Kforce Inc (KFRC) 2025 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by. My name is Greg, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Kforce Q1 2025 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions)

感謝您的支持。我叫格雷格，今天我將擔任您的會議主持人。現在，我歡迎大家參加 Kforce 2025 年第一季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）

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

現在我想將電話轉給總裁兼執行長喬·利伯拉托 (Joe Liberatore)。喬，請繼續。

Good afternoon, and thank you for your time today. This call contains certain statements that are forward-looking, 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 filings, and other reports and filings with the SEC. 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.

下午好，感謝您今天抽出時間。本次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，並受風險和不確定性的影響。實際結果可能與 Kforce 公開文件以及向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他報告和文件中列出的因素有重大差異。我們不承擔更新任何前瞻性陳述的責任。您可以在我們的收益報告和美國證券交易委員會 (SEC) 文件中找到有關我們業績的更多資訊。

In addition, we have published our prepared remarks within the Investor Relations portion of our website. Like many others, we entered 2025 with a general sense of optimism for the US economic growth with the expected derivative benefit being a boost in our clients' confidence in accelerating investments in technology initiatives that have been deferred for the last several years. The signs of a slowing mid-Q1, followed by the announcement of significant tariffs for which outcome and impact remains unclear, reintroduced many uncertainties into the US economic outlook.

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。與許多其他人一樣，我們對 2025 年美國經濟成長總體持樂觀態度，預期的衍生收益將增強我們的客戶對加速過去幾年被推遲的技術計劃投資的信心。第一季中期經濟放緩的跡象，以及隨後宣布的重大關稅（其結果和影響尚不明確）再次為美國經濟前景帶來許多不確定性。

The general tonality, as we sit here today is that the earlier optimism has waned to a degree and the macro uncertainties have increased, which may delay in acceleration of investment for many companies. With that said, the macro uncertainties have not resulted in a deterioration in our business. In fact, over the last six weeks, our consultants and assignments have improved, and our front-end KPIs have been elevated compared to first quarter levels. We are cautiously optimistic about the level of demand we are seeing against this more uncertain backdrop. As to our first quarter performance, it was generally consistent with our expectations.

今天我們在這裡討論的整體基調是，早期的樂觀情緒有所減弱，宏觀不確定性增加，這可能會延緩許多企業的投資加速。話雖如此，宏觀不確定性並沒有導致我們的業務惡化。事實上，在過去的六週裡，我們的顧問和任務都有所改善，我們的前端 KPI 與第一季的水平相比也有所提高。在這種更不確定的背景下，我們對所看到的需求水準持謹慎樂觀的態度。至於我們第一季的業績，整體上與我們的預期一致。

Regardless of the ultimate environment, we believe there remains an increasingly strong backlog of strategically imperative technology investments. We continue to be well positioned to take additional market share, as we have been doing successfully for years, and continue laying the foundation to generate significant long-term returns for our shareholders. We are fortunate to have made the strategic decision more than five years ago to focus on the commercial space and divest our federal government business such that we no longer have any direct business with the federal government and limited indirect exposure through the support of our larger system intermediary clients.

無論最終環境如何，我們相信具有戰略意義的技術投資積壓仍然越來越強勁。正如我們多年來成功做到的那樣，我們將繼續佔據有利地位，擴大市場份額，並繼續為股東創造可觀的長期回報奠定基礎。我們很幸運，在五年多前就做出了戰略決策，專注於商業領域，剝離聯邦政府業務，這樣我們不再與聯邦政府有任何直接業務往來，並且透過我們更大的系統中介客戶的支持來限制間接接觸。

As we look ahead to the second quarter, and the remainder of 2025, has been the case over the last few years, we will continue to stay close to our clients and monitor our key performance indicators and make any necessary adjustments to our business while continuing to invest in our long-term strategic priorities with a keen focus on the retention of our most productive associates. Our motto continues to be control what we can control.

展望第二季度以及 2025 年剩餘時間，正如過去幾年的情況一樣，我們將繼續密切關注客戶，監控關鍵績效指標，並對我們的業務進行任何必要的調整，同時繼續投資於我們的長期戰略重點，重點關注留住最有生產力的員工。我們的座右銘仍然是控制我們能夠控制的事情。

Our teams have continued to persevere and make the necessary adjustments within the business while we also have continued to make significant investments in critical initiatives that will provide a great foundation moving forward, positioning us to return higher levels of profitability as revenues inflect. We continue to make significant progress with the implementation of Workday as our future state enterprise cloud application for HCM and Financials.

我們的團隊繼續堅持不懈，對業務進行必要的調整，同時我們也繼續對關鍵舉措進行大量投資，這些舉措將為未來的發展奠定良好的基礎，使我們能夠在收入發生變化時恢復更高的盈利水平。我們在實施 Workday 作為我們未來針對 HCM 和財務的企業雲端應用程式方面繼續取得重大進展。

The go-live of this technology platform is expected in early 2026, and we expect to begin to generate immediate efficiency gains that will continue to improve as we rationalize the new platform. We also continue to evolve our nearshore and offshore delivery capabilities with our India development center, and further integrate all the firm's capabilities across the full spectrum of our service offerings as One Kforce. Each of these strategic initiatives are transformational in nature and will be meaningful contributors to us meeting our financial objectives.

該技術平台預計將於 2026 年初上線，我們預計它將立即帶來效率提升，隨著新平台的合理化，效率將持續提高。我們也將繼續透過印度開發中心發展我們的近岸和離岸交付能力，並進一步將公司的所有能力整合到我們作為 One Kforce 提供的全方位服務中。這些策略舉措中的每一項都具有變革性質，並將對我們實現財務目標做出有意義的貢獻。

AI continues to dominate the headlines. As we have previously articulated, over the long term, we believe that AI and other innovative technologies will continue to play an increasing role in powering businesses. We are ideally positioned to meet that demand and continue to see an increased focus of AI foundational readiness work in areas such as data, cloud and modernization, along with AI projects in our consulting-oriented engagements.

人工智慧繼續佔​​據新聞頭條。正如我們之前所闡述的，從長遠來看，我們相信人工智慧和其他創新技術將繼續在推動企業發展方面發揮越來越重要的作用。我們完全有能力滿足這一需求，並將繼續專注於數據、雲端和現代化等領域的人工智慧基礎準備工作，以及我們以諮詢為導向的業務中的人工智慧專案。

Internally, we expect to benefit from the future leverage of AI, and in that regard, are extremely fortunate to have made the strategic decision to concentrate our platform technologies with Microsoft and Workday. We have accelerated our investments in these technologies by acquiring enterprise licensing of Office 365 copilot and Sales copilot from Microsoft. We are taking active steps within the firm to provide these important productivity-enhancing technologies to all of our associates and leaders. We have built a solid foundation at Kforce and will continue to make the necessary investments to transform our business.

在內部，我們希望從人工智慧的未來槓桿中受益，在這方面，我們非常幸運地做出了將我們的平台技術集中在微軟和 Workday 上的策略決策。我們透過從微軟獲得 Office 365 copilot 和 Sales copilot 的企業許可，加快了對這些技術的投資。我們正在公司內部採取積極措施，為我們所有的同事和領導提供這些重要的提高生產力的技術。我們已經在 Kforce 建立了堅實的基礎，並將繼續進行必要的投資來轉變我們的業務。

Our domestically focused organic growth strategy continues to benefit our organization by eliminating any unnecessary distractions for our people so that their full energy is directed to partnering with our clients to help them solve their most important business challenges. Before transitioning the call, I wanted to reiterate how proud I am of the performance and resiliency of the collective Kforce team. We are blessed to have a high-performing organization that is united, tenured, dedicated and passionate.

我們以國內為重點的有機成長策略繼續使我們的組織受益，透過消除員工不必要的干擾，使他們能夠將全部精力投入到與客戶的合作中，幫助他們解決最重要的業務挑戰。在轉接電話之前，我想重申一下，我對 Kforce 團隊的表現和韌性感到多麼自豪。我們很幸運擁有一個團結、長期、專注且充滿熱情的高績效組織。

I cannot be more excited about the future of Kforce. Dave Kelly, our Chief Operating Officer, will now give greater insights into our performance and recent operating trends. Jeff Hackman, Kforce's Chief Financial Officer, will then provide additional details on our financial results as well as our future financial expectations. Dave?

我對 Kforce 的未來感到無比興奮。我們的營運長戴夫凱利 (Dave Kelly) 現在將更深入地介紹我們的業績和近期營運趨勢。Kforce 財務長 Jeff Hackman 隨後將提供有關我們的財務表現以及未來財務預期的更多詳細資訊。戴夫？

Thank you, Joe. Total revenues of $330 million declined 4.7% year over year on a billing day basis. Revenues in our technology business declined 5.2% sequentially, and declined 3.5% year over year per billing day. We didn't see a typical recovery in the first quarter. Normally, consultants and assignments decreased in January as year-end projects are wrapped up, and then gradually increase during the last two months of the quarter.

謝謝你，喬。總收入為 3.3 億美元，以結算日計算年減 4.7%。我們的技術業務收入季減 5.2%，每個計費日的營收年減 3.5%。我們在第一季沒有看到典型的復甦。通常情況下，隨著年終專案的結束，一月顧問和任務會減少，然後在季度的最後兩個月逐漸增加。

This year, we actually saw slight declines mid-quarter due to higher-than-expected assignment attrition, which mirrored the temporary of economic expectations. Headcount levels did begin to increase in late March, and that improvement continued into mid-April. Though uncertainty remains, mission-critical initiatives continue to be prioritized by our clients.

今年，由於任務流失率高於預期，我們實際上在本季中期出現了小幅下滑，這反映了經濟預期的暫時性。員工人數確實在三月底開始增加，這種改善一直持續到四月中旬。儘管仍存在不確定性，但關鍵任務計畫仍受到客戶的優先重視。

However, given the macroeconomic uncertainty, clients appear to be awaiting a period of increased confidence before more aggressively adding resources to address the significant backlog of other important technology initiatives. Our technology service offering has significantly evolved over the years, expanding beyond traditional staffing assignments to encompass more consulting-oriented engagements.

然而，鑑於宏觀經濟的不確定性，客戶似乎正在等待一段信心增強的時期，然後才更積極地增加資源來解決其他重要技術計劃的大量積壓問題。多年來，我們提供的技術服務有了顯著的發展，已經超越了傳統的人員配置任務，涵蓋了更多以諮詢為導向的業務。

Clients continue to prioritize cost-efficient access to highly skilled talent and view our services as an effective solution to meet their technology project requirements, leveraging our superior delivery capabilities. The demand for our consulting-oriented offerings has continued to significantly contribute to our results.

客戶繼續優先考慮以具成本效益的方式獲得高技能人才，並將我們的服務視為滿足其技術專案要求的有效解決方案，並利用我們卓越的交付能力。對我們的諮詢導向產品的需求持續對我們的業績做出重大貢獻。

This growth underscores our ability to adapt and meet the evolving needs of our clients. While our traditional staffing business has experienced year-over-year revenue declines, growth in solutions-oriented assignments highlights our strategic shift in the increasing value clients place on our consulting capabilities. Our integrated strategy leverages all aspects of the firm's capabilities to meet the needs of the world-class companies we serve.

這一成長凸顯了我們適應和滿足客戶不斷變化的需求的能力。雖然我們傳統的人員配備業務收入逐年下降，但以解決方案為導向的任務的成長凸顯了我們的策略轉變，即客戶越來越重視我們的諮詢能力。我們的綜合策略充分利用公司各方面的能力來滿足我們所服務的世界級公司的需求。

An increasingly important aspect of providing cost-effective solutions is our ability to source highly skilled talent from outside the United States. Our development center in Pune India positions Kforce well to compete for client opportunities that were previously unavailable to us. This development center, combined with our robust US sales and delivery capabilities, and a high-quality vendor network, allows us to comprehensively address the evolving needs of our clients, whether onshore, nearshore or offshore. Overall average bill rates in our technology business of $90 grew slightly sequentially and on a year-over-year basis, continuing a trend of stability that has persisted for nearly three years.

提供具有成本效益的解決方案的一個越來越重要的方面是我們從美國以外尋找高技能人才的能力。我們位於印度浦那的開發中心為 Kforce 提供了良好的條件，可以爭取我們以前無法獲得的客戶機會。該開發中心與我們強大的美國銷售和交付能力以及高品質的供應商網路相結合，使我們能夠全面滿足客戶不斷變化的需求，無論是在岸、近岸還是離岸。我們的科技業務的整體平均帳單費率為 90 美元，與上一季和去年同期相比均略有成長，延續了近三年的穩定趨勢。

The consistent demand for highly skilled talent in both traditional staffing assignments and consulting-oriented engagements has played a crucial role in maintaining stable bill and pay rates. This demand is driven by clients' need for expertise in specialized areas such as AI and machine learning, application engineering, cloud, digital, data and cybersecurity.

無論是傳統的人員配置任務還是諮詢導向的業務，對高技能人才的持續需求對於維持穩定的帳單和工資率發揮了至關重要的作用。這種需求是由客戶對人工智慧和機器學習、應用工程、雲端、數位、數據和網路安全等專業領域的專業知識的需求所驅動的。

Our ability to source and provide top-tier professionals who can address complex technological challenges has ensured that our services remain indispensable, even as overall industry trends have slowed. Our core competency lies in sourcing quality talent at scale for our clients, adapting to the evolving demand for various skill sets. We anticipate this trend to continue as clients increasingly rely on us to provide data and digital resources to support their data rationalization and cleanup activities, which are critical to their AI investments.

我們能夠尋找並提供能夠解決複雜技術挑戰的頂級專業人員，這確保了即使整個行業趨勢已經放緩，我們的服務仍然不可或缺。我們的核心競爭力在於為客戶大規模地尋找優質人才，並適應不斷變化的各種技能需求。我們預計這種趨勢將會持續下去，因為客戶越來越依賴我們提供數據和數位資源來支援他們的數據合理化和清理活動，這對他們的人工智慧投資至關重要。

We have relationships with the largest providers in this space, including Microsoft and continue to strengthen our partnership models with these companies. As technology has evolved over the decade, we've efficiently adapted to the changing skill set demands of our clients, ensuring we remain a trusted partner in their technological advancements.

我們與包括微軟在內的該領域最大的供應商建立了合作關係，並將繼續加強與這些公司的合作模式。隨著科技在過去十年中不斷發展，我們已經有效地適應了客戶不斷變化的技能需求，確保我們仍然是客戶技術進步中值得信賴的合作夥伴。

Our client portfolio is diverse and is predominantly comprised of large market-leading companies. Our focus on addressing their needs continues to be critical to our ability to drive sustainable, long-term above-market performance. The retail and transportation industries outperformed sequentially in Q1, while we experienced downward pressure in the relatively modest footprint with large consulting companies supporting the federal government, as well as in financial services.

我們的客戶組合多種多樣，主要由大型市場領先的公司組成。我們專注於滿足他們的需求，這對於我們實現可持續的、長期高於市場的業績至關重要。零售和運輸業在第一季表現優於其他行業，而支持聯邦政府的大型顧問公司以及金融服務業的相對溫和的領域則面臨下行壓力。

Our footprint is focused on supporting very large clients, all of whom have different needs. As a result, it's typical to see both increases and decreases in revenue for clients within the same industry vertical, which has been the case in financial services. Given our size and scale, it's difficult to extrapolate our performance with overall industry trends. Looking forward to Q2, we expect modest sequential growth in our technology business. Flex revenues in our FA business, currently 6.1% of our revenues, declined 22% year over year on a billing day basis.

我們的業務重點是支援大型客戶，這些客戶都有不同的需求。因此，同一垂直行業內客戶的收入通常會同時增加和減少，金融服務業就是這種情況。鑑於我們的規模和範圍，很難根據整個行業趨勢推斷我們的表現。展望第二季度，我們預計我們的技術業務將實現適度的環比成長。我們 FA 業務中的 Flex 收入目前占我們營收的 6.1%，以結算日計算年減 22%。

Our average bill rate of approximately $52 per hour improved slightly sequentially and year over year, and is reflective of the highly skilled areas we are pursuing. We expect Q2 revenues in F&A to be down sequentially on a billing day basis in the mid-single digits. An area where we have seen a more significant impact from the economic uncertainty is in our Direct Hire business, which represents approximately 2% of overall revenues.

我們的平均收費標準約為每小時 52 美元，與去年同期相比略有改善，這反映了我們正在追求的高技能領域。我們預計，以結算日計算，財務與行政管理部門第二季的營收將季減約個位數。我們看到受經濟不確定性影響更為顯著的一個領域是我們的直接僱用業務，該業務約佔總收入的 2%。

After a reasonably strong first quarter, activity slowed in early April, and we now expect Direct Hire to decline sequentially in Q2, in what is typically its strongest quarter. We continue to make adjustments to associate staffing levels based on productivity expectations, focusing on retaining our most productive associates and making targeted investments to ensure we are well prepared to capitalize on market demand when it accelerates.

在第一季表現相當強勁之後，4 月初活動有所放緩，我們現在預計，第二季度直接僱用量將環比下降，而第二季度通常是僱用量最強勁的一個季度。我們將繼續根據生產力預期調整員工配備水平，重點是留住最有生產力的員工，並進行有針對性的投資，以確保我們做好充分準備，在市場需求加速成長時抓住機會。

Over the past three years, we selectively invested in our sales teams while rationalizing our delivery resources, which have decreased by close to 40% over that time. Despite these reductions, we believe we have ample capacity to absorb several quarters of increased demand without adding significant resources. Additionally, we continue to invest in our consulting solutions business. Our performance in the first quarter continued to outpace that of our competitors. We remain tremendously excited about our strategic position and our ability to continue delivering above-market performance in our technology business as we have for well over a decade.

在過去三年中，我們有選擇地投資於我們的銷售團隊，同時合理化我們的交付資源，在此期間交付資源減少了近 40％。儘管有這些削減，我們相信我們有足夠的能力來吸收幾個季度的成長需求，而無需增加大量資源。此外，我們繼續投資於我們的諮詢解決方案業務。我們第一季的業績持續領先競爭對手。我們對我們的戰略地位以及我們十多年來繼續在技術業務中提供高於市場表現的能力感到非常興奮。

The success we achieved as an organization is a testament to the unwavering trust that our clients, candidates and consultants place in us. I'll now turn the call over to Jeff Hackman, Kforce's Chief Financial Officer.

我們作為組織所取得的成功證明了我們的客戶、候選人和顧問對我們堅定不移的信任。現在我將把電話轉給 Kforce 的財務長 Jeff Hackman。

Thank you, Dave. First quarter revenue of $330 million was at the low end of guidance and earnings per share of $0.45 was slightly above the low end of guidance. Overall gross margins decreased 30 basis points sequentially to 26.7% due to a seasonal decline in Flex margins of 50 basis points, resulting from usual payroll tax resets, which was partially offset by a higher mix of Direct Hire revenues. On a year over year basis, overall spread and business mix have been stable, though gross margins declined 40 basis points due to higher health care costs. Flex margins in our technology business decreased 40 basis points sequentially due to seasonal payroll tax resets.

謝謝你，戴夫。第一季營收為 3.3 億美元，處於預期低端，每股收益為 0.45 美元，略高於預期低端。整體毛利率季減 30 個基點至 26.7%，原因是彈性利潤率季節性下降 50 個基點，這是由於正常的工資稅重置造成的，但直接僱用收入的增加部分抵消了這一影響。與去年同期相比，整體利差和業務組合保持穩定，但由於醫療保健成本上升，毛利率下降了 40 個基點。由於季節性工資稅重置，我們技術業務的彈性利潤率環比下降了 40 個基點。

Flex margins and Technology declined 40 basis points year over year as higher health care costs were partially offset by a slight improvement in bill pay spreads. This spread increase of 10 basis points is attributable to the continued demand for highly skilled talent, and a higher mix of consulting-oriented work. As we look forward to Q2, we expect Flex margins to increase sequentially due to the alleviation of seasonal payroll tax resets, while remaining stable otherwise.

由於醫療保健成本的上升被帳單支付利差的輕微改善部分抵消，因此靈活利潤率和技術利潤率同比下降了 40 個基點。利差增加 10 個基點，歸因於對高技能人才的持續需求，以及諮詢導向工作比例的提升。展望第二季度，我們預計 Flex 利潤率將因季節性工資稅重置的緩解而環比增長，而其他方面則保持穩定。

Overall SG&A expenses as a percentage of revenue of 22.8% were within the range of our expectations as we have continued to manage productivity and profitability levels well. While we experienced higher health care costs in the first quarter, those costs were offset by leverage gained from continued refinements in our head count and lower performance-based compensation, given slightly lower financial performance.

由於我們繼續妥善管理生產力和獲利水平，整體銷售、一般及行政費用佔收入的 22.8% 在我們的預期範圍內。雖然我們在第一季經歷了較高的醫療保健成本，但這些成本被我們透過持續精簡員工人數和降低績效薪酬（由於財務業績略有下降）所獲得的槓桿作用所抵消。

We are continuing to make targeted investments in our sales capabilities, while tightly scrutinizing spend in all other areas of our business. We also continue to advance our enterprise initiatives, including the implementation of Workday, the maturation of our India development center, and further integration of our solutions offering, all of which are expected to significantly contribute to our longer-term financial objectives and prepare us well for when companies more aggressively invest and their technology initiatives.

我們將繼續對銷售能力進行有針對性的投資，同時嚴格審查我們業務所有其他領域的支出。我們還將繼續推進我們的企業計劃，包括實施 Workday、完善我們的印度開發中心以及進一步整合我們的解決方案，所有這些都有望為我們的長期財務目標做出重大貢獻，並為公司更積極地投資及其技術計劃做好準備。

We expect 2025 to be the final year of significant net investment in these initiatives and for them each to begin providing meaningful and growing returns as we move into '26 and beyond. Our operating margin was 3.5%, and our effective tax rate in the first quarter was 26.4%. During the quarter, we accelerated our share repurchase activity returning in aggregate of $28.3 million in capital to our shareholders through dividends of roughly $7 million, and share repurchases of approximately $21 million.

我們預計 2025 年將是這些計劃進行大規模淨投資的最後一年，隨著我們進入 2026 年及以後，每個計劃都將開始提供有意義且不斷增長的回報。我們的營業利益率為3.5%，第一季有效稅率為26.4%。本季度，我們加快了股票回購活動，透過約 700 萬美元的股息和約 2,100 萬美元的股票回購，向股東返還了總計 2,830 萬美元的資本。

Given the level of repurchase activity, outstanding debt at the end of the first quarter was $65.5 million. We continue to carry a very solid balance sheet and historically conservative leverage against trailing 12 months EBITDA levels. We have continued to be active in repurchasing our shares in April and have significant remaining availability under our credit facility. Operating cash flows were $0.2 million, which were lower than usual, primarily due to timing of payments from our clients and an allowable deferral by the IRS of our 2024 federal income tax payment into the first quarter. Our return on equity continues to exceed 30%.

考慮到回購活動的水平，第一季末的未償還債務為 6,550 萬美元。我們繼續保持非常穩健的資產負債表和相對於過去 12 個月 EBITDA 水準歷史上保守的槓桿率。我們在四月繼續積極回購股票，並且我們的信貸安排下仍有大量剩餘可用資金。營運現金流為 20 萬美元，低於往常，主要原因是我們的客戶付款時間以及美國國稅局允許我們將 2024 年聯邦所得稅付款延期至第一季。我們的股本回報率持續超過30%。

We continue to execute our organically driven business well and we believe our industry-leading relative performance is a result of our intense focus in technology staffing and solutions in the US, augmented by our nearshore and offshore capabilities. We continue to carry a pristine balance sheet with conservative debt levels and return significant capital to our shareholders.

我們繼續良好地執行我們的有機驅動業務，我們相信我們行業領先的相對業績是我們高度重視美國技術人員配備和解決方案的結果，並得到了我們近岸和離岸能力的增強。我們繼續保持完美的資產負債表和保守的債務水平，並向股東返還大量資本。

This consistent repurchase activity continues to be strongly accretive to earnings. We have returned approximately $1 billion in capital to our shareholders since 2007, which has represented approximately 75% of the cash generated, while significantly growing our business and improving profitability levels. Our balance sheet and cash flows allow us to remain committed to investing in our business, while aggressively returning capital regardless of the economic climate.

這種持續的回購活動持續大幅增加收益。自 2007 年以來，我們已向股東返還了約 10 億美元的資本，約佔所產生現金的 75%，同時顯著增長了我們的業務並提高了盈利水平。我們的資產負債表和現金流使我們能夠繼續致力於投資我們的業務，同時無論經濟環境如何都能積極地回饋資本。

Our threshold for any prospective acquisition remains very high. The second quarter has 64 billing days, which is one more day than the first quarter, and the same as the second quarter of 2024. We expect Q2 revenues to be in the range of $332 million to $340 million, and earnings per share to be between $0.57 and $0.65.

我們對任何潛在收購的門檻仍然很高。第二季的計費天數為64天，比第一季多一天，與2024年第二季相同。我們預計第二季營收將在 3.32 億美元至 3.4 億美元之間，每股盈餘將在 0.57 美元至 0.65 美元之間。

Our guidance is based upon the assumption of the continuation of a stable environment and does not consider the potential impact of any other unusual or nonrecurring items that may occur. We remain excited about our strategic position and prospects for continuing to deliver above-market results, while continuing to make the necessary investments to help drive long-term growth and enable us to achieve our longer-term objective of attaining double-digit operating margins.

我們的指導是基於穩定環境持續的假設，並沒有考慮可能發生的任何其他異常或非經常性事項的潛在影響。我們對我們的策略地位和持續提供高於市場業績的前景感到興奮，同時繼續進行必要的投資以幫助推動長期成長並使我們能夠實現實現兩位數營業利潤率的長期目標。

As we mentioned previously, we expect operating margins to approximate 8% when we return to $1.7 billion in annual revenues, which is more than 100 basis points higher than when that revenue level was achieved in 2022. This improvement is being driven by the expected benefits derived from investments in our strategic priorities, which will drive down operating costs. Though we have seen recent slight improvement in bill pay spreads, our profitability expectations are not factoring in any additional meaningful benefit from further improvement in gross margin.

正如我們之前提到的，我們預計，當我們的年收入恢復到 17 億美元時，營業利潤率將達到約 8%，這比 2022 年實現該收入水平時高出 100 多個基點。這項改善是由我們對策略重點的投資所帶來的預期收益所推動的，這將降低營運成本。儘管我們最近看到帳單支付利差略有改善，但我們的獲利預期並未將毛利率進一步提高帶來的任何額外有意義的收益考慮在內。

On behalf of our entire management team, I'd like to extend a sincere thank you to our teams for their efforts. We'd now like to turn the call over for questions.

我謹代表我們整個管理團隊向我們的團隊所做的努力表示誠摯的感謝。我們現在想將電話轉交給提問者。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指示）

Mark Marcon, Baird.

馬克馬孔，貝爾德。

Joe and David, you mentioned the monthly trends that you were seeing, particularly on the Tech Flex side and really appreciate that. I was wondering if you could just give us just a little bit more color with regards to what you're hearing from clients? Obviously, it's an uncertain environment. But I'm wondering, are you hearing like a very firm commitment to sticking with existing projects and just basically delaying those that haven't started? Or are you starting to see any contemplation at all of potentially ending some already underway projects?

喬和戴維，你們提到了你們所看到的月度趨勢，特別是在 Tech Flex 方面，我們對此非常感激。我想知道您是否可以就您從客戶那裡聽到的情況向我們提供更多詳細資訊？顯然，這是一個不確定的環境。但我想知道，您是否聽到了非常堅定的承諾，堅持現有項目，並基本上推遲那些尚未開始的項目？還是您開始考慮終止一些已在進行的項目？

Yeah, I appreciate the question, Mark. This is Dave. So yeah, so to reiterate what we said, we did see some growth in the consultants on assignment in March and then through mid-April. Joe also alluded to some of our front leading indicators. Our KPIs continue to be strong. I'd also mention bill rates, so we're seeing in some spread improvement. So I think, generally speaking, stable activity, stable environments, discussions and things that we're hearing from our clients. We have not -- I would contrast this significantly to maybe slower periods, in recessionary periods. We are not seeing clients canceling projects on us. It's very steady, as I think we articulated in the prepared remarks.

是的，我很感謝你提出這個問題，馬克。這是戴夫。是的，重申我們所說的，我們確實看到 3 月以及到 4 月中旬，執行任務的顧問數量有所增加。喬也提到了我們的一些領先指標。我們的關鍵績效指標 (KPI) 持續強勁。我還要提到票據利率，因此我們看到利差有所改善。所以我認為，一般來說，穩定的活動、穩定的環境、討論和我們從客戶那裡聽到的事情。我們沒有——我想將其與經濟較慢的時期、經濟衰退時期進行鮮明對比。我們沒有看到客戶取消我們的專案。它非常穩定，我認為我們在準備好的發言中已經表達過了。

Certainly, we are winning some new business. So you're seeing that. You're seeing some natural project ends. You're just not seeing robust acceleration in some -- a lot of new initiatives, as we've been saying for a number of quarters. We see that pipeline. We continue to hear an eagerness of spend. But obviously, I think there's a fair amount of caution due to the uncertainty in the environment for clients to say, I'm going to go full board and spend. So more of what we saw at -- more of what we saw last quarter.

當然，我們正在贏得一些新業務。所以你看到了這一點。您會看到一些項目自然結束。正如我們幾個季度以來所說的那樣，你只是沒有看到一些新舉措出現強勁的加速。我們看到了那條管道。我們不斷聽到人們渴望花錢的聲音。但顯然，我認為由於環境的不確定性，客戶會採取相當謹慎的態度，他們會說，我要全額支付費用。因此，我們看到的更多是上個季度看到的情況。

Okay. And then it seems relatively clear, but just want to 100% absolutely confirm this. It sounds like the guidance that you're basically providing, would basically suggest, relatively stable sequential trends on a go-forward basis through the remainder of the quarter and does it really contemplate -- maybe the environment gets worse and some clients decide that they need to cut back a little bit more sharply. Is that correct?

好的。然後看起來比較清楚了，但只是想 100% 絕對確認這一點。聽起來，您提供的指導基本上表明，在本季度剩餘時間內，未來趨勢將相對穩定，並且它是否真的考慮到——也許環境會變得更糟，一些客戶決定他們需要更大幅度地削減開支。對嗎？

Yeah. And Mark, this is Jeff. Good to talk to you again this quarter here. I think Dave made a couple of points. I know we touched on this in his remarks, but mid-quarter in the February time frame, attrition levels ran a little bit higher than we had anticipated. The new assignments that we saw during the quarter were actually fairly consistent with what we expected. And I think it was in both Joe and Dave's scripts over the last four to six weeks, as we closed out the first quarter and started April, actually grew our consultants on assignment during that period.

是的。馬克，這是傑夫。很高興本季再次與您交談。我認為戴夫提出了幾點。我知道我們在他的演講中談到了這一點，但二月中期，員工流動率比我們預期的要高一些。我們在本季看到的新任務實際上與我們的預期相當一致。我認為，在過去四到六週的時間裡，當我們結束第一季並開始四月份時，喬和戴夫的腳本中都提到了這一點，實際上，在此期間，我們的顧問數量有所增加。

So that gives us a point, Mark, for guidance where, yes, from the remaining to-go period for the quarter, we expect stability from here on out. The growth that we saw in late March and April put us in a position where at the midpoint of our guide. Our technology business is up sequentially a little bit less than 1%. So yeah, you are correct, Mark, that the assumption at the midpoint of the guide is stability for the remaining go period of the second quarter here.

因此，馬克，這給了我們一個指導點，是的，從本季剩餘的時間來看，我們預計從現在開始會保持穩定。我們在三月底和四月看到的增長使我們處於指南的中間位置。我們的技術業務較上季成長略低於 1%。是的，馬克，你是對的，指南中點的假設是第二季剩餘時間的穩定性。

And obviously, nobody knows exactly what's going to happen because nobody knows exactly where tariffs are going to end and we don't know where other countries are going to respond. But if things do get worse, what are some of the levers that you could pull on? Or how would you react if we started seeing some pullbacks in terms of existing -- in terms of existing projects?

顯然，沒有人確切知道會發生什麼，因為沒有人確切知道關稅將在何時結束，我們也不知道其他國家將如何回應。但如果情況真的變得更糟，你可以採取哪些措施呢？或者，如果我們開始看到現有項目出現一些回調，您會如何反應？

Yeah. I think, Mark, the -- hopefully, you can appreciate over the last couple of years, obviously, in '23 and '24, revenues were declining in our technology business, just given the macro headwinds. We've been making, as an overall organization, the necessary adjustments. I think it was mentioned in Dave Kelly's prepared remarks that when you look at our overall delivery head count over the last several years, it's down close to 40%. We've been investing in our business from a sales role standpoint.

是的。馬克，我想，希望你能理解，在過去幾年裡，顯然，在 2023 年和 2024 年，由於宏觀不利因素的影響，我們的技術業務收入一直在下降。作為一個整體組織，我們一直在進行必要的調整。我認為戴夫凱利 (Dave Kelly) 的準備好的發言中提到過，當你查看過去幾年我們的總體交付員工人數時，會發現這一數字下降了近 40%。我們一直從銷售角色的角度投資我們的業務。

So I think, Mark, we're going to take a good hard look as we always do at our operating trends. We'll assess what we're seeing in terms of client visits, in terms of job orders and continue to make the necessary adjustments in the business, just as we've done over the last couple of years to make sure that we're returning a responsible level of profitability.

所以我認為，馬克，我們將像往常一樣認真審視我們的營運趨勢。我們將評估客戶訪問量和工作訂單的情況，並繼續對業務進行必要的調整，就像過去幾年所做的那樣，以確保我們恢復負責任的盈利水平。

Yeah. I'd just add to that. This is Dave. A couple of things, right. Jeff, is obviously talking about the sales and delivery folks. We have always managed the business quantitatively and have expectations for those people, and that's part of the reason why this percentages that Jeff quoted are where they are. Obviously, from a cost perspective, SG&A, we're always being prudent in making sure we're not we're not unnecessarily spending money. I think we've been very prudent on that. The one thing I would -- they'll continue to stress based upon where we are today and the strong cash that we're generating. We think about this business not just in the near term, but certainly in the long term and the long-term benefits.

是的。我只是想補充一點。這是戴夫。有幾件事，對的。傑夫顯然是在談論銷售和送貨人員。我們一直對業務進行量化管理，並對這些人抱有期望，這也是 Jeff 引用的百分比之所以如此的原因之一。顯然，從成本角度來看，銷售、一般及行政費用 (SG&A)，我們始終保持謹慎，確保不會不必要地花錢。我認為我們對此非常謹慎。我想說的一件事是——他們會繼續強調我們目前的狀況以及我們產生的強勁現金。我們考慮這項業務不僅僅是短期的，而且肯定是長期的和長期的利益。

We touched on the Workday implementation. Critical for us to continue to invest to make sure that we bring that to fruition because I think Jeff has said in prior calls, we're looking at probably about a 1% improvement in operating margin after that goes live. We've also obviously want to continue to invest in those other strategic priorities that we have. Building our offshore capability, et cetera. So we're thinking about this certainly being prudent in the near term but making sure that we've maintained focus on what the big long-term benefits we think that we need to generate our long-term agents.

我們談到了 Workday 的實作。對我們來說，繼續投資以確保實現這一目標至關重要，因為我認為傑夫在之前的電話會議上說過，我們預計在實施這項計劃後，營業利潤率可能會提高 1% 左右。我們顯然也希望繼續投資我們現有的其他戰略重點。建立我們的離岸能力等等。因此，我們認為這在短期內肯定是謹慎的，但要確保我們一直關注我們認為需要產生長期利益的巨大長期利益，以產生長期代理。

Mark, this is Joe. I'll add one piece because I think both Jeff and Dave kind of gave a good backdrop of how we look at this, managing the business internally. But I want to shift a little bit to the external to the client front. The majority of the work that we're focused on in our model today is what I would call strategically critical projects that organizations don't turn off. They can't turn off.

馬克，這是喬。我要補充一點，因為我認為 Jeff 和 Dave 都對我們如何看待這個問題以及內部管理業務給出了很好的背景說明。但我想稍微轉向外部客戶方面。我們今天在模型中關注的大部分工作都是我所說的組織不會關閉的具有戰略意義的關鍵項目。它們無法關閉。

I mean, obviously, they could turn them off, but I'll tell you, things would have to get pretty bad. We'll be in a whole different world, and I think how Kforce is performing would be the least of anybody's worries. So my main point with that, we have not seen projects being cut short. We've seen projects bringing come to completion. We're not seeing a lot of trimming in and around the strategic projects. So I think that that's an important piece. My main reason for sharing that is we would see probably less initiation of new projects, which gives us time to prepare and react to those situations. So I don't think we get blindsided by anything. I just want to give that part of the story as well.

我的意思是，顯然他們可以關掉它們，但我告訴你，事情會變得非常糟糕。我們將進入一個完全不同的世界，我認為 Kforce 的表現將是人們最不需要擔心的事情。所以我的主要觀點是，我們並沒有看到項目被縮短。我們已經看到項目已經完成。我們沒有看到戰略項目內部和周邊出現大量削減。所以我認為這是很重要的一點。我分享這一點的主要原因是，我們可能會看到更少的新專案啟動，這使我們有時間準備並應對這些情況。所以我認為我們不會對任何事情感到驚訝。我也只是想說故事的這一部分。

I appreciate that, Joe. And one last one from me, and then I'll jump back in the queue. Just in terms of the gross margins, Dave, they're holding in relatively steady. What are you seeing in terms of price competition just with regards to the traditional IT Flex staffing, not the consulting, but just IT flex staffing?

我很感激，喬。我還有最後一個問題，然後我會回到隊列。就毛利率而言，戴夫，他們保持相對穩定。就傳統 IT 彈性人員配置（不是諮詢，而是 IT 彈性人員配置）而言，您看到的價格競爭如何？

Yeah. Mark, this is Jeff. I'll take part one and then Dave can add some color here. I think, Mark, as you look at our Flex margin spreads, specifically in technology. After the earlier declines that we saw in 2023, our spreads have been actually quite stable since that period of time.

是的。馬克，這是傑夫。我將參加第一部分，然後戴夫可以在這裡添加一些顏色。馬克，我認為，當你查看我們的彈性保證金利差時，特別是在技術方面。在經歷了 2023 年的早期下跌之後，我們的利差實際上從那時起一直相當穩定。

I think Dave mentioned in an earlier answer to a question on the average bill rate also being stable as well at roughly $90. I think you looked across that, Mark. I think we've been stable from an average bill rate standpoint now for the better part of three years. The margins have been very steady for the last couple of years as well. Of course, in the fourth quarter, and again, in the first quarter, we saw a little bit higher health insurance costs.

我認為 Dave 在之前回答問題時提到過，平均帳單利率也穩定在 90 美元左右。我想你已經看過了，馬克。我認為從平均票據利率的角度來看，我們在近三年的大部分時間裡一直保持穩定。過去幾年的利潤率也一直非常穩定。當然，在第四季以及第一季度，我們看到醫療保險費用略有增加。

I think that distorts the Flex margin lines a little bit. But I think encouraging for us that we continue to see the operational spread stability. Of course, we talked about the continued progress that we're making in our more solutions-oriented work. That work continues to have a margin profile that's 400 basis points or higher. So of course, as we continue to benefit from a higher mix of business in that space, that's also benefiting the overall margin profile for us.

我認為這會稍微扭曲 Flex 邊緣線。但我認為，令我們感到鼓舞的是，我們繼續看到營運利差穩定。當然，我們談到了我們在以解決方案為導向的工作中取得的持續進展。這項工作的利潤率仍達到 400 個基點或更高。因此，當然，隨著我們繼續受益於該領域更高的業務組合，這也有利於我們的整體利潤率。

Yeah. And then just add a little bit further. It kind of goes toward Joe a minute ago about us seeing projects come to their natural conclusion. We're not seeing any extraordinary difference from that type of typical environment, right? We obviously -- and when we're talking about more of the traditional staffing engagements, we deal with a lot of large companies still looking from time to time to consolidate their list of vendors, looking for some concessions, still seeing that.

是的。然後再加一點點。這有點像喬剛才說的，我們看到專案自然而然地結束了。我們沒有看到與那種典型環境有任何顯著差異，對嗎？顯然，當我們談論更多傳統的人員配備工作時，我們會與許多大公司打交道，這些公司仍然會不時地尋求整合其供應商名單，尋求一些讓步，並且仍然看到這一點。

But we aren't seeing any wholesale. Hey, you need to cut prices if you're going to keep business because we are under pressure, we being our clients to save money. I think that is, to me, a reflection of what Joe said. These guys are doing critical work. They need to have it continue to be done. We are still in an environment where high-quality technology talent is important to find and needs to be paid for. And they recognize that. So we've seen stable bill rates to Jeff's point, we're seeing stable pay rates. So I think a very typical environment. We're not seeing any rash decisions that companies are making.

但我們沒有看到任何批發。嘿，如果你想保持業務，你需要降低價格，因為我們面臨壓力，作為客戶，我們需要省錢。我認為，對我來說，這就是喬所說的話的體現。這些人正在做著至關重要的工作。他們需要繼續這樣做。我們仍然處於一個需要尋找高品質技術人才並支付報酬的環境。他們也認識到了這一點。因此，我們看到了穩定的帳單利率，就 Jeff 的觀點而言，我們看到了穩定的支付率。所以我認為這是一個非常典型的環境。我們沒有看到公司做出任何草率的決定。

Kartik Mehta, Northcoast Research.

Kartik Mehta，Northcoast Research。

I wanted to ask a little bit about capacity. Maybe, obviously, you've made cuts and obviously, you had to kind of restructure the organization with the current environment. And I'm wondering where you stand in capacity and if things get better, rather than worse, how much business could -- could you do without having to increase personnel?

我想問一下有關容量的問題。也許，顯然，你已經進行了削減，顯然，你必須根據當前環境對組織進行重組。我想知道您的產能情況如何，如果情況好轉而不是惡化，那麼在不增加人員的情況下您可以完成多少業務？

Yeah, Kartik, this is Dave. Good question. Maybe helpful to kind of pre characterize what we've done -- what we've done. I think Jeff had mentioned that delivery resources are down certainly. But I think important to note is we -- just kind of look at where we are today.

是的，卡蒂克，這是戴夫。好問題。也許有助於預先描述我們所做的事情——我們所做的事情。我認為傑夫曾提到交付資源肯定下降了。但我認為需要注意的是——我們只需看看我們今天所處的位置。

The folks that we have on the sales side of the business actually from a number of people is actually slightly greater than it was back when we were doing $1.7 billion in business. Obviously, that -- those folks are in critical roles that are very relationship-driven with their clients. Tenure is very important. And frankly, that population in our organization is more tenured really than it's ever been. So -- and those people, obviously, because of the criticality of those relationships, are harder to ramp, right?

實際上，我們銷售業務的人員數量比我們當年 17 億美元業務的人員數量要多一些。顯然，這些人扮演著與客戶關係密切的重要角色。任期非常重要。坦白說，我們組織中的這部分人員的任職時間實際上比以往任何時候都要長。所以 — — 顯然，由於這些關係的重要性，這些人更難提升，對嗎？

And we've made comments in the past that is not necessarily the case in the delivery side of the equation. So there's opportunity, and we've taken it to refine the number of resources we have there. We've enhanced the tools that they have to work with. That population typically can ramp very quickly. So when you think about it, really the determinant as to what capacity is, is the sales capacity, right?

我們過去曾表示，在交付方面情況並不一定如此。因此，這是一個機會，我們抓住了這個機會來優化我們在那裡擁有的資源數量。我們增強了他們必須使用的工具。該種群數量通常會快速增加。所以，當您考慮這一點時，真正決定容量的因素是銷售容量，對嗎？

And so the fact that we've got the same number, and they're doing a lot more to get a sale today, as you would expect than they were during a very robust time and that would necessarily likely happen again. If you just kind of do the simple math, we probably have got just from that perspective, about 40% capacity. So we are in no way in a place where we would fall short in meeting the needs of any of our clients from a sales perspective anytime soon. So we feel very good about where we are.

事實上，我們得到了相同的數字，而且正如你所預料的那樣，他們今天為獲得銷售所做的努力比在銷售非常強勁的時期要多得多，而且這種情況很可能會再次發生。如果你做一個簡單的計算，從這個角度來看，我們可能已經得到了大約 40% 的容量。因此，從銷售角度來看，我們絕對不會短期內無法滿足任何客戶的需求。因此，我們對目前的狀況感到非常滿意。

Yeah. The only thing that I would add to Dave's comments is, we -- as I mentioned in my opening remarks, we are making some investments relative to Office 365 copilot and Sales copilot being that we're a dynamic shop, and we can integrate these things. And we're not baking in any assumptions in terms of any productivity lift from the investments that we're making in these tools that we'll be providing our people as well.

是的。我唯一想補充的是，正如我在開場白中提到的，我們正在對 Office 365 copilot 和 Sales copilot 進行一些投資，因為我們是一個充滿活力的商店，我們可以整合這些東西。我們並不認為透過投資這些工具可以提高員工的生產力。

And then just a follow-up. Just on the visibility, obviously, visibility today is a lot lower than it was. But if you try to compare it to when things were a little bit more normal, and you look at kind of visibility from a revenue standpoint, or project standpoint, how would you characterize? Or is there a way to look like, do you feel comfortable with about 60% of the revenue, or whatever KPIs you're looking at in terms of visibility?

然後只是後續行動。就能見度而言，顯然今天的能見度比以前低了許多。但是，如果您嘗試將其與情況稍微正常一些時的情況進行比較，並從收入或項目的角度來看待可見性，您會如何描述？或者有沒有辦法看起來像，您是否對大約 60% 的收入或您在可見性方面所關注的任何 KPI 感到滿意？

Yeah, I would say, having been through multiple cycles, we're always monitoring similar KPIs, which are really our front end indicators. They give us a good sense on what's to come. So during uncertain times, during recessionary periods, during robust times, it's really balancing those things and monitoring those KPIs. We also monitor the ratios because the ratio is really what starts to move when you go into tougher times or when you go into more robust times, right?

是的，我想說，在經歷了多個週期後，我們一直在監控類似的 KPI，它們實際上是我們的前端指標。它們讓我們對即將發生的事情有了很好的了解。因此，在不確定時期、經濟衰退時期和經濟強勁時期，實際上需要平衡這些因素並監控這些 KPI。我們也監控這些比率，因為當你進入更艱難的時期或更強勁的時期時，這些比率實際上開始發生變化，對嗎？

Your ratios typically improve during the good times and then during the tougher times, those ratios start to expand a little bit. So we have -- we've spent years building out our internal dashboards. Again, we leverage a lot of Microsoft products on this front. So our people have access to real-time information, and that's how we stay on top and run the business.

在經濟繁榮時期，您的比率通常會提高，而在經濟困難時期，這些比率會開始略有擴大。因此，我們花了數年時間來建立我們的內部儀表板。再次，我們在這方面利用了許多微軟產品。因此，我們的員工可以獲得即時訊息，這就是我們保持領先地位並經營業務的方式。

And I think, Kartik, just to add a couple of points. I think the average assignment length in our technology business has not moved significantly. I know we haven't talked about that maybe recently, but that's still about 10 months. And to Joe's point, very metric-driven. And certainly through these times where you've got a little bit more of the macro to pay attention to, we rely heavily on our field leaders and field associates to keep in tune with the clients and kind of drive us on what they are seeing in those conversations. And I think Joe and Dave both mentioned it, we're not seeing clients take proactive measures to restrict or delay or cancel. So in that regard, I think the visibility still is reasonably clear to us in that regard, so.

我認為，Kartik，我只想補充幾點。我認為我們技術業務的平均任務長度並沒有顯著變化。我知道我們最近可能沒有談論過這個問題，但這也已經過去了大約 10 個月。正如喬所說，這非常以指標為導向。當然，在這些時候你需要關注更多的宏觀因素，我們嚴重依賴我們的現場領導和現場同事與客戶保持一致，並根據他們在這些對話中看到的情況來推動我們。我認為喬和戴夫都提到了這一點，我們沒有看到客戶採取主動措施來限制、延遲或取消。因此，從這個方面來說，我認為我們的可見性仍然相當清晰。

Tobey Sommer, Truist.

托比·索默 (Tobey Sommer)，Truist。

With respect to your own internal initiatives like the Workday, your capacity in India, is the time line for those projects -- how would you characterize it on schedule? In line? Behind schedule? How are you managing the completion of those efforts?

關於您自己的內部計劃，例如 Workday，您在印度的能力，這些項目的時間表——您如何描述它的時間表？排隊？落後於計劃？您如何管理這些工作的完成？

Yeah. You mentioned those two, those are probably the most visible here, Tobey. This is Dave. Certainly, with respect to the Workday implementation, we refer to it internally as Gemini. That has, as we've mentioned, been a multiyear project to go-live that we're talking about in the first quarter of 2026 is an on-time delivery of that.

是的。你提到了那兩個，他們可能是這裡最顯眼的，托比。這是戴夫。當然，就 Workday 的實作而言，我們在內部稱之為 Gemini。正如我們所提到的，這是一個多年的項目，我們計劃在 2026 年第一季按時交付。

And so we've been kind of foreshadowing the expectation of what we would see with that and looking to 2026. So feel very good about where we are. The team has been intensively working has done an exceptional job, and I've got all the confidence in the world and the team. So I feel very good about that program. As it relates to our facility in Pune, India. Actually, more than on time, that's operational, right? We went live with that facility at the beginning of this year. So we're about four months in. Very pleased. As we had mentioned before, that is built strategically to support our domestic footprint.

因此，我們一直在預測我們將會看到什麼，並展望 2026 年。所以，我們對現在的處境感到非常滿意。團隊一直努力工作，做出了出色的工作，我對世界和團隊充滿信心。所以我對這個項目感覺非常好。因為它與我們位於印度浦那的工廠有關。實際上，這不僅僅是按時，而是可操作的，對嗎？我們於今年年初開始使用該設施。我們已經進行了大約四個月了。非常高興。正如我們之前提到的，這是策略性地建造的，以支持我們的國內業務。

We've already won a couple of projects there, and things are going quite well. We've built it with a reasonable degree of variable costs, but it can scale. And although we don't have a specific target of how quickly it will grow, because it will obviously be dependent upon how it supports the US business. Again, that was a very well-executed project by a lot of people on the team here. Again, I couldn't be more proud of them as well. So things are going quite well on all these key initiatives, of course.

我們已經在那裡贏得了幾個項目，一切都很順利。我們以合理的變動成本建造了它，但它可以擴展。儘管我們沒有具體的成長目標，但這顯然取決於它如何支援美國業務。再次強調，這是一個由團隊中的許多人執行得非常出色的專案。再說一次，我對他們感到無比自豪。當然，所有這些關鍵舉措都進展順利。

You mentioned health care a little bit higher in the quarter impacting gross margin. Is that utilization generally running higher? Is there something discrete in the first quarter that occurred? And what are you seeing so far in 2Q?

您提到本季醫療保健費用略高，影響了毛利率。這種利用率是否普遍較高？第一季是否發生了一些離散事件？到目前為止，您對第二季有何看法？

Yeah. I don't think it's anything -- Tobey, this is Jeff. Good to hear your voice here. I think health care, you remember from the fourth quarter and the first quarter of this year, Tobey, Health care costs ran a little bit higher. That's more of a claim severity than it is a volume-driven dynamic that you can look across the space with some of the health care providers as well, just a general increase in health care costs in addition to the severity. So nothing that we would say is pervasive within the health insurance offerings themselves.

是的。我認為這沒什麼——托比，這是傑夫。很高興在這裡聽到你的聲音。托比，我認為醫療保健，你記得從今年第四季和第一季開始，醫療保健成本略有上升。這更多的是一種索賠嚴重程度，而不是數量驅動的動態，你可以與一些醫療保健提供者一起觀察整個領域，除了嚴重程度之外，醫療保健成本也普遍增加。因此，我們認為健康保險產品本身並不具有普遍性。

Okay. That makes sense. And then you mentioned the indirect exposure that Kforce has to DC large system integrators. Could you discuss that a little bit more like, I don't know, size the exposure, which I think is relatively small and what you're seeing there? And also maybe talk about financial services as a vertical?

好的。這很有道理。然後您提到了 Kforce 對 DC 大型系統整合商的間接接觸。您能否更詳細地討論一下這個問題，例如，我不知道，曝光規模，我認為它相對較小，您在那裡看到了什麼？或許也可以將金融服務作為一個垂直產業來討論？

Sure, sure. Yeah. I could start by saying I wish I could give you some perspective on those industries per se. Our exposure, relatively speaking, is small, but I'll start with our exposure to government. I think Joe mentioned it, we obviously -- I know you know this, divested of our prime government contracting business, KGS about five years ago.

當然，當然。是的。首先，我希望能夠為您提供一些關於這些行業本身的看法。相對而言，我們的曝光度較小，但我先從對政府的曝光度開始。我想喬提到過，我們顯然——我知道你知道這一點，大約五年前我們剝離了主要政府承包業務 KGS。

And so pleased, obviously, in this environment, certainly to have done that. Had that well in our rearview mirror. And I would also mention, obviously, we've got a very diversified commercial portfolio, right. So to your point, Tobey, in the government space, providing services to these integrators is certainly in the mid-single digits as the entire portfolio. And when you think about the percentage of the business that might be impacted by government, spending cuts, it's even a fraction of that.

顯然，我很高興在這樣的環境下做到了這一點。我們的後視鏡裡也能看到這一點。我還要提到，顯然我們擁有非常多樣化的商業投資組合，對吧。所以正如你所說，托比，在政府領域，為這些整合商提供的服務肯定是整個投資組合中個位數的中等水準。如果你考慮到受政府削減開支影響的企業比例，你會發現這甚至只是其中的一小部分。

So really for us, the impact is nominal. So as I mentioned, in terms of an industry bellwether as to what we're seeing, as I'm going to tell you in the financial services business, it is client by client. There are not huge amounts of clients. So I would be -- I would be giving you information that's only partially informed to give you an opinion about the industry, but clearly, a small amount of business impact for us there. As it relates to financial services vertical.

所以對我們來說，影響其實很小。正如我所提到的，就行業領頭羊而言，就我們所看到的情況而言，正如我將在金融服務業務中告訴您的那樣，這是針對每個客戶的。客戶數量並不多。所以我會——我會給你一些僅部分知情的信息，讓你對這個行業有一個看法，但顯然，這對我們的業務有一點影響。因為它與金融服務垂直相關。

We've said in the past, this is our largest vertical. And I think I'd mentioned -- I know I mentioned in my prepared remarks that, that was off a little bit from Q4 to Q1. By the way, I've mentioned that after two quarters of sequential growth. As I had said in the past, obviously, we do business with very large institutions. And I can tell you, just looking at the portfolio, we had some actually that grew revenue for us.

我們過去曾說過，這是我們最大的垂直領域。我想我曾經提到過——我知道我在準備好的發言中提到過，從第四季度到第一季度，情況略有不同。順便說一句，我曾提到，這是連續兩個季度的成長。正如我過去所說的那樣，顯然我們與非常大的機構有業務往來。我可以告訴你，僅從投資組合來看，我們的一些產品確實增加了我們的收入。

We had some certainly that had declines as well. So on balance, the total dollars were down a little bit. But again, I don't think we are a bellwether and I wouldn't hang your hat on what industry trends are in financial services by our performance. So again, it could change quarter-to-quarter based upon project by project and client by client.

當然，我們也有一些出現下滑的情況。因此，總的來說，總金額略有下降。但我再次強調，我並不認為我們是領頭羊，也不會根據我們的表現來判斷金融服務業的趨勢。因此，它可能會根據每個專案和每個客戶逐個季度地變化。

Trevor Romeo, William Blair.

特雷弗羅密歐、威廉布萊爾。

One I had was, you've talked about the success of the consulting focused offerings, I think, even in this softer type of demand environment broadly. I guess, are there any common themes among the type of project work that clients are kind of still demanding to a large degree for your consultant type offerings? Or maybe asked differently, are there any specific types of projects do you think Kforce in particular, has kind of carved out a unique offering that's really resonated well?

我想說的是，您談到了以諮詢為重點的服務的成功，我認為，即使在這種較為溫和的需求環境中也是如此。我想，在客戶仍然對您的顧問類型服務有很高要求的專案工作類型中是否存在一些共同的主題？或者換個問法，您認為 Kforce 是否有特定類型的項目，特別是開闢了獨特的產品並引起了良好的共鳴？

Yeah. So Trevor, yes, I mean, we've organized this offering in a couple of different areas. But frankly, and we get quarterly updates from our team here. We've had pretty broad success even in the application engineering space, we're continuing to see growth, obviously, that is at the heart of a lot of our development work that we're doing. We're seeing advancements in the digital space.

是的。所以，特雷弗，是的，我的意思是，我們在幾個不同的領域中組織了這次活動。但坦白說，我們每季都會從這裡的團隊那裡獲得最新消息。即使在應用工程領域，我們也取得了相當廣泛的成功，我們仍在繼續看到成長，顯然，這是我們正在進行的許多開發工作的核心。我們看到數字領域的進步。

Obviously -- clearly, there's a ton of data and data rationalization work that's being done, obviously, in advance of a lot of company's AI efforts. And I think we're certainly seeing growing pipelines in particular in those last two areas. But frankly, across all of the KCS, engagements in cloud, the cloud is also a big area of focus. So those places where the engagement with the end customer, the use of the cloud is really important as well.

顯然——顯然，在許多公司進行人工智慧工作之前，已經進行了大量的數據和數據合理化工作。我認為我們確實看到了管道的成長，特別是在最後兩個領域。但坦白說，在整個 KCS 中，雲端運算業務也是一個重點關注的領域。因此，在與最終客戶互動的地方，雲端的使用也非常重要。

As I've mentioned, all very strong. So we're proud of that business as well, right. As we've mentioned, we've had good growth. That has been really the driver of our out-performance, I think, generally speaking, over the last few quarters, certainly.

正如我所提到的，一切都非常強大。所以我們也為這項業務感到自豪，對吧。正如我們所提到的，我們取得了良好的成長。我認為，總體而言，這確實是我們過去幾季表現優異的驅動力。

Got it. That's helpful. And then I guess I wanted to ask sort of an AI related question. I know the long term view you have, and I generally agree that new use cases from AI will ultimately spur more demand. But just in terms of the near term, I guess, maybe there's some negative impact on certain roles. Maybe there's some new roles being created. I guess, are the new opportunities you're seeing now offsetting any of that near-term disruption? Or do you think one side of that is kind of moving faster than the other at this point?

知道了。這很有幫助。然後我想我想問一個與人工智慧相關的問題。我知道您有長遠的眼光，並且我大體上同意人工智慧的新用例最終將刺激更多的需求。但就短期而言，我想，這可能會對某些角色產生一些負面影響。也許正在創造一些新的角色。我想，您現在看到的新機會是否可以抵消短期內的一些幹擾？或者您認為目前其中一側的進展比另一側更快嗎？

Yeah. I would say, from what we're seeing, realizing who makes up our customer base, which are enterprise, Fortune 1000 organizations. What we're seeing pretty much across the board within that client set is AI readiness. A lot of energy being spent around data, around migrating systems to the cloud or preparing to migrate them to the cloud in and around. Digitizing the various systems, so that they're prepared as they start to build out their use cases.

是的。我想說，從我們所看到的情況來看，我們知道我們的客戶群是由企業和財富 1000 強企業組成的。我們在該客戶群中看到的幾乎都是人工智慧準備就緒的狀態。大量的精力都花在了資料、將系統遷移到雲端或準備將系統遷移到雲端。將各種系統數位化，以便他們在開始建立用例時做好準備。

They have to have the foundation in place and the infrastructure. And so that's where we're seeing a lot of the energy. So yes. Are we seeing roles that are being created? I would say they're reshaping of existing roles were data scientists now are becoming AI engineer-oriented, or architect related roles.

他們必須具備基礎和基礎設施。這就是我們看到的大量能量的地方。是的。我們是否看到了正在被創造的角色？我想說他們正在重塑現有的角色，而資料科學家現在正在成為面向人工智慧工程師或建築師的角色。

So it's -- we're seeing the AI tied to a lot of rules versus what I would say is purely newly created roles. And that's just providing more opportunity for us to tap into those high-demand skill set areas. But it really -- the work that we are seeing coming through the pipe specific to AI is in and around the readiness, versus major implementations of a use case, especially within these Fortune 1000 organizations were data governance and a lot of other things have to be locked down, and they have to be in good shape to be able to execute per se, the implementation of a large use case.

所以，我們看到人工智慧與許多規則緊密相關，而不是像我所說的純粹是新創建的角色。這為我們進入那些高需求技能領域提供了更多機會。但實際上——我們看到透過特定於 AI 的管道進行的工作是在準備階段進行的，而不是用例的主要實施，特別是在這些財富 1000 強企業中，資料治理和許多其他事情必須鎖定，並且它們必須處於良好的狀態才能執行大型用例的實施。

Josh Chan, UBS.

瑞銀的 Josh Chan。

Maybe to quickly clarify on your comments about the environment. You mentioned leading indicators improving through April. I guess, I think it typically improves around this time of the year. So I guess are you interpreting this improvement as fairly normal from a seasonal perspective, just from a magnitude angle?

也許可以快速澄清您對環境的評論。您提到四月份領先指標有所改善。我想，我認為每年的這個時候情況通常會有所改善。所以我猜您是否從季節角度，僅從幅度角度，將這種改善解釋為相當正常？

Yeah, Josh. Yeah, just to kind of clarify what I said. So -- and I tried to give some color in terms of what happened in the first quarter, right? So typically, in the first quarter, as I mentioned, we see growth in the second two months of the quarter. We actually didn't see growth in the second month of the first quarter. So we did see some growth in March that would be typical and into April -- into mid-April specifically. And that growth trajectory has flattened a little bit. So I would say a traditional -- in a grow -- in a strong growth environment, you would see continuation of growth through the quarter, right?

是的，喬希。是的，只是為了澄清一下我所說的話。所以——我試著對第一季發生的事情做一些說明，對嗎？因此，通常情況下，正如我所提到的，在第一季度，我們會看到該季度的後兩個月出現增長。我們實際上並沒有看到第一季的第二個月出現成長。因此，我們確實看到 3 月份出現了一些增長，這是很正常的，而且在 4 月份，特別是 4 月中旬，也出現了一些增長。而且這種成長軌跡已經稍微趨於平緩。所以我想說，在傳統的、強勁的成長環境中，你會看到整個季度的持續成長，對嗎？

Part of the reason why is, as we've mentioned, obviously, the uncertainty that we're seeing in our guidance contemplates flat consultants on assignment from here through the rest of the quarter. So as we're thinking about where we are in this cycle relative to what we would see typically in a strong growth environment, we haven't suggested that we're looking at a continuation of that.

部分原因在於，正如我們所提到的，顯然，我們在指導中看到的不確定性意味著從現在到本季剩餘時間，顧問的任務將保持不變。因此，當我們思考我們在這個週期中所處的位置相對於我們在強勁成長環境中通常會看到的情況時，我們並沒有暗示我們正在尋找這種延續性。

That's really helpful Dave. And then on the health care cost, I guess, are you guys thinking of those as relatively random or unexpected events? Or I guess at what point do you try to price through those health care costs into your bids to have that not be as big of an impact?

這真的很有幫助，戴夫。然後關於醫療保健費用，我想，你們是否認為這些是相對隨機或意外的事件？或者我猜您在什麼時候嘗試將這些醫療保健成本納入您的投標中，以減少其產生的巨大影響？

Yeah -- and Josh, this is Jeff. I think from a health care standpoint, I had mentioned that this is the second quarter that the costs have been a bit higher than we anticipated. That was preceded probably by three or four quarters where the costs were either consistent or a bit below what we had expected. So naturally, Josh, as you can imagine, health care costs a bit difficult to predict. Of course, every year, we take a look at what the health care cost trends are and price it accordingly. Some quarters, you get a little bit, I'll say, unexpected surprise by some of the more severe claims that you just can't predict. But we do price in kind of an annual health care cost trend. So hope that helps, Josh.

是的——喬希，這是傑夫。我認為從醫療保健的角度來看，我曾提到這是第二季的成本略高於我們的預期。在此之前，可能有三到四個季度的成本與我們預期的持平或略低。所以很自然地，喬希，正如你所想像的，醫療保健費用有點難以預測。當然，每年我們都會關注醫療保健成本趨勢並據此定價。在某些時候，你會因為一些無法預測的更嚴重的索賠而感到意外。但我們確實將年度醫療保健成本趨勢納入了價格。希望這對你有幫助，喬希。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指示）

Marc Riddick, Sidoti.

馬克·里迪克、西多蒂。

I want to thank you for all the color that you've already provided. You've already answered pretty much most of my questions. One of the things I was sort of curious about is maybe you could share some thoughts as to what you're seeing on candidate availability and whether that has changed much over the last few months, or if there are any particular areas where you're beginning to see things loosen up a bit? And maybe how you see things sort of playing out there?

我要感謝您提供的所有色彩。您已經回答了我大部分的問題。我有點好奇的一件事是，也許您可以分享一些關於您對候選人可用性的看法，以及這種情況在過去幾個月中是否發生了很大變化，或者您是否開始看到某些特定領域的情況有所放鬆？您覺得事情進展如何？

Yeah. Mark, I think the simple answer is in terms of candidate availability, it really hasn't changed materially at all over the course of, I would say, more than the last couple of months, right? Over the course of the last, I would say, certainly, nine months to a year, certainly. And I think maybe reflective of that is we're looking at stability in pay rates, right. So -- so no, I think -- the other thing I would say is this is what we do well, right?

是的。馬克，我認為簡單的答案是，就候選人的可用性而言，在過去的幾個月裡，它確實沒有發生實質性的變化，我想說，比過去幾個月更是如此，對嗎？我想說，在過去的這段時間裡，肯定會有九個月到一年的時間。我認為也許反映這一點的是我們正在關注工資率的穩定性，對吧。所以——所以不，我認為——我想說的另一件事是，這是我們做得好的事情，對吧？

So we are excellent, I think, at identifying the right candidates for the role, right? And so frankly, an ongoing question in good times and bad, how do you find the consultants? It's a lot to do with our people, it's a lot to do with our processes. So it's not something that keeps us up at night, but no, we haven't seen any material change at all in candidate availability.

所以我認為，我們在尋找適合該職位的候選人方面非常出色，對嗎？坦白說，無論在順境或逆境中，一個持續存在的問題是，如何找到顧問？這和我們的員工有很大關係，也和我們的流程有很大關係。所以這並不是讓我們夜不能寐的事情，但是，我們並沒有看到候選人的可用性有任何實質的變化。

Okay. Great. And then last one for me, and you touched on this certainly during your prepared remarks as far as the share repurchase activity during the quarter. And I guess, it seemed to end into a little bit into April, which kind of lends toward the share count guide for 2Q. Maybe you could sort of share some thoughts there? I mean, obviously, it makes a lot of sense to take advantage of where the shares are, but maybe you could talk a little bit about that as well.

好的。偉大的。最後一點，您在準備好的發言中肯定提到了本季的股票回購活動。我想，它似乎在四月快要結束的時候了，這在某種程度上有助於第二季的股票數量指南。也許您可以分享一些想法？我的意思是，顯然，利用股票的現狀是很有意義的，但也許你也可以談談這一點。

Yeah, Mark, this is Jeff. It's a good question that you asked. I think what you saw certainly from the first quarter, we got a little bit more aggressive with our share repurchase activity. Of course, the first quarter is traditionally the lower quarter of operating cash flows when you look across the full year, and because of that, we typically have a light amount of share buyback activity in the first quarter. As we looked across the space, and certainly, given the volatility that we were seeing, and where we expect and the confidence that we have moving forward as a firm, we got a bit more aggressive in the first quarter and wanted to be transparent with that activity continuing into April.

是的，馬克，這是傑夫。你問的這個問題很好。我想您從第一季就可以看出，我們的股票回購活動變得更加積極了。當然，從全年來看，第一季通常是經營現金流較低的季度，因此，我們在第一季的股票回購活動通常較少。當我們放眼整個領域時，當然，考慮到我們所看到的波動性，以及我們的預期和對公司未來發展的信心，我們在第一季度採取了更積極的行動，並希望將這種活動持續到四月份，保持透明。

So I think when you look across Marc, and I did mention this in some of the prepared remarks, but since 2007, we've -- through dividends and share buybacks, returned about $1 billion in capital to shareholders. If you look across that, and that's about 75% of the cash that we've generated. So the consistency that we've shown over a long period of time as a firm in getting aggressive and being consistent with our return of capital -- and I think I mentioned maybe last quarter that we've been returning capital and buying back stock before it was voted to do this. So we're serious about it. And as we look forward, I don't see us changing course in this regard.

所以我認為當你回顧馬克時，我在一些準備好的評論中確實提到了這一點，但自 2007 年以來，我們透過股息和股票回購，向股東返還了約 10 億美元的資本。如果你看一下，你會發現這大約占我們所創造現金的 75%。因此，作為一家公司，我們在長期以來表現出的一致性，即積極進取，並始終如一地保持資本回報——我想我上個季度提到過，在投票決定這樣做之前，我們一直在返還資本併回購股票。所以我們對此很認真。展望未來，我認為我們在這方面不會改變方向。

Joe and Dave have given commentary about the organic growth strategy. That is the strategy that we believe is best for Kforce. And fortunately, we came into the year with a very strong balance sheet, and we're using it.

Joe 和 Dave 對有機成長策略發表了評論。我們認為這是最適合 Kforce 的策略。幸運的是，我們今年的資產負債表非常強勁，我們正在利用它。

And that looks to be all the questions we have today. So I will now turn it back over to Joe for closing remarks. Joe?

這就是我們今天要問的所有問題。現在我將把發言權交還給喬，請他做最後發言。喬？

Well, thank you for your interest and support of Kforce. I would like to express my gratitude to every Kforcer for your efforts and to our consultants and clients for your trust and faith in partnering with Kforce and allowing us the privilege of serving you. We look forward to talking with you again after second quarter 2025. Have a great evening.

好的，感謝您對 Kforce 的關注與支持。我要向每位 Kforcer 的努力表示感謝，並向我們的顧問和客戶表示感謝，感謝你們對與 Kforce 合作的信任和信心，讓我們有幸為你們服務。我們期待 2025 年第二季之後再次與您交談。祝您有個愉快的夜晚。

Thanks, Joe. And ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's call. Again, thank you for joining, and you may now disconnect. Have a great evening.

謝謝，喬。女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。再次感謝您的加入，現在您可以斷開連接了。祝您有個愉快的夜晚。