ASGN (NYSE:EFOR) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.09 EPS

ASGN (NYSE:EFOR) announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.09, FiscalAI reports. The company had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $986.95 million. ASGN had a return on equity of 10.30% and a net margin of 2.46%.

Here are the key takeaways from ASGN’s conference call:

• Second-quarter results exceeded guidance, with revenue above $1 billion and adjusted EBITDA margin of 9.6%, both above the high end of the company’s outlook.
• Commercial bookings improved meaningfully, including stronger-than-expected Workday demand, lifting trailing-12-month book-to-bill to 1.2x. Management said bookings conversion has returned toward historical norms and expects commercial revenue to reach year-over-year growth by the fourth quarter.
• Everforth reported broad-based sequential improvement across all five commercial verticals and cited growing demand for AI, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, and enterprise platforms. The company also highlighted new federal AI and cybersecurity awards, hyperscaler data-center work, and potential revenue synergies from Quinnox.
• Revenue remained down year over year in both commercial consulting, by 0.9%, and federal government, by 2.3%; federal trailing-12-month book-to-bill was only 0.8x. The company expects more meaningful federal revenue acceleration in the fourth quarter and into 2027.
• Third-quarter guidance calls for revenue of $994 million to $1.024 billion and adjusted EBITDA margin of 9.6% to 10.3%, while including $7.5 million to $9.5 million of strategic-planning expenses. Free-cash-flow conversion was 48% of adjusted EBITDA in the quarter versus a full-year target of 60%–65%, and management prioritized debt repayment following the Quinnox acquisition.

ASGN Price Performance

ASGN stock traded up $0.20 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $23.45. The company had a trading volume of 1,521,151 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,050,300. ASGN has a 1 year low of $16.90 and a 1 year high of $54.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.10. The company has a market cap of $963.79 million, a P/E ratio of 10.38 and a beta of 0.52. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $19.42.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its stake in shares of ASGN by 106.4% during the 4th quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 62,934 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,032,000 after buying an additional 32,437 shares during the last quarter. New South Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in ASGN by 39.2% during the fourth quarter. New South Capital Management Inc. now owns 635,011 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,588,000 after acquiring an additional 178,895 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of ASGN by 190.8% in the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,390 shares of the company’s stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 912 shares during the period. Finally, Horizon Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of ASGN during the 3rd quarter worth about $515,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.36% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on EFOR. Zacks Research raised ASGN from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of ASGN from $54.00 to $33.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Truist Financial upgraded shares of ASGN from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $33.00 to $36.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of ASGN from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $28.00 to $22.00 in a report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut ASGN from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, ASGN presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $29.83.

About ASGN

ASGN is a provider of professional services that connects skilled talent with organizations seeking technology, digital, creative and engineering expertise. The firm focuses on staffing and workforce solutions, delivering contract and permanent placement services as well as project-based consulting and managed services to support clients’ technical and operational needs.

Its offerings commonly include IT consulting, digital transformation support, application development and maintenance, data and analytics, cybersecurity, cloud services and engineering resources.