (inaudible) out of the gate. We've seen the last couple of weeks front-end indicators pick back up. Job orders, for instance, is one that we look at. But nothing that would indicate anything industry-wide or client-specific. It's just been more pruney after a busy couple of years.

這是凱·米切爾。我們沒有看到很多重要的客戶端趨勢。其中大部分已被選定的客戶大量修剪。沒有任何跡象表明任何行業或任何特定客戶都在大幅下滑。它只是在門外的修剪水平（聽不清）。我們已經看到過去幾週前端指標回升。例如，我們關注的是工作訂單。但沒有任何跡象表明任何行業範圍內或客戶特定的情況。在忙碌了幾年之後，它變得更乾淨了。

Got it. And then with regards to the pricing, you kind of gave us an indication with regards to how we should think about the bill rates. Do you think that continues over the course of the year in terms of just slightly more moderate increases in terms of the bill rates? Or are there any chances that we could end up seeing bill rates decline if the environment becomes a little bit more challenging?

知道了。然後關於定價，你給了我們一個關於我們應該如何考慮賬單費率的指示。您是否認為這種情況在一年中會持續下去，只是賬單利率的增長會稍微溫和一些？或者，如果環境變得更具挑戰性，我們是否有可能最終看到賬單利率下降？

Mark, this is Dave Kelly. So in terms of bill rates, I think obviously, we've seen some pretty significant increases over the last couple of years. But very much stability in margins, flexible margins themselves. I would say, generally speaking, we -- and we've been saying this for quite some time, we expect ongoing stability in margins in terms of bill rates. If you kind of look at times of if there is a slowdown, you see pretty stable bill rates. If there is anything, it's relatively minor. So again, I think as it relates to both margins and bill rates, you're going to see a pretty stable picture based on what we're seeing today.

馬克，這是戴夫·凱利。因此，就賬單利率而言，我認為很明顯，我們在過去幾年中看到了一些相當顯著的增長。但利潤率非常穩定，利潤率本身很靈活。我會說，一般來說，我們 - 我們已經說了很長一段時間了，我們預計票據利率方面的利潤率將持續穩定。如果你看一下是否有放緩的時候，你會看到相當穩定的賬單利率。如果有什麼，它是相對次要的。因此，我再次認為，由於它與利潤率和賬單利率都相關，因此您將根據我們今天所看到的情況看到一個非常穩定的畫面。

Great. And then question for Joe and Kye. I know it's only been less than a month since ChatGPT emerged, but there's clearly a lot of buzz around AI, which there's been buzz around AI before, but this is really making it even more obvious. I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about your early impressions with regards to the opportunities for Kforce to leverage the opportunities that are going to come there. Specifically with regards to either practices that you might unfold or what you may end up doing with regards to increasing the efficiencies on the SG&A side.

偉大的。然後向 Joe 和 Kye 提問。我知道距離 ChatGPT 出現還不到一個月，但顯然圍繞 AI 的討論很多，以前也有過關於 AI 的討論，但這確實讓它變得更加明顯。我想知道你是否可以談談你對 Kforce 有機會利用即將到來的機會的早期印象。特別是關於您可能展開的實踐或您最終可能會做些什麼來提高 SG&A 方面的效率。

Yes, it's a great question, Mark. It kind of takes me back, and obviously, I'm sure you see what's going on with Google as well. So we have the AI arms race going on, and it takes me back to 2018 with a great book that one of our (inaudible) strategic clients recommended to me called AI Superpowers. If you haven't read that book, strongly recommend it because, I mean, you could see all these things coming and evolving.

是的，這是一個很好的問題，馬克。這有點讓我回過神來，顯然，我相信你也看到了谷歌正在發生的事情。因此，我們正在進行 AI 軍備競賽，這讓我回到了 2018 年，我們的一位（聽不清）戰略客戶向我推薦了一本名為 AI Superpowers 的好書。如果你還沒有讀過那本書，強烈推薦它，因為，我的意思是，你可以看到所有這些事情的發生和發展。

We sit here and we look at all of these technology innovations as opportunistic on both fronts. One, we've applied a lot of different technologies internally that has allowed us to continue to drive productivity. So from that standpoint, great opportunities to further drive greater efficiencies in a lot of what we do inside our firm, applying whether it's chat technology and/or various other artificial intelligence-type technologies.

我們坐在這裡，我們將所有這些技術創新視為兩個方面的機會主義。第一，我們在內部應用了很多不同的技術，使我們能夠繼續提高生產力。因此，從這個角度來看，這是一個很好的機會，可以進一步提高我們公司內部所做的許多工作的效率，無論是應用聊天技術還是其他各種人工智能類型的技術。

From a opportunity standpoint as well on the client front, one of the things I love about what we do for a living is we are not dependent on any particular technology, any particular industry, any particular type of methodologies that are evolving. As time goes on, it kind of takes me back to when I first got into this business, right? Everything was assembler and COBOL. And then as cogeneration came about, it was going to impact our business, and it didn't. It actually enhanced the business.

從機會的角度以及在客戶方面，我喜歡我們以謀生為生的事情之一是我們不依賴於任何特定的技術、任何特定的行業、任何正在發展的特定類型的方法。隨著時間的流逝，這有點讓我回到了我第一次進入這個行業的時候，對吧？一切都是彙編程序和 COBOL。然後隨著熱電聯產的出現，它會影響我們的業務，但它沒有。它實際上增強了業務。

This is just -- I mean this is going to -- this is a constant evolution. So will it change how app dev happens over time as it continues to evolve? There's no question it will. But then that's going to create needs in other areas in terms of the overall, what it takes to really deploy as well as create technology and then drive change management with technology within organizations.

這只是——我的意思是這將——這是一個不斷的演變。那麼隨著應用程序的不斷發展，它會隨著時間的推移改變應用程序開發的方式嗎？毫無疑問，它會的。但這將在其他領域創造整體需求，真正部署和創造技術需要什麼，然後在組織內用技術推動變革管理。

Kye, I don't know if you have anything else that you wanted to add.

Kye，我不知道您是否還有其他要補充的內容。

No, I think you hit it, Joe.

不，我想你成功了，喬。

So in that market, it's really opportunity on both fronts in terms of it will create new business opportunities. I think it's just too early to tell on that front. And then obviously, internal opportunities in terms of how we can deploy and apply things.

因此，在該市場中，就這兩個方面而言，這確實是一個機會，因為它將創造新的商機。我認為在這方面下結論還為時過早。然後很明顯，就我們如何部署和應用事物而言，內部機會。

Great. And then one last one, just on the SG&A side. You've already rationalized your real estate footprint. How much more should we expect over the course of this year?

偉大的。然後是最後一個，就在 SG&A 方面。您已經合理化了您的房地產足跡。今年我們還應該期待多少？

So Mark, as far as the real estate footprint, obviously, we've been talking about office-occasional and deploying that across the country. Actually, we've reduced our real estate footprint by about 40%, but we still probably got about 3 years to annualize the leases that currently exist. And as we do that, we plan to deploy that same type of footprint across the country. So we've got some time to go there. So I think there's opportunity there.

所以馬克，就房地產足跡而言，很明顯，我們一直在談論辦公室偶爾和在全國范圍內部署。實際上，我們已經將我們的房地產足跡減少了大約 40%，但我們仍然可能有大約 3 年的時間來對當前存在的租約進行年度化。當我們這樣做時，我們計劃在全國部署相同類型的足跡。所以我們有時間去那裡。所以我認為那裡有機會。

For us, we're always looking at opportunity as it relates to other areas, right? I mentioned in my remarks. And we've been pretty consistent in investing in our business over the years, right? We talked at length about the improvements we've seen in productivity because of the front-office tools, our CRM and TRM tools. We're currently in the process, we started it last year, looking at the reengineering of all of our back-office tools, which although it's going to take a little bit of time will be another big leg up.

對我們來說，我們一直在尋找與其他領域相關的機會，對吧？我在發言中提到。多年來，我們一直在投資我們的業務，對吧？我們詳細討論了由於前台工具、我們的 CRM 和 TRM 工具，我們在生產力方面看到的改進。我們目前正在這個過程中，我們去年開始了，著眼於重新設計我們所有的後台工具，雖然這需要一點時間，但這將是另一個重要的進展。

So as it relates to the business, as we grow, obviously, we get the benefits of scale. We expect continued productivity improvements that will help from an SG&A standpoint in the front of the house, and we expect to overlay that over time with back-office improvements as well. So we think there's a fair runway here as we grow to continue to increase operating margins. We've said in the past double-digit operating margins or that which we should expect, still expect that to be the case.

因此，就業務而言，隨著我們的成長，很明顯，我們獲得了規模效益。從 SG&A 的角度來看，我們預計生產力的持續提高將對前台有所幫助，我們預計隨著時間的推移，後台辦公室的改進也會將其覆蓋。因此，我們認為隨著我們的成長以繼續提高營業利潤率，這裡有一條公平的跑道。我們過去曾說過兩位數的營業利潤率或我們應該期望的，但仍然希望如此。

Your next question comes from the line of Tim Mulrooney with William Blair.

你的下一個問題來自 Tim Mulrooney 和 William Blair 的對話。

This is Sam Kusswurm on for Tim. I guess to start, we've seen a lot of announcements about headcount reductions recently, particularly across the tech industry. But then payrolls came out last week and were much stronger than expected. How would you characterize the tightness of the IT labor market right now relative to last quarter? Is it easing or pretty much steady state?

這是 Tim 的 Sam Kusswurm。我想首先，我們最近看到了很多關於裁員的公告，尤其是在整個科技行業。但上周公布的就業數據比預期的要強勁得多。與上一季度相比，您如何看待目前 IT 勞動力市場的緊張狀況？它是緩和還是幾乎穩定的狀態？

Well, in regards to candidate supply, we've been in a very candidate-constrained environment for well over a decade. And that has changed and likely will change in the current environment. It does appear that some of the largest companies may have overhired and as I mentioned are doing a little bit of pruning over the last few months. And I think that you're seeing selective pruning in those investments. There might be a bit of incremental supply. The clients are still being really selective and -- in our hiring process, and we don't see this impacting any future expectation for what that candidate supply looks like. I think it's going to continue to be a Type 1. And I think also we're seeing some folks looking to go into the office again, which is (inaudible) a little bit of any pressure off of some of those candidates that are out there. So seen overall, it's very similar to what it has been, and I don't expect to see a lot of change there.

好吧，關於候選人供應，十多年來，我們一直處於候選人非常受限的環境中。在當前環境下，這種情況已經發生變化，而且很可能會發生變化。一些最大的公司似乎確實過度僱傭了，正如我提到的，在過去幾個月裡他們正在做一些裁員。而且我認為您正在看到這些投資中的選擇性修剪。可能會有一點增量供應。客戶仍然非常有選擇性，而且 - 在我們的招聘過程中，我們認為這不會影響未來對候選人供應情況的任何期望。我認為它將繼續成為第 1 類。而且我認為我們還看到一些人希望再次進入辦公室，這（聽不清）減輕了一些已經退出的候選人的壓力那裡。所以從整體上看，它與過去非常相似，我不希望在那裡看到太多變化。

So Kye, let me add. Sam, just kind of as a reminder, our technology footprint is pretty high at the value chain, right? We talk about things like cloud application modernization, data analytics, digital transformation. Our average bill rate is $90 an hour. As you might expect, you think about what that means from a pay rate perspective. I mentioned scarce talent, 4 years, right? The world has not produced enough of those skill sets, and that is still the case. So a big driver to the expectation of continued scarcity in the areas that we play.

所以 Kye，讓我補充一下。山姆，提醒一下，我們的技術足跡在價值鏈中相當高，對吧？我們談論諸如雲應用程序現代化、數據分析、數字化轉型之類的事情。我們的平均賬單費率為每小時 90 美元。正如您所料，您會從薪酬的角度考慮這意味著什麼。我說稀缺人才，4年吧？世界還沒有產生足夠的這些技能組合，情況仍然如此。因此，我們所玩區域的持續稀缺預期是一個很大的推動力。

That's very helpful. I appreciate the color there. You touched on this in your prepared remarks, but can you maybe expand a little bit more about client behavior in this environment? What are you hearing from clients these days from both the demand side as well as client behavior on the process side? And have they given any indication of how they're thinking about their own staffing needs in the months ahead here?

這很有幫助。我欣賞那裡的顏色。你在準備好的發言中提到了這一點，但你能否進一步擴展一下客戶在這種環境下的行為？您最近從需求方和流程方的客戶行為中聽到了什麼？他們是否給出了任何跡象表明他們將如何考慮未來幾個月的人員配置需求？

As we've mentioned, I think there's more scrutiny on budget than what we've seen in the last 2 years. It's not anything unusual to the prior cycle, but there is more scrutiny around it. However, clients are very much committed to continuing in areas of strategic investments. For example, cloud, digital transformation, if they're doing a cloud project, they're not going to stop migrating to the cloud. So we believe we're very well positioned strategically in the right areas where clients are continuing to invest. We've seen some good wins as we come into the first of the year. We had a recent win with a health care company to help them in their cloud migration. We had a recent win with a customer to help them create new tools to help improve employee productivity. So I think the space we're playing in, we continue to see client investment there.

正如我們所提到的，我認為對預算的審查比我們在過去兩年中看到的要多。這與上一個週期沒有什麼不同尋常，但圍繞它有更多的審查。然而，客戶非常致力於繼續在戰略投資領域。例如，雲、數字化轉型，如果他們正在做一個雲項目，他們不會停止遷移到雲。因此，我們相信我們在客戶繼續投資的正確領域處於戰略上非常有利的位置。當我們進入今年的第一天時，我們已經看到了一些不錯的勝利。我們最近與一家醫療保健公司取得了勝利，以幫助他們進行雲遷移。我們最近與客戶取得了勝利，幫助他們創建新工具來幫助提高員工的工作效率。所以我認為我們正在玩的空間，我們繼續在那裡看到客戶投資。

Yes. I would add, as Kye mentioned, clients still funding critical projects. That has been true historically, right? I'll just remind you, during the Great Recession, right, Technology critical spend was far more robust than other industries -- other disciplines in the staffing. And just recently in the pandemic, our Technology revenues actually were flat when we had obviously a significant decline. So kind of a reflection of what we're seeing. And that is on top of, obviously, significant growth in technology prior to that and then subsequent to that. So a lot of resilience in the Technology revenue stream here regardless of the climate.

是的。正如 Kye 提到的那樣，我要補充一點，客戶仍在為關鍵項目提供資金。歷史上確實如此，對吧？我只是提醒你，在大蕭條期間，對，技術關鍵支出比其他行業——人員配置中的其他學科——要強勁得多。就在最近的大流行期間，當我們的技術收入明顯大幅下降時，我們的技術收入實際上持平。所以有點反映了我們所看到的。顯然，在此之前和之後技術的顯著增長是最重要的。因此，無論氣候如何，這裡的技術收入流都具有很大的彈性。

Your next question comes from the line of Tobey Sommer with Truist Securities.

你的下一個問題來自 Truist Securities 的 Tobey Sommer。

I wanted to ask you about managed teams and project solutions. Can you give us some color there along basic dimensions of either size, kind of margin profile, if not specific, maybe juxtapose it and compare it with existing businesses you talk about project nature or maybe a description of what kind of things you take on versus things you won't. Any kind of things that will help us get a better overall understanding of what you're doing, where you're going with that would be helpful.

我想問你有關管理團隊和項目解決方案的問題。你能給我們一些基本尺寸的顏色嗎？如果不是具體的話，利潤率類型，如果不是具體的，也許可以將它並列並與你談論項目性質的現有業務進行比較，或者可能描述你採取什麼樣的事情而不是你不會的事情。任何可以幫助我們更好地全面了解您正在做的事情、您打算去哪裡的事情都會有所幫助。

Yes. Thanks, Tobey. Relative to that solution set that we're bringing to market, right, we've taken a little alternative approach to maybe what you hear from some of our direct competitors in the marketplace because we view that this is integrated into who we are with our technology-focused DNA and how we can leverage all of our capabilities within Kforce through our integrated sales strategy because that's really what unlocks the value here.

是的。謝謝，托比。相對於我們推向市場的解決方案集，對，我們已經採取了一些替代方法，也許你從我們市場上的一些直接競爭對手那裡聽到的，因為我們認為這融入了我們的身份以技術為中心的 DNA，以及我們如何通過我們的綜合銷售戰略利用我們在 Kforce 中的所有能力，因為這才是真正釋放這裡價值的東西。

And so I think we've stated in the past, our margin profile is roughly 400 basis points higher when we do this type of work because of the additional value that we're bringing and moving up that value chain. And the further we go off that chain, the more that, that margin expands, that on average, we've been roughly about 400 basis points.

所以我認為我們過去已經說過，當我們做這類工作時，我們的利潤率大約高出 400 個基點，因為我們帶來了額外的價值並提升了價值鏈。我們離這條鏈越遠，利潤率就越大，平均而言，我們大約有 400 個基點。

In terms of the footprint that we're after, I mean Kye had articulated the key areas. And part of the reason why we focus in the areas that we do cloud data and various other ones, they play off of each other. Because often, when a client is working and has an initiative going on with cloud, well, that's going to also drive their data needs. So based upon when we get engaged, it allows us to get honed in on these different areas and catch them at the different phases of an overall macro project.

就我們所追求的足跡而言，我的意思是 Kye 已經闡明了關鍵領域。我們關注云數據和其他各種領域的部分原因是，它們相互影響。因為通常，當客戶正在工作並且有一個關於雲的計劃時，這也會推動他們的數據需求。因此，根據我們何時參與，它使我們能夠在這些不同的領域得到磨練，並在整個宏觀項目的不同階段抓住它們。

And from a duration standpoint, our efforts in this area typically are of a longer duration than that average roughly 10 contract that we spoke about. So we see some of these projects go multiyear, but on average, they're going to be of a greater duration.

從持續時間的角度來看，我們在這一領域的努力通常比我們談到的平均大約 10 份合同的持續時間更長。所以我們看到其中一些項目持續多年，但平均而言，它們的持續時間會更長。

Kye, I don't know if you want to talk a little bit more about the particulars.

Kye，我不知道你是否想多談談細節。

Yes. Tobey, we see -- as Joe said, we see longer durations. We do see clients in the areas we're spending continue to look for everything from solutions through managed teams. Managed teams is something we're seeing a lot of demand for. People don't want to have to go to various different staff providers. They want somebody within the game to bring on a whole pot or bring on a whole team. And it creates great opportunities for us, and we're continuing to see strong demand in that space.

是的。托比，我們看到——正如喬所說，我們看到更長的持續時間。我們確實看到我們所投資領域的客戶繼續尋找從解決方案到管理團隊的一切。管理團隊是我們看到的很多需求。人們不想去各種不同的員工提供者。他們希望遊戲中的某個人帶來整個底池或帶來整個團隊。它為我們創造了巨大的機會，我們將繼續看到該領域的強勁需求。

And when you reference margins, is that at the GP level? Or is that sort of more at the bottom line level?

當您參考利潤率時，是在 GP 級別嗎？或者更多的是在底線層面？

Yes, Tobey, the answer here is really both, right? So we're sitting here (inaudible) at a higher gross margin profile, as you'd expect, right, as we deliver more at that mine, it translates. So it's an important business for us.

是的，托比，這裡的答案真的是兩者兼而有之，對吧？所以我們坐在這裡（聽不清）毛利率更高，正如你所期望的那樣，正確的，因為我們在那個礦山交付更多，它翻譯。所以這對我們來說是一項重要的業務。

Okay. Perfect. Where do you see Flex gross margins trending in the quarter? If you -- if we look at the model, Flex gross margins on a year-over-year basis did start to contract a little bit. And I'm just trying to reconcile that because I don't know whether managed teams and other things muddy the waters any in the way that we can sort of extract and draw conclusions from those kind of numbers.

好的。完美的。您認為本季度 Flex 的毛利率趨勢如何？如果你——如果我們看一下這個模型，Flex 的毛利率同比確實開始有所收縮。我只是想調和這一點，因為我不知道管理團隊和其他事情是否會以我們可以從這些數字中提取和得出結論的方式混淆水域。

Yes, I think a couple of things. So if I look at full year margins, they're actually -- in technologies where we're focused, they were flat. Yes, they were down in a very minor way. As I think about the spreads to that business, that's unchanged, right? So as I've mentioned, as I look sequentially, obviously, we get impacted by payroll taxes in the first quarter. But I think the buzzword here is really stability. We're not looking for any significant change from where we're at. And we're not seeing anything that suggests that we should do otherwise.

是的，我認為有幾件事。因此，如果我看一下全年利潤率，它們實際上是——在我們關注的技術中，它們是持平的。是的，他們以非常小的方式下降了。當我考慮到該業務的利差時，它沒有改變，對嗎？因此，正如我所提到的，正如我依次看的那樣，很明顯，我們在第一季度受到了工資稅的影響。但我認為這裡的流行語真的是穩定。我們不希望從我們所處的位置發生任何重大變化。而且我們沒有看到任何表明我們應該不這樣做的跡象。

Okay. And then I'm curious, you touched on this in another question, but I'm going to ask you a different one. When you plan for recessions and you think about how the business will perform, we have, I guess, 3 examples in the last 20-some years. You've got the tech bubble, the Great Recession in 2020. They all have peculiarities, different depths. Which ones do you use to inform your planning for the business? And are there any adjustments you'd make? Because we often hear from investors that 2020 was unique for IT, maybe unique in that the pandemic encouraged some spending on IT that a normal recession absent a pandemic may not.

好的。然後我很好奇，你在另一個問題中提到了這個，但我要問你一個不同的問題。當你為經濟衰退做計劃並考慮企業的表現時，我猜，在過去的 20 多年裡，我們有 3 個例子。你有科技泡沫，2020 年的大衰退。它們都有特點，深度不同。您使用哪些來告知您的業務規劃？你會做任何調整嗎？因為我們經常從投資者那裡聽到，2020 年對 IT 來說是獨一無二的，也許獨特之處在於大流行鼓勵了一些 IT 支出，而沒有大流行的正常衰退可能不會。

Yes, it's a great question. And as you all know, because you've been around this space for a while, no two are the same and they all react differently. And I think we're in probably one of the more unique environments. This will be -- well, if recession truly ever gets coined, right? And I think this has been the most telegraphed recessionary period in history.

是的，這是一個很好的問題。眾所周知，因為您已經在這個空間待了一段時間，所以沒有兩個是相同的，而且它們的反應都不同。而且我認為我們可能處於更獨特的環境之一。這將是——好吧，如果經濟衰退真的被創造出來，對吧？我認為這是歷史上最廣為人知的經濟衰退時期。

So if it ultimately plays out that way, I would say what's really so significantly different this time around is just the overall labor market. We've seen labor markets are impacted. By the way, they're never impacted it severely, especially in the high skilled areas as what one believes, although the last 2 recessions have been impacted, or I should say, if I look at the financial crisis and we look at what happened during the pandemic, those probably had more labor impact than any of the other prior recessions if you go back over the course of the last 50 years.

因此，如果它最終以這種方式出現，我想說這一次真正如此顯著不同的只是整個勞動力市場。我們已經看到勞動力市場受到了影響。順便說一下，他們從來沒有受到嚴重影響，尤其是人們認為的高技能領域，儘管最近兩次經濟衰退都受到了影響，或者我應該說，如果我看看金融危機，看看發生了什麼如果你回顧過去 50 年的過程，在大流行期間，那些對勞動力的影響可能比任何其他先前的衰退都大。

But this one, when you just look at -- when you look at the amount of jobs and then you look at the available pool of talent, they say, if this were to contract even rather extensively, I mean you're still going to have one-plus job per person in the marketplace. And as you all know, when we're sitting here focused on technology, which has always been an outlier in terms of supply/demand, we feel very good about those fronts.

但是這一次，當你只看——當你看工作的數量，然後你看可用的人才庫時，他們說，如果這是相當廣泛的收縮，我的意思是你仍然會在市場上每人擁有一份以上的工作。眾所周知，當我們坐在這裡專注於技術時，技術在供需方面一直是異常值，我們對這些方面感覺非常好。

So we have a very flexible and elastic model that has natural throttles within it. We have a variable cost structure. So as things -- if things were to get tight and there were to be revenue impacts, even although we really didn't experience any of that during the pandemic and it was (inaudible) during the financial crisis, our business naturally readjust because of -- we have a lot of leverage comp plans and those types of things.

所以我們有一個非常靈活和有彈性的模型，其中有自然的節流閥。我們有一個可變的成本結構。因此，作為事情 - 如果事情變得緊張並且會對收入產生影響，即使我們在大流行期間確實沒有經歷過任何這種情況並且它是在金融危機期間（聽不清），我們的業務自然會重新調整，因為——我們有很多槓桿補償計劃和那些類型的東西。

So we feel great in the spot that we're sitting here with virtually no debt, a pristine balance sheet. We've been very prudent about how we've staffed coming out of the pandemic. So we haven't overhired. We hire based upon need. So I mean we feel we're in a real place of strength right now, and we view no different than where we were blessed to be when we went through the pandemic. We operated from a position of strength throughout the pandemic, and if things were to get tighter, we're going to operate from a position of strength and play for the other side and really position ourselves.

所以我們坐在這裡感覺很好，幾乎沒有債務，資產負債表完好無損。我們對如何從大流行中走出來的人員配備一直非常謹慎。所以我們沒有過度僱傭。我們根據需要雇用。所以我的意思是，我們覺得我們現在處在一個真正有力量的地方，我們認為這與我們經歷大流行病時所處的位置沒有什麼不同。在整個大流行期間，我們都處於優勢地位，如果情況變得更加緊張，我們將處於優勢地位，為另一方發揮作用，真正定位自己。

So I guess those would be the key things that we look at as we prepare for any difficulty or trying time is how are we set up and how are we positioned to operate? And I've been here for 35 years now and been through 4 different cycles, and we've never been stronger or better positioned than we are today, no matter what comes around the corner.

因此，我想這些將是我們在為任何困難或嘗試時間做準備時要考慮的關鍵事情，即我們如何設置以及我們如何定位運營？我在這裡已經 35 年了，經歷了 4 個不同的周期，無論即將發生什麼，我們從未像今天這樣強大或處於更好的位置。

So Tobey, let me amplify a point that Joe made in terms of managing through various cycles, right? He had mentioned we just increased our dividend. We just increased the authorization on our buyback. In good times and bad, we generate a significant amount of cash, I think in excess of $130 million certainly in operating cash flows this coming year. And so we have been very consistent how we've thought about the use of that cash. I don't have any expectation that, that's going to change either. So this is the last piece kind of about how we think about managing the business.

所以 Tobey，讓我強調一下 Joe 在管理不同周期方面提出的觀點，對嗎？他提到我們剛剛增加了股息。我們剛剛增加了回購的授權。在順境和逆境中，我們都會產生大量現金，我認為明年的運營現金流肯定會超過 1.3 億美元。因此，我們一直非常一致地考慮如何使用這些現金。我沒有任何期望，這也會改變。所以這是關於我們如何思考管理業務的最後一部分。

Okay. If I kind of just double-click on my question. When you look back at 2020, do you think that there were unique features to the pandemic that contributed to IT's resilience, that if we have a sort of a similar contoured economic contraction without unique pandemic features, would the business and industry perform differently?

好的。如果我只是雙擊我的問題。當您回顧 2020 年時，您是否認為大流行有哪些獨特的特徵有助於 IT 的彈性，如果我們有一種類似的輪廓經濟收縮而沒有獨特的大流行特徵，那麼企業和行業的表現會有所不同嗎？

Yes. I think coming out, I think the pandemic was a big wake-up call for many organizations that were slow in getting after digitizing their business, looking at how they were leveraging data, moving their businesses to the cloud. I think that was a huge wake-up call for all businesses. So there is no question that, that created an acceleration of investment in technology. However, what it also did is it actually -- it moved forward the adoption of technology by years. I mean I can sit here and say exactly how many years, but I even look at us at Kforce and I look at how we're deploying and leveraging technologies that we already had, that we were having trouble getting traction with, that now we've fully embraced, whether it be teams or various other tools that we've implemented.

是的。我認為大流行對許多組織來說是一個巨大的警鐘，這些組織在將業務數字化、審視如何利用數據、將業務轉移到雲端后進展緩慢。我認為這對所有企業來說都是一個巨大的警鐘。因此，毫無疑問，這加速了對技術的投資。然而，它實際上也做了 - 它推動了技術的採用多年。我的意思是我可以坐在這裡準確說出多少年，但我什至在 Kforce 看看我們，我看看我們如何部署和利用我們已經擁有的技術，我們很難獲得牽引力，現在我們已經完全接受，無論是團隊還是我們已經實施的各種其他工具。

So that acceleration, there's no question, it created an excess of demand, right? And you have to delink some of these tech reduction that you hear in the marketplace in comparison to what technology really has done. So everybody is having to do these things, digitize their business, move to the cloud, figure out how they monetize and leverage data to be more competitive. So it is not an option to invest in these areas. So we see the need continuing on in these areas irrespective of what economic backdrop.

毫無疑問，這種加速創造了需求過剩，對吧？與技術真正實現的功能相比，你必須將你在市場上聽到的一些技術減少聯繫起來。所以每個人都必須做這些事情，將他們的業務數字化，遷移到雲端，弄清楚他們如何貨幣化和利用數據來提高競爭力。因此，投資這些領域不是一個選擇。因此，無論經濟背景如何，我們都認為有必要繼續在這些領域開展工作。

I mean I think if it was a tougher economic climate, would you see some (inaudible) in certain technology initiatives? Absolutely. But these mission-critical imperative skill areas and projects that companies have to work on, they have to do this or they're putting their business at risk from a competitive long-term sustainability standpoint.

我的意思是，我認為如果經濟環境更加嚴峻，您會在某些技術計劃中看到一些（聽不清）嗎？絕對地。但是，公司必須致力於這些關鍵任務的必要技能領域和項目，他們必須這樣做，否則從競爭性的長期可持續性的角度來看，他們會將他們的業務置於風險之中。

So I'd say that's what's really different. I mean we are in more of what I would consider a normal operating environment versus those couple of years post pandemic where everybody was scrambling. But normal is a pretty healthy environment to be as well is the way that we look at it.

所以我想說這才是真正的不同之處。我的意思是，與大流行後每個人都在爭先恐後的那幾年相比，我們更多地處於我認為正常的運營環境中。但正常是一個非常健康的環境，我們看待它的方式也是如此。

Your next question will come from the line of Kartik Mehta with Northcoast Research.

您的下一個問題將來自 Kartik Mehta 與 Northcoast Research 的合作。

Have you seen a change at all in the competitive landscape maybe since you're seeing a little bit of softening? Has there been any change?

您是否看到競爭格局發生了根本變化，也許是因為您看到了一點點軟化？有什麼變化嗎？

There's been a slight softening. As we said in our opening comments, we did see a little bit higher than usual attrition numbers at the end of the year. And I think the way the holiday fell to it, just it pushed everything out a little bit. So it was sluggish. Coming out of it, we have seen, like I mentioned -- [partake] in the last couple of weeks, we've seen that front-end indicators pick back up. So it will be interesting, too, with clients seeing the latest BLS numbers and everything. I think a lot of it was clients is taking longer to scrutinize and wondering where the macroeconomic was going, but I think there's some positive indicators now for them.

有輕微的軟化。正如我們在開場評論中所說，我們確實看到年底的人員流失數字略高於往常。而且我認為假期的到來，只是把一切都推開了一點。所以它很遲鈍。從中走出來，我們已經看到，就像我提到的那樣 - [參與] 在過去的幾周里，我們已經看到前端指標回升。因此，客戶看到最新的 BLS 數據和所有內容也會很有趣。我認為其中很大一部分原因是客戶需要更長的時間來仔細審查並想知道宏觀經濟的發展方向，但我認為現在有一些對他們來說積極的指標。

Yes. And Kartik, I think you're also asking about, I'm assuming, the direct competitive landscape?

是的。 Kartik，我想你也在問，我假設，直接競爭格局？

Yes. Yes.

是的。是的。

Is that correct?

那是對的嗎？

Yes.

是的。

Yes. So what we're seeing from a competitive landscape standpoint is with the larger players that we compete with, things have remained pretty constant. Probably the biggest place that we've seen some competitive dynamics is when we look at the local operators and the smaller players in the space, they are feeling a little bit of pressure. And by the way, this is typically what we see as the cycles evolve and the environment becomes a little bit more difficult, right? They're typically more single company-dependent. And as you look at defaults going up on credit and those types of things, they don't have a lot of room to play with nor do they have really strong balance sheet.

是的。因此，從競爭格局的角度來看，我們所看到的是與我們競爭的更大的參與者，事情一直保持不變。我們看到一些競爭動態的最大地方可能是當我們觀察本地運營商和該領域的較小參與者時，他們感到了一點壓力。順便說一句，這通常是我們看到的，隨著周期的演變和環境變得更加困難，對吧？他們通常更依賴單一公司。當你看到信貸違約和那些類型的事情時，他們沒有太多的發揮空間，也沒有真正強大的資產負債表。

So I suspect if things were to be tougher throughout the course of 2023, what's going to happen is our competitive landscape is going to shrink from a global operator or regional operator standpoint, which just provides us more market share opportunity. And that's why historically, if you go back and look at Kforce's performance, we always come out on the back end and be stronger than where we went in, and I don't foresee this being any different irrespective of how the market plays out this year.

因此，我懷疑如果整個 2023 年情況變得更加艱難，將會發生的是我們的競爭格局將從全球運營商或區域運營商的角度縮小，這只會為我們提供更多的市場份額機會。這就是為什麼從歷史上看，如果你回頭看看 Kforce 的表現，我們總是在後端出來並且比我們進入的地方更強大，而且我認為無論市場如何表現，這都會有任何不同年。

And then you've talked about obviously the sales cycle lengthening a little bit, and we're coming off some pretty tough comparisons where things really were really good. If you compare that to prepandemic levels, how would that compare rather than the last kind of 2 years that were really strong? Just comparing it to -- previous to pandemic before there was this big surge in demand.

然後你已經談到銷售週期明顯延長了一點，我們正在進行一些非常艱難的比較，其中事情真的非常好。如果您將其與大流行前的水平進行比較，那將如何與真正強勁的最後兩年相比呢？只是將它與 - 在需求大幅激增之前的大流行之前進行比較。

We're still very stable to what we saw during prepandemic. We haven't seen a real dip from those levels.

我們對大流行前的情況仍然非常穩定。我們還沒有看到這些水平真正下降。

(Operator Instructions) Your next question comes from the line of Marc Riddick with Sidoti.

（操作員說明）您的下一個問題來自 Marc Riddick 與 Sidoti 的對話。

So I wanted to -- first, really do appreciate the update as far as the return of capital to shareholders. Certainly, that's substantial in times like this. So it's certainly nice to see. But I was wondering if -- and this is sort of -- I guess maybe just trying to sort of look at this at a slightly different vantage point. I was kind of curious as to whether or not the things that you're seeing with your bullishness on the company as well as what you're seeing with clients, I was sort of curious as to how much that's actually changed from when we last -- from your last call in the third quarter. I mean was there -- is there anything that you've seen in that time frame that's necessarily sort of changed your outlook, bullishness, bearishness or any signposts that you think have necessarily been altered over the last few months?

所以我想 - 首先，真的很感謝關於向股東返還資本的最新情況。當然，在這樣的時代，這是很重要的。所以很高興看到。但我想知道是否——這有點——我想也許只是想從一個稍微不同的角度來看待這個問題。我有點好奇你所看到的關於你對公司的樂觀態度以及你所看到的客戶，我有點好奇這與我們上次時相比實際發生了多少變化——來自你在第三季度的最後一次通話。我的意思是在那裡 - 你在那個時間框架內看到的任何事情是否必然改變你的前景，看漲，看跌或你認為在過去幾個月中必然改變的任何路標？

Yes. I would say we've been bullish for quite some time now. I mean I think the pandemic, while it was a horrific experience to go through, I think it's forever changed Kforce, and I think it changed the trust within Kforce. And I think it also has changed our ability to move quickly, adjust rapidly because our teams had to learn and how to deal with so much change management over those periods of time that I think we are a very different organization than we were in the early part of 2020 prior to going into that.

是的。我想說我們已經看漲了一段時間了。我的意思是我認為大流行病雖然是一次可怕的經歷，但我認為它永遠改變了 Kforce，我認為它改變了 Kforce 內部的信任。而且我認為它也改變了我們快速行動、快速調整的能力，因為我們的團隊必須學習以及如何在那些時間段內處理如此多的變更管理，我認為我們是一個與早期相比截然不同的組織進入該之前的 2020 年的一部分。

And that really excites me because when I look at what our team has been able to accomplish over the course of the last 3 years, in the face of some of the most emotionally and mentally challenging situations that probably anybody in the business world has ever faced, I'm just blown away what our teams have accomplished and where we are today with our office-occasional model with real technology applied, with real cultural shift taking place and then just how we've also elevated our game with our end clients.

這真的讓我很興奮，因為當我看到我們的團隊在過去 3 年中取得的成就時，面對商業世界中可能任何人都曾面臨過的一些最具情感和精神挑戰的情況，我只是對我們的團隊所取得的成就以及我們今天所處的位置感到震驚，我們的辦公室偶爾模式應用了真正的技術，真正的文化轉變正在發生，然後我們如何提升我們與最終客戶的遊戲。

So no, I mean nothing has changed since we spoke to you back end of October of last year. We've been of this attitude for quite some time. We are playing offense, and we are going to continue to play offense. And why is that? Because we can and we have the right team to do it.

所以不，我的意思是，自從我們去年 10 月底與您交談以來，一切都沒有改變。我們持這種態度已有一段時間了。我們正在進攻，我們將繼續進攻。為什麼是這樣？因為我們可以，而且我們有合適的團隊來做到這一點。

Excellent. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about if -- with some of your engagements with clients, has there been much of an impact or benefit from either increased or installed M&A activity or business transitions that you're seeing? Or is that fairly similar to what we saw? So we know obviously, a lot of M&A sort of dried up last year. I was sort of curious as to whether or not any of that was driving changes or the way they were looking at things?

出色的。我想知道您是否可以談談您與客戶的一些接觸是否會從您所看到的增加或安裝的併購活動或業務轉型中產生很大的影響或收益？或者這與我們看到的非常相似？所以我們很明顯地知道，去年很多併購都已經枯竭了。我有點好奇這些是否正在推動變化或他們看待事物的方式？

No. We haven't seen any significant impacts from that. Clients are pretty much business as usual. As you know, we haven't done any M&A in many, many years. We have a couple of clients, but there are -- our largest client makes up only 5% of revenue. We have a couple of clients right now that we're benefiting from them going through some M&A activity, but it's really not an impact on what we're seeing.

不，我們還沒有看到任何重大影響。客戶幾乎照常營業。如您所知，我們已經很多很多年沒有進行任何併購了。我們有幾個客戶，但有——我們最大的客戶只佔收入的 5%。我們現在有幾個客戶，我們從他們進行的一些併購活動中受益，但這對我們所看到的情況並沒有真正的影響。

We have no further questions at this time. I'll hand the call back over to Joe Liberatore for any closing remarks.

目前我們沒有其他問題。我會將電話轉回給 Joe Liberatore 以聽取任何結束語。

Well, thank you for your interest and support of Kforce. I'd like to say thank you to every Kforcer for your extraordinary efforts and to our consultants and our clients for your trust in Kforce and partnering with you and allowing us the privilege to serve you. We look forward to talking to you again after our first quarter of 2023.

好的，感謝您對Kforce的關注和支持。我想感謝每一位 Kforce 的非凡努力，感謝我們的顧問和客戶對 Kforce 的信任並與您合作，讓我們有幸為您服務。我們期待在 2023 年第一季度之後再次與您交談。

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's meeting. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

女士們，先生們，今天的會議到此結束。謝謝大家的加入。您現在可以斷開連接。