Robert Half Inc.

Hello and welcome to the Robert Half First Quarter 2021 Conference Call. Our hosts for today's call are Mr. Keith Waddell, President and Chief Executive Officer of Robert Half, and Mr. Michael Buckley, Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Waddell, you may begin.

Hello, everyone. We appreciate your time today. Before we get started, I'd like to remind you that the comments made on today's call contain forward-looking statements, including predictions and estimates about our future performance. These statements represent our current judgment of what the future holds. However, they're subject to the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are described in today's press release and our most recent 10-K and 10-Q filed with the SEC, we assume no obligation to update the statements made on today's call. During this presentation, we may mention some non-GAAP financial measures and reference these figures as adjusted. Reconciliations and further explanations of these measures are included in a supplemental schedule to our earnings press release. Our presentation of revenues and the related growth rates for accountants, office teams, Robert Half technology, and Robert Half management resources include their inter-segment revenues from services provided to productivity in connection with the company's blended staffing and consulting solutions. This is how we measure and manage these divisions internally, the combined amount of divisional intersegment revenues with productivity is also separately disclosed. The supplemental schedules just mentioned also include a revenue schedule showing us information for 2018 through 2021. For your convenience, our prepared remarks for today's call are available in the investor center of our website, roberthalf.com. We're extremely pleased that our first quarter results exceeded the high end of our guidance and reflect a broad-based recovery that's well underway. Protivity's revenues grew 35% year-on-year, reflecting continuing momentum across its wide array of service offerings, including very strong managed solutions with staffing. This is Protivity's 14th consecutive quarter of year-on-year revenue gains. Our staffing operations significantly outperformed their historical sequential trends led by small and medium-sized businesses and permanent placement which grew 22% sequentially. I continue to be impressed with the adaptability of our teams in navigating the new hybrid and remote work models with our clients and candidates, helping them grow and find meaningful work. Company-wide revenues were $1.398 billion in the first quarter of 2021, down 7% from last year's first quarter on a reported basis, and down 8% on an as-adjusted basis. That income per share in the first quarter was 98 cents, increasing 24% compared to 79 cents in the first quarter a year ago. Cash flow from operations during the quarter was 68 million in March, We distributed a $0.38 per share cash dividend to our shareholders of record for a total cash outlay of $44 million. We also acquired approximately 797,000 Robert Half shares during the quarter for $61 million. We have 9.2 million shares available for repurchase under our board-approved stock repurchase plan. Our return on invested capital for the company was 37% in the first quarter Now I'll turn the call over to our CFO, Mike Buckley.

Thank you, Keith, and hello everyone. Let's start with revenues. As Keith noted, global revenues were $1.398 billion in the first quarter. On an as-adjusted basis, first quarter staffing revenues were down 18% year-over-year. U.S. staffing revenues were $759 million, down 19% from the prior year. Non-US staffing revenues were $242 million, down 15% year-over-year on an as-adjusted basis. We have 322 staffing locations worldwide, including 86 locations in 17 countries outside the United States. In the first quarter, there were 62.3 billing days, compared to 63.1 billing days in the first quarter one year ago. The current second quarter has 63.4 billing days, equivalent to the second quarter one year ago. Currency exchange rate movements during the first quarter had the effect of increasing reported year-over-year staffing revenues by $17 million. This impacted our year-over-year reported staffing revenue growth rate by 1.4 percentage points. Now let's take a closer look at results for productivity. Global revenues in the first quarter were $397 million. $316 million of that is from business within the United States, and $81 million is from operations outside the United States. On an as-adjusted basis, global first quarter productivity revenues were up 35% versus the year-ago period, with U.S. productivity revenues up 37%. Non-U.S. revenues were up 26% on an as-adjusted basis. Exchange rates had the effect of increasing year-over-year productivity revenues by $6 million and increasing its year-over-year reported growth rate by two percentage points. Productivity and its independently owned member firms served clients through a network of 86 locations in 28 countries. We remind you that changes to the company's deferred compensation obligations are classified as SG&A or, in the case of productivity, cost of services, with completely offsetting changes in the related trust investment assets classified separately below SG&A. Previously, they were both classified as SG&A. Our historical discussion of consolidated operating income has been replaced with the non-GAAP measure of combined segment income. This is calculated as consolidated income before income taxes adjusted for interest income and amortization of intangible assets. For your convenience, we've included a supplemental schedule to today's earnings release on page seven, highlighting the impact of changes in the deferred compensation accounts to the summary of operations for the first quarter of 2021 and 2020. This is a non-GAAP disclosure, so we also show a reconciliation to GAAP. Turning now to gross margin, in our temporary and consultant staffing operations, first quarter gross margin was 38.8% of applicable revenues compared to 37.8% of applicable revenues in the first quarter one year ago. Our permanent placement revenues in the first quarter were 11.2% of consolidated staffing revenues versus 9.9% of consolidated staffing revenues in the same quarter one year ago. When combined with temporary and consultant gross margin, overall staffing gross margin increased 160 basis points compared to the year ago first quarter to 45.6%. For productivity, Gross margin was 26.5% of productivity revenues compared to 27.6% of productivity revenues one year ago. Adjusted for the effect of deferred compensation expense related to changes in the underlying trust investment assets as previously mentioned, gross margin for productivity was 26.9% for the quarter just ended compared to 26.3% one year ago. Companywide SG&A costs were 30.3% of global revenues in the first quarter compared to 29.4% in the same quarter one year ago. Changes in deferred compensation obligations related to increases in underlying trust investments had the impact of increasing SG&A as percents of revenue by 0.8% in the first quarter and decreasing SG&A by 2.4% in the same quarter one year ago. When adjusted for these changes, company-wide SG&A costs were 29.5% for the quarter just ended compared to 31.8% one year ago. Staffing SG&A costs were 37.3% of staffing revenues in the first quarter versus 32.3% in Q1 2020. Included in staffing SG&A costs was deferred compensation expense related to increases in the underlying trust investment assets of 1% in the first quarter compared to income of 3% related to decreases in the underlying trust investment assets in the same quarter one year ago. When adjusted for these changes, staffing SG&A costs were 36.3% for the quarter just ended compared to 35.3% one year ago. First quarter SG&A costs for productivity were 12.5% of productivity revenues compared to 17.3% of revenues in the year-ago period. Operating income for the quarter was $139 million. This includes $12 million of deferred compensation expense related to increases in the underlying trust investment assets. Combined segment income was therefore $151 million in the first quarter. Combined segment margin was 10.8%. First quarter segment income from our staffing divisions was $93 million, with a segment margin of 9.3%. Segment income for productivity in the first quarter was $57 million with a segment margin of 14.4%. Our first quarter tax rate was 26% compared to 32% a year ago. The 2020 rate was elevated based upon the estimated lower coverage of non-deductible tax items due to lower pandemic impacted revenues. Moving on to accounts receivable, at the end of the first quarter, accounts receivable was $800 million and implied day sales outstanding, or DSO, was 51.4 days. Before we move to second quarter guidance, let's review some of the monthly revenue trends we saw in the first quarter and so far in April, all adjusted for currency and billing days. Our temporary and consultant staffing divisions exited the first quarter with March revenues down 12.5% versus the prior year compared to an 18.9% decrease for the full quarter. Revenues for the first two weeks of April were up 9% compared to the same period one year ago. Permanent placement revenues in March were up 24.2% versus March of 2020. This compares to an 8.1% decrease for the full quarter. For the first three weeks of April, permanent placement revenues were up 154% compared to the same period in 2020. We provide this information so that you have insight into some of the trends we've seen during the first quarter and into April. But as you know, these are very brief time periods and we caution against reading too much into them. With that in mind, we offer the following second quarter guidance. Revenues, 1.435 billion to 1.515 billion. Income per share, $1 to $1.10. The midpoint of our guidance implies a year-over-year revenue increase of 31% on an as-adjusted basis, including productivity. Midpoint EPS of $1.05 would represent an all-time high for the company. The major financial assumptions underlying the midpoint of these estimates are as follows. Revenue growth on a year-over-year basis, staffing up 23% to 26%, productivity up 47% to 49%, overall up 30% to 32%. On the gross margin percentages, temporary and consultant staffing 38-39%, productivity 27-29%, and overall 40-41%. SG&A has percent of revenues excluding deferred compensation investment impacts, staffing 35-37%, productivity 12-14%, overall 29 to 30%. And segment income, staffing 9 to 10%, productivity 14 to 15%, and overall 10 to 11%. Full year capital expenditures and capitalized cloud computing costs, 85 to 95 million, with 15 to 20 million in the second quarter. Our tax rate, 26 to 27%, and shares at $112 million. We limit our guidance to one quarter. All estimates we provide on this call are subject to the risks mentioned in today's press release and in our SEC filings. Now, I'll turn the call back over to Keith.