Korn Ferry

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Korn Ferry first quarter fiscal year 2025 conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the prepared remarks, we will conduct a question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded for replay purposes. We have also made available in the investor relations section of our website at KornFerry.com a copy of the financial presentation that we will be reviewing with you today. Before I turn the call over to your host, Mr. Gary Burnison, let me first read a cautionary statement to investors. Certain statements made in the call today, such as those relating to future performance, plans and goals, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although the company believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements. Actual results in future periods may differ materially from those currently expected or desired because of a number of risks and uncertainties which are beyond the company's control. Additional information concerning such risks and uncertainties can be found in the release relating to this presentation and in the periodic and other reports filed by the company with the SEC, including the company's annual report for fiscal year 2024 and in the company's soon-to-be-filed quarterly report for the quarter ended July 31st, 2024. Also, some of the comments today may reference non-GAAP financial measures, such as constant currency amounts, EBITDA, and adjusted EBITDA. Additional information concerning these measures, including reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, is contained in the financial presentation and earnings release relating to this call, both of which are posted in the investor relations section of the company's website at www.cornferry.com. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mr. Burnison. Please go ahead, Mr. Burnison.

Okay. Thank you, Leah. And hello, everybody. Thanks for joining us. Tiffany, Greg, and Bob are going to get into the quarterly results. But I first, you know, as we were looking at the results, and this is now my, I think, 89th quarterly earnings call, I was reflecting on how far we've come, particularly over the last several quarters. in what I first described exactly a year ago as a multi-quarter economic reset in many countries around the world. And as I reflect on that, I'm more convinced than ever about how capable we've become and the opportunity ahead of us. From sport to industry, we're operating in the market at its highest level in over five decades in business. You know, I can remember the first acquisition we did in our consulting and digital offerings. We doubled the revenue of the business to about $30 million. Today, those solutions are almost a billion one and continue to generate positive momentum. We didn't have an interim offering before the pandemic. Today, that solution is generating almost $300 million in revenue. and tapping not only a large addressable market, but one that is extremely synergistic to our brand. Further, more recently, we've seen improved growth in executive search, and we're experiencing stable trends across professional search and RPO. Our marquee and regional accounts, 37% of our portfolio. Cross referrals are about 27%. of our revenue. Consulting rates have increased by over a third over the last few years, reflecting the value of our solutions and SAS agreements now exceed a third of our digital new business. And as importantly, we've added tremendous IP to our more than 100 million assessments, more than 10,000 success profiles. rewards data on 28 million people covering 30,000 organizations, and leading edge technology deployed in our RPO offerings. So, yeah, I'm very optimistic about our future. The results clearly demonstrate that our strategy is working. Our top line is more than 30% higher than before the pandemic, which at that time was already an all-time high, and now with even greater profitability. We are proving that we can leverage and extend our brand and deliver diverse offerings with unparalleled IP and incredible colleagues and expertise across our firm to drive even deeper impact for our clients. And our confidence is also reflected in our capital allocation, which not only included share buybacks, but also more than a two-fold increase in our quarterly dividend year over year. This is just the beginning for Korn Ferry. I'm convinced that we're only scratching the surface of tapping into an estimated $300 billion market opportunity. And going forward to capitalize on that opportunity, our strategy will be anchored on five strategic pillars. Number one is our go-to-market approach. And nowhere is that more pronounced than with our marquee and regional accounts, in which almost all of our marquee clients use at least three of our service offerings and benefit from our IP full suite of offerings and expertise. Second, innovation in IP. Our continued investments in IP are giving clients a shared language to describe what great organizations and talent look like. And we're embedding that language across their enterprise and throughout their talent assessment coaching and development processes. Third, our brand, which is a permission brand and just an incredible asset. We are the voice of talent, leadership, and organizational strategy. Fourth, M&A. We're going to continue to explore synergistic and brand-adjacent opportunities. And finally, it's all about our colleagues, investing in and developing our own talent and providing growth opportunities. You know, fundamentally, none of us know our potential unless we're given opportunity. And our firm sits at the intersection of organizations, their strategy, and their talent to create that opportunity. That's what it's all about, synchronizing talent and strategy to drive superior performance and enabling people and client organizations to be more than. With that, Bob, I'll turn it over to you.

Great. Thanks, Gary, and good afternoon and good morning. So our results for the first quarter are really a strong start to our new fiscal year. Both fee revenue and profitability met or exceeded the high end of our guidance. Our adjusted EBITDA margin expanded for the fifth consecutive quarter. Our consulting and interim bill rates grew year over year by 8% and 9% respectively. And our employee productivity, which we measure by fee revenue per headcount, is now 36% higher than it was pre-pandemic. Given the current business environment, this quarter was another opportunity to validate our long-term strategy, and quite simply, we delivered. We continued to successfully execute our plan delivering value to our clients through unique and differentiated solutions, and really reinforcing our position as one of the most trusted brands in organizational consultancy. Our consolidated fee revenue for the first quarter was $675 million, which was down only 2% year-over-year at constant currency. Fee revenue in the first quarter was driven by continued stability in consulting and digital, and we actually saw a return to growth for our executive search. Additionally, we saw signs of stabilizing demand for our other permanent placement talent acquisition solutions, both ProSearch and RPO. Now, in the first quarter, we delivered $111 million of adjusted EBITDA. Our adjusted EBITDA margin grew to 16.5%, and our adjusted diluted earnings per share grew year over year to $1.18 per share. The first quarter's growth in profitability is notable and was driven by continuing improvements in our employee productivity and our disciplined cost management. Our continued ability to achieve greater operating leverage in a prolonged, choppy, and uncertain business environment is really important and it positions us for greater earnings growth when the business environment improves and we start to see top line growing again. Last, I'd like to provide an update on our capital deployment during the first quarter. Greg will get you some more of the details, but I'd like to point out that in spite of the current business environment, we remain very confident that we can maintain our current levels of profitability and at the same time reinvest back into the business to make sure we capture future growth and also return capital to shareholders. In the first quarter, we invested back into the business by hiring approximately 50 fee earners across all lines of business, spending $11 million in capital for both digital product upgrades and technology that enables our other lines of business. In addition, we returned a total of $43 million to shareholders through a combination of dividends and share repurchases. Now, I'm going to turn the call over to Greg, who's going to take you through some of the overall company financial highlights.

Thanks, Bob. Consolidated fee revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 25 was down 2% year-over-year at constant currency, stabilizing at $675 million. Fee revenue growth trends for both consulting and digital continue to be stable with consulting up 1% and digital up 2% year-over-year at constant currency. Within talent acquisition, our permanent placement solutions also showed early signs of both growth and stability in the first quarter. Executive search grew 3% year-over-year at constant currency, led by North America, which was up 6%, but RPO and permanent placement professional search stabilized at down 7% and down 10%, respectively. Market demand for professional interim services remained challenging with fee revenue down approximately 17% year over year in the first quarter. Excluding RPO, consolidated new business in the first quarter was also down 2% year over year at constant currency. Consulting new business in the first quarter was slightly slower and down 2% year over year at constant currency, while digital new business was stronger and up 7% year over year at constant currency. Like fee revenue, new business growth trends for talent acquisition continue to stabilize with executive search up 1% year-over-year at constant currency and professional search in interim down 14% year-over-year at constant currency with new business for permanent placement professional search flat sequentially. For RPO, new business in the first quarter was strong at $104 million with new awards which includes $84 million of renewals and extensions and $20 million of new logo assignments. Earnings and profitability continued to grow in the first quarter, driven by both greater consultant and execution staff productivity and disciplined cost management across all lines of business. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter grew $16 million or 16% year-over-year with our adjusted EBITDA margin improving to 16.5% up 280 basis points year-over-year. Our adjusted EBITDA margin has now improved sequentially for five consecutive quarters. Adjusted fully diluted earnings per share in the first quarter were $1.18 up 19 cents or 19% year-over-year. Fully diluted earnings per share measured by GAAP were $1.17 in the first quarter. Our investable cash position at the end of the first quarter improved to $553 million. Our capital allocation continues to be balanced. In the first quarter of fiscal 25, we deployed $63 million of cash, investing $11 million in capital expenditures using $9 million for debt service and returned $43 million to shareholders, $19.5 million in dividends, and $23.5 million to repurchase 351,000 shares. That will turn the call over to Tiffany to review our operating segments in more detail.

Thanks, Greg. Starting with KF Digital, fee revenue in the first quarter was $88 million, which was up 2% year-over-year at constant currency. Digital subscription and license fee revenue was $34 million in the first quarter, which was up 7% year-over-year at constant currency and accounted for approximately 39% of fee revenue for the quarter. New business for KF Digital was strong at $97 million, with $35 million, or 36% of the total, tied to subscription and license sales. The overall pipeline for digital remains healthy as we head into the second quarter. Digital's adjusted EBITDA margin also remained strong in the first quarter, reaching 30.2%, driven by stable fee revenue and disciplined cost management. For consulting, fee revenue in the first quarter was $168 million, which was up 1% year-over-year at constant currency. Fee revenue growth was strongest in organizational strategy, which increased 10% year-over-year. Consulting's average bill rate was $4.25 per hour, in the first quarter, which was up 8% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA margin also continued to improve for consulting, increasing 250 basis points year-over-year to 17.5%, driven by both higher bill rates and greater consultant and execution staff utilization. Total fee revenue for professional search and interim in the first quarter was $122 million, down $20 million, or 14%, year-over-year. Revenue trends for permanent placement professional search continued to stabilize in the first quarter, with revenue contracting 10% year-over-year and only 7% sequentially. Consultant productivity in the first quarter for professional search also remained stable sequentially at 640,000 annualized and was up 10% measured year-over-year. Interim fee revenue was $70 million for the first quarter, which was down $14 million or 17% year-over-year. but down only 4% sequentially. Despite the slowdown in demand, Interim's average bill rate increased to $133 per hour, which is up 9% from one year ago, and is reflective of the added value of being part of the broader Corn Ferry ecosystem. Adjusted EBITDA margin for Professional Search and Interim improved to 21.1% in the first quarter, driven primarily by disciplined cost management. Moving on to recruitment process outsourcing. Fee revenue in the first quarter for RPOs stabilized at $89 million, which was down 7% year-over-year at constant currency and flat sequentially, due in part to an increase in hiring volume by base clients. Total revenue under contract at the end of the first quarter was $656 million, with approximately $295 million, or 45%, to be recognized within the next four quarters. Although the timing of new business can be lumpy, the pipeline for RPO remains strong for both renewals and extensions with existing clients and new logo wins. The adjusted EBITDA margin for RPO improved to 14.1% in the first quarter, driven by both greater execution staff productivity and disciplined cost management. Global fee revenue in the first quarter for executive search was $209 million, up 3% year-over-year at constant currency. Global fee revenue for executive search has been stable for the past several quarters, with Q1 marking a return to growth for the segment. Both the number of search consultants and consultant productivity measured by fee revenue per consultant improved sequentially in the first quarter, driving adjusted EBITDA to $49 million with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 23.7%. I will now turn the call back over to Bob to discuss our outlook for the second quarter of fiscal 25.

Great. Thanks, Tiffany. For the last several months, our new business growth trends have continued to be choppy. You know, exiting the first quarter and entering the second quarter, our new business was up 10% year over year in July, and then August came back down in line with expectations. Assuming no further changes in worldwide geopolitical conditions, economic conditions, financial markets, and foreign exchange rates, we expect fee revenue in the second quarter to range from $655 million to $685 million, our adjusted EBITDA margin to approximate 16.3% to 16.7%, and our consolidated adjusted diluted earnings per share to range from $1.14 to $1.26. And finally, we expect our gap-diluted earnings per share in the first quarter to range from $1.11 to $1.23. Now, in closing, I will reiterate the message from our last earnings call. The economic environment we are operating in today is full of contradictions, uncertainties, and new challenges. You know, as a management team, we're confronting these issues head on. And we are laser-focused on controlling what we can control, which includes the discipline and maintenance of our cost base and driving productivity to maintain our profitability while making measured investments to position the firm for long-term growth. And as I always say, we are at the beginning of what's going to be a very long ballgame. And I agree wholeheartedly with Gary. I truly believe our best is yet to come. With that, we would be glad to answer any questions you may have.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press 1, then 0 on your telephone keypad. You will hear information that your line has been placed in queue. Once again, to ask a question, press 1, then 0. Our first question is from Trevor Romeo with William Blair. Please go ahead.

Hi. Thanks so much for taking the questions. First one I had was just on margins. I think, again, really nice to see some upward momentum there this quarter. But just kind of thinking about the 16% to 18% longer term target for EBITDA margins, you're already kind of at 16 and 1 half in this type of macro environment without really much of a cyclical uptick coming through yet. So is that still a good range to think about over the next several years? Or do you think there could be some upside to that once we do get more of a rebound in the cyclical businesses?

I do think there could be upside to that, but for now we feel very comfortable with the 16 to 18. You know, a year ago, you know, what we've seen over the last year is exactly what we predicted a year ago. And we thought there would be a multi-quarter reset in economies around the world, and it's played out exactly as we thought. We made some very hard decisions a year ago around our operating structure. Those have turned out to be very, very good decisions in hindsight. At the same time, we are reinvesting in the business. As Bob said, this quarter we brought on 51 new consultants onto the platform in total. Yes, there could be some upside to that for sure. But for now, we're sticking with the 16 to 18.

Okay, great. Thanks, Gary. And then for my follow-up here, just looking at the revenue guidance, you know, I think if I take the midpoint, it looks like you're expecting about a 1% sequential decline, you know, Q1 to Q2. Typically, I think you see a pretty nice uptick most years in Q2. So I was kind of just wondering if you could maybe give a bit more color on what you're seeing across the businesses and what, if anything, is different than prior years in terms of that sequential progression thing.

Yeah, I think you're right. Generally we see an uptick of 4%, something like that. So you're right on that. You know, we've had two SNAP elections. continued trade conflicts, the wars that you know about, the Olympics in Paris. There's just been a lot of things that have been going on. And given that environment, you know, in July and August with events around the world, we feel like the business will be flattish. in this next quarter. The other thing that's happening is on the consulting business, and you see it in the rate per hour, we're moving towards much bigger and more impactful engagements. And so the, for example, engagements over two and a half million have tripled. And so those take longer to work through. And so that's certainly playing into it as well.

Thanks, Gary. That's helpful. And just maybe to quickly follow up, because you mentioned that kind of the snap elections in Europe, I believe. Are you seeing any impact or hearing from clients, I guess, that there could be some impact in the near term in North America with the U.S. election coming up at all?

You know, we haven't seen that. And, you know, speaking of EMEA, you know, new business trailing four months, the last four months, it's been up three of the four months, which given, you know, the summertime is a very, very strong sign. But, no, we have not seen that in the United States.

Okay. Got it. Well, thanks again. Appreciate all the color.

Next we go to the line of George Tong with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Your North American exec search business saw notable improvement in its growth rate in the quarter. Can you elaborate on what drove the improvement and how sustainable the current trajectory of growth is?

Well, how sustainable it is, you know, the business today is actually doing more new business and revenue, slightly more than before the pandemic. Our productivity was very, very good at about a million five or so. And so, you know, we look at that and say there's plenty of room to run for sure in that search business. I'll tell you that the level of work that we're doing these days in executive search is probably the highest that I've seen And that ranges from sport to industry. We've seen quite a bit of work recently of focus around succession. And that clearly has been driving some of our search business as well as our consulting business. And, you know, the broader backdrop is the demographic trends. You know, peak 65, the number of people turning age 65 over the next, you know, two to three years, the United States is probably going to lose, you know, 4 million, 5 million workers a year from the last of the baby boom retirements. And so clearly, you know, that provides, can provide sustained momentum. And so we've seen, yeah, we've seen an uptick since we last talked to you in June. And, you know, we'll have to see what the environment holds in the future. But we feel very, very comfortable and confident about where we're operating in the executive search business in North America.

Got it. That's very helpful context. You also cited stable trends in your professional search and RPO businesses. Can you talk a little bit about what you would need to see for those stable trends to inflect into or positive trends?

I think one thing that is – there's a couple broader, you know, perspectives on the results. You know, one is China. And, you know, although not a significant part of the firm, you know, what you've seen in China has definitely had an impact. on our growth rates. And it's, you know, it's been significant for us. And I just reflect on, you know, I read someplace that before the pandemic, there were something like 325 flights to China, mainland China, a week from the United States. And now it's like 35. And that's definitely reflected in our business. And so our growth would have been substantially different. or the decline wouldn't have been as much with China. But, you know, the other thing on both the professional search and interim side, it goes back to a decision that we made over a year ago, slightly over a year ago. And that was when we thought about the megatrends and the forward 12 to 24 months. We really did see this multi-quarter reset, and we made a decision that we would pivot the pro search and interim businesses towards more profitable engagements. And with that, we made a decision that we would adjust the number of consultants in that business. So when you look at pro search and interim, you're seeing, when you see the revenue decline, A big part of that story is not only the macro environment, which is definitely challenging, as Bob said, but it's also decisions we made to move the business towards what we have now proven to be true, more profitable work. And so, you know, we've reduced the number of consultants in those businesses year over year like 25%. And now this last quarter, As Bob said, we did reinvest in the platform in terms of number of consultants as well as putting money into CapEx.

Very helpful. Thank you.

And next we go to the line of Toby Summer with Truist. Please go ahead.

Thank you. I wanted to ask about your hiring of additional fee earners. 50-51 number, is that a net number? And maybe could you talk about how they're dispersed around the businesses and whether your posture for the balance of the year is still to be sort of a net hirer? And, you know, just comment on why. Thanks. It is our posture. I'll have Bob maybe could break it down a little bit. But our posture... over the next year is absolutely to grow the net consultants that we have across the platform. At the same time, we're going to make sure, like we've always done, that we do quarterly talent management, which any great company will do. I will tell you that we certainly have a bias for professional search, interim, consulting and digital. Those areas we're putting an increased focus on. Part of that is because of the decisions that we made a year ago to, you know, focus on more profitable work. So we do have an appetite to be in the market. We promoted a lot of people this last quarter. And Bob, maybe you can provide a little bit more detail.

Yeah, the that we brought on, Toby, were more concentrated across executive search and consulting. That's where the, I would say the lion's share, the 50 or so that came on board were in those lines of business.

And is that 50 or so number sort of a reasonable way to think about, things on a go-forward basis? Because just from a modeling perspective, we're talking about 50 hires, but is that net of consistent talent management, et cetera?

No, the 50 hires is gross. I mean, it was the gross number of hires we had this quarter. As Gary indicated, we made some decisions in a couple of the other lines of business to proactively, you know, performance manage folks, manage folks out. But I would say, yeah, the number of hires that you see, I would expect us to be for the next couple of quarters in that same range.

Okay, that's helpful. And then could you give us some more detail about what the pivot to more profitable engagements and interim and pro search means? Give us some other characteristics of what those look like, and does it impact your TAM that you're sort of, not willing to dip down to something that is, you know, slightly less profitable? Maybe just dig into that a little bit more if you could. Well, I think the first thing is around industry pivots. And so, we've certainly made some decisions there, for example, to focus more on the industrial That's been a conscious decision that we've made. So part of it starts with the industry focus. The opportunity, a big opportunity there is outside the United States. Both those professional search and interim, both those businesses are undersized from given our brand. in what they could be outside the United States, particularly in EMEA. And so I think you'll see us making investments in those businesses in EMEA over the next few months to grow. And the other thing is to focus not only industry, but geography, but the type of clients. You know, we've got 14,000 clients around the world. We've got a laser focus on our marquee and regional clients, which are only about 350 of those 14,000. And part of it is to make sure that we're moving all of our solutions towards that go-to-market approach, not exclusively. But we want to make sure that we are penetrating and driving deeper impact on our existing client base. It's cheaper in many, many respects. And so we've had over the past four or five quarters this huge push on making sure that on our marquee and regional accounts, we're bringing all of our solutions, including professional search and interim to those clients. And a year ago, we thought that we weren't doing as good a job as we could, particularly around interim and pro search, given that interim was a relatively new offering for us, that we needed to make a bigger push on those solutions around marquee and regional accounts. And the other one that we still I'm not satisfied with is the digital penetration on the marquee and regional accounts. That's going to be a push for us over the next four quarters.

Hey, Gary, it's Bob. The other thing I would add as well is that when you bring these companies into our ecosystem, you know, they're connecting with our executive search partners who have phenomenal relationships, and so the companies are naturally operating at a higher level than perhaps they were, you know, prior to being acquired by Korn Ferry. So that drives up, you know, some of the profitability as well.

Right. And last question for me, if I could. Gary, you mentioned large engagements over 2.5 million have tripled. Could you give us some context for over what period have they tripled? Is that year over year? And, you know, in approximate terms, how many of those engagements there are? Thanks. Well, I'll have to have Bob give you the details. I'll tell you that I think even sequentially they've improved. Our backlog in consulting at the end of the first quarter was essentially about the same backlog, and Bob can correct me, as it was in the fourth quarter. And then in terms of some of the depth, Bob, maybe you can comment on that.

Yeah, I don't have the exact number of engagements, Toby, but when you look at the backlog going into Q1, it was approximately $150 million, and going into Q2, it's roughly in the same ballpark. Where we saw the large increase in engagements above $2.5 million, those went from about $3.5 million up to a little bit north of $12 million just in that three-month period of time.

Do we lose Toby?

Toby, are you still there? Are you muted?

I am. I'm all set. That was my last question. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And our last question will come from Alex Sintar with Bayard. Please go ahead.

Hi, this is Alex Sintar. I'm from Mark Marcon. I want to thank you for taking my question. First off, thank you. I'm sorry, congratulations on the continued margin of strength. I've done a really good job keeping that. And I was wondering if you could touch on how that progress has been received internally, and I guess in particular how it was received in those newer interim and professional services areas, because you did mention quarterly talent management.

Well, I think everybody, you know, recognizes the environment that we're in, and all of those decisions go back well over a year. So nothing has really changed. over the last, you know, three months, six months. You know, those decisions which were hard were done a year ago. And so, you know, when you take those decisions, those are the worst decisions that I have to make. And they weigh on my heart and my mind. But, you know, we're past that. And, you know, I think everybody, you know, you look around and you see, you know, a very, very interesting environment for sure. And I think employees recognize that and colleagues recognize that. So I don't see any issues there. Okay, great.

And then really quick, I was hoping to get a little bit more color regarding the confirmed orders by month. You mentioned July being up year over year, and I was just kind of wondering what you were seeing from SLAC reports for the current month given the increasing signs of labor market softening.

Yeah, we don't. We can't. We don't know anything here in September. You know, I would just say the last four months have been pretty consistent with what you've seen. September is way too early to call. Great. Thank you.

And we have no other questions. You may continue.

Okay, thank you, everybody, for joining us. As I said at the beginning, I think for us this is the beginning. I'm incredibly proud of our colleagues and our organization and where this brand is operating around the world. So thank you for your time. Thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude your conference for today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.