Resources Connection, Inc. (RGP) Q3 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the RGP conference call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to remind everyone that management will be commenting on results for the third quarter ended February 28, 2026. They will also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. An explanation and reconciliation of these measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures are included in the press release issued today. Today's press release can be viewed in the Investor Relations section of RGP's website and filed today with the SEC. Also, during this call, management may make forward-looking statements regarding plans, initiatives and strategies and the anticipated financial performance of the company. Such statements are predictions and actual events or results may differ materially. Please see the Risk Factors section in RGP's report on Form 10-K for the year ended May 31, 2025, for a discussion of risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the company's business, results of operations and financial condition to differ materially from what is expressed or implied by forward-looking statements made during this call. I'll now turn the call over to RGP's CEO, Roger Carlile.

Thank you, and welcome, everyone, to the RGP Fiscal Year 2026 Q3 Earnings Call. I have just completed my fifth month as Chief Executive Officer of RGP, and my optimism regarding the future of our business continues to grow. I have now spent time speaking with many of our employees and shareholders as well as having participated in several client pitches and related discussions. These interactions further convinced me that my first impressions regarding the quality of our employees, the strength of our client relationships and the relevancy of our service offerings to clients' needs were accurate. Furthermore, they indicate our strategy of meeting our clients in terms of what they need us for and in the manner in which they need us, that is 1 or more of our 3 service delivery modes of on-demand talent, consulting and managed services is a competitive differentiator. As I said previously, these elements provide RGP with a competitive right to win in the market, and we expect to do so through focused execution on our strategic priorities. Our third quarter results were aligned with the outlook we previously provided for revenue and gross margin, and our run rate SG&A expenses were better than the outlook. You will hear more about this later in the call from our CFO, Jenn Ryu. For now, let me touch on the progress against our strategic priorities. You will recall our 4 strategic priorities are: one, refocusing our On-demand Talent segment; two, scaling our Consulting segment; three, simplifying how we operate; and four, aligning our cost structure with our current revenue levels. I will touch briefly on each of these areas. In the third quarter, we made focused hires in our On-Demand Talent and Consulting segments, which we expect to drive revenue growth as they ramp up. I invite you to read our recent press releases for more information on these impressive hires. Additionally, we added 2 key leaders to our executive leadership team in the hires of Jessica Block as our Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer; and Prashant Lamba as our new Chief Information Officer. Jessica's professional background sits at the intersection of professional services, operational transformation and emerging technology, and she joins RGP to focus on building real AI capability across the firm. In simple terms, she will help RGP as an organization, RGP's client service professionals and our clients learn, integrate and expand the use of AI in each of their processes and objectives. Prashant joins RGP with a mandate that extends beyond just traditional IT and focuses on simplifying how our employees engage with technology to strengthen operational performance, which will enable them to provide more efficient service to our clients. His leadership will help the firm unlock the full value of advanced technologies, including AI and intelligent automation. Both Jessica and Prashant have extensive experience working in tech-enabled professional service firms and have been leaders in driving AI development and implementation in these organizations. Equally important to me is that I have personally witnessed Jessica and Prashant succeed at other professional service firms, which gives me confidence they will hit the ground running at RGP and accelerate our strategies regarding AI enhancement and operational simplification. Regarding our priority to refocus our On-Demand Talent segment, in the quarter, we added new sales team leadership in our Central U.S. and Northeastern U.S. regions. These new leaders join our already high-performing sales leadership and team members in our Western U.S. region and will help us to enhance our strategic focus on serving existing and new clients as well as offering the new skills and roles they demand. And we anticipate adding additional new leadership in our Southeastern U.S. and Mexico regions. In addition to this new sales leadership, we are also growing our sales team across North America with the addition of new sales team professionals. With respect to refocusing the skills offered through our On-Demand Talent segment, we continue adding on-demand team members in the areas of ERP, finance transformation, data, supply chain and AI. As for scaling our Consulting segment, we have completed the significant organizational and operational aspects of integrating our legacy consulting units into one cohesive Consulting segment led by Scott Rottmann. Those of you who have followed RGP over the past 3 years will know that we previously operated through 3 distinct consulting practices, represented by the legacy RGP project consulting capabilities and the Veracity and Reference Point acquisitions. The result of our integration, which will be completed by the end of our fiscal year in May, is a simplified and unified consulting business with new senior leadership driving our go-to-market service strategy, which is focused on client needs arising at the intersection of the modern CFO and CIO. Regarding our simplification strategy, I've already mentioned 2 key aspects of this effort. The addition of Prashant Lamba, who is focused on simplifying our technology processes to unlock more efficiency in selling work and serving clients and the integration of our Consulting business, which streamlines our go-to-market efforts around a key set of services. In addition to these, we also signed a binding agreement to dispose of the Sitrick crisis communications business to simplify our business portfolio and allow for greater focus on the clients and services where we have a competitive right to win. In addition, we made further progress during the quarter in reducing our cost structure to align more closely with our current revenue levels. And you will hear more about this shortly from Jenn Ryu. It is important to know that to spur further growth, we are reinvesting some of these savings into the areas discussed earlier. We are confident that our continued focus on these 4 priorities will deliver future revenue growth, and our strong balance sheet allows us to make these strategic decisions and the related investments to support this growth in a reasoned and consistent manner. Finally, in terms of the market for our services, the environment has not changed a great deal from our perspective in the prior quarter. Clients are still seeking to activate their key goals in ways that are both cost-effective and value accretive, and RGP fits squarely within that framework. My conversations with our go-to-market professionals lead me to believe that clients were feeling a bit more confident in the quarter regarding their plans. However, it is a little too early to assess whether the Iran conflict will affect clients' attitudes and plans. As for AI, it remains a prominent topic in the market, and we continue to work with our clients to size the opportunity for RGP. The addition of Jessica Block to our leadership team will be of significant benefit in this regard. With that, I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Jenn Ryu.

Thanks, Roger, and good afternoon, everyone. As Roger outlined, the third quarter was about execution against our strategic priorities, delivering results within our outlook while continuing to reshape the business for a return to growth over time. I'll take you through our consolidated performance, cost actions, segment results and then close with our outlook. For the third quarter, our performance was largely in line with expectations. Consolidated revenue and gross margin were both within our outlook ranges, while run rate SG&A was better than expected. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was negative $1.4 million. From a demand perspective, our experience during the quarter was, as Roger described, client decision-making remains deliberate, particularly for larger and more complex work, but we saw an uptick in the volume of closed contracts during the quarter. While this has not yet translated into revenue growth, it reinforces our view that demand conditions are steady and our services are relevant in the marketplace. On a segment basis, we saw continued signs of revenue stabilization in on-demand talent with a moderating year-over-year decline. Our focus remains on improving sales execution and investing in leadership and sales capacity in key markets. In Consulting, longer sales cycles continue to weigh on top line results. However, progress on integration and onboarding of new leadership contributed to early improvement in the coordination across the consulting team, cross-selling with our on-demand business and overall client engagement around CFO and CIO-led transformation needs. In the Europe and Asia Pacific segment, our go-to-market activities remain healthy across multinational and local clients. For multinational clients, in particular, demand for our global delivery center offerings continue to resonate as organizations look to outsource and scale critical processes in a cost-effective manner. While revenue for the quarter was impacted by the timing of project starts at a handful of clients, Japan, India and the Netherlands all delivered solid year-over-year revenue growth. Our Outsourced Services segment once again performed consistently with both stable year-over-year results and sequential growth. Across the enterprise, average bill rates increased year-over-year and sequentially in most segments, reflecting our continued focus on disciplined pricing, higher-value consulting projects and more specialized on-demand talent skill sets. Turning to the financial details. Consolidated revenue for the quarter was $107.9 million, representing a 19.6% decline on a same-day constant currency basis compared to the prior year. Gross margin was 35.7%, up 60 basis points compared to 35.1% in the prior year quarter. The improvement was driven by a modest enhancement in pay-to-bill ratio along with favorable consultant benefit costs related to lower health care expenses and fewer holidays during the quarter. Primarily reflecting a revenue mix shift towards the Asia Pacific region, enterprise-wide average bill rate was $120 on a constant currency basis compared to $123 a year ago. On a segment basis, On-Demand Talent's average bill rate grew to $146 from $140 a year ago. Consulting's average bill rate grew to $162 from $159. And in Europe and Asia Pacific, the average bill rate was $57 constant currency compared to $59 last year, reflecting the revenue mix shift to Asia. Now turning to SG&A expenses. As discussed last quarter, we launched a comprehensive organization-wide review with the objective of simplifying the business and better aligning costs with current revenue levels. As part of this effort, we implemented an additional reduction in force in January. Combined with prior actions in the current fiscal year, we expect total annualized cost savings of approximately $12 million to $14 million, with a portion of those savings being selectively reinvested to support growth in fiscal 2027. For the third quarter, enterprise run rate SG&A expenses were $39.4 million, representing a 10% improvement compared to $43.7 million in the prior year quarter. Approximately $2 million of this improvement came from lower management compensation expense, reflecting structural headcount reductions implemented during calendar 2025 and the partial impact of the January 26 action. The remaining improvement came from disciplined spending across travel, occupancy and professional services. Turning now to segment performance. As always, all year-over-year revenue comparisons are adjusted for business days and currency impact and segment adjusted EBITDA excludes certain shared corporate costs. On-Demand Talent revenue was $40.9 million, a decline of 16.3% from the prior year quarter. Despite the lower top line, segment adjusted EBITDA increased to $2.9 million or a 7% margin compared to $2.6 million or a 5.5% margin in the prior year quarter. This improvement was driven by higher gross margin supported by improved average bill rate, lower sales and talent headcount and continued cost discipline. Consulting revenue was $36.9 million, down 32.5% year-over-year, which continued to pressure utilization, therefore, gross margin and segment EBITDA. Segment adjusted EBITDA was $1.7 million or 4.6% margin compared to $5.9 million or 11.2% margin in the prior year quarter. Despite this, we expect the completion of our integration work and leadership onboarding to begin driving more consistent conversion and improved utilization as we move through fiscal 2027. Europe and Asia Pacific revenue was $18.1 million compared to $18.6 million a year ago, a decline of 5.8% on a same-day constant currency basis. Segment adjusted EBITDA was $0.8 million in both periods, representing margins of 4.3% this quarter and 4.5% in the prior year. Outsourced Services revenue was $9.5 million, down 1.7% on a same-day basis from the prior year quarter. Segment adjusted EBITDA was $1.4 million or a 15.1% margin compared to $1.5 million or 15.9% in the prior year quarter. Turning to liquidity. Our balance sheet remains strong. We ended the quarter with $82.8 million of cash and cash equivalents and no outstanding debt. Quarterly dividend payments totaled $2.3 million, representing a 7.4% annualized yield based on our stock price at the end of the third quarter. With our cash position and available borrowing capacity under our credit facility, we will continue to take a balanced approach to capital allocation, investing in the business to support long-term growth while returning capital to shareholders through dividends and potential share buybacks. At quarter end, $79 million remained available under our share repurchase program. I'll now close with our outlook for the fourth quarter. Early fourth quarter weekly revenue trends are tracking below third quarter levels. Based on current visibility, we expect fourth quarter revenue in the range of $104 million to $109 million. We expect gross margin in the fourth quarter to be between 36.5% and 37.5%, reflecting a more normalized number of business days. Total business days in the fourth quarter for the U.S. will be 64 days versus 69 days in the prior year fourth quarter and 61 days in the third quarter. Run rate SG&A expenses for the fourth quarter are expected to be in the range of $39 million to $41 million, reflecting further realization of cost savings from the January actions, largely offset by reinvestments. These reinvestments remain targeted, primarily focused on key leadership roles, revenue-producing capacity and client-facing capabilities. Importantly, they do not change our medium-term goal of improving operating leverage as revenue recovers. Non-run rate and noncash expenses are expected to be in the range of $13 million to $15 million and consist primarily of charges associated with the Sitrick disposition, which is expected to be closed before fiscal year-end, separation costs related to the COO departure and noncash stock compensation expense. In closing, as Roger discussed, we made solid progress against our key priorities this quarter. We strengthened leadership, meaningfully reduced our cost structure, took steps to simplify our business portfolio and began reinvesting selectively to support future growth. While we are not yet seeing a broad-based acceleration in revenue, we believe the actions we've taken have improved our operating foundation and position us to execute more consistently and deliver increased value to our clients and shareholders over time. With that, we will conclude our prepared remarks and open the call for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Andrew Steinerman with JPMorgan.

This is Alex Hess on for Andrew. Just to confirm, there was no M&A revenue in the quarter, correct? And Jenn, can you elaborate on what the guide calls for on a constant currency same-day organic basis for the May quarter?

Yes. Alex, yes. There's no M&A revenue in the quarter. So Q4's got at the top of the range is about a 16% year-over-year decline on an organic constant currency same-day basis.

Got it. And then just thinking big picture, last quarter, you guys spoke to trying to tease out the impact that automation and AI might be having on some work streams for you guys. Obviously, there's been a lot of press releases and a lot of senior leadership turnover and trying to just understand when it comes to visibility that you have into the long run return to growth of the business, how much do you guys think you have the muscle in place right now to make that forecast? And when do you think there might be looking for a pivot?

This is Roger Carlile. Excuse me for my voice. I think as I said in the comment in the press release, we're confident that we're going to grow the business. And so at the moment, I mean, the conditions we see right now and the investments we've made and what are the conversations we're having with clients, I'm confident that fiscal year 2027 will be growth over fiscal year 2026 when we wrap up the year. So now you may ask where is that going to be? I think it's going to -- obviously, you've got a lot of investments that are coming to fruition. So I think you're going to see that growth more prevalent in the latter half of the year than the first half of the fiscal year. But at the moment, that's what I believe. I think you're going to see growth in the top line for RGP in fiscal year 2027.

Our next question comes from Joe Gomes with NOBLE Capital.

You guys mentioned you've had a lot of new hires or promotions. You've done a lot of press releases on that. In your comments today, you talked about they should help drive revenue growth through an anticipated ramp-up period. Maybe give us a little idea of what that timing of that ramp-up period is? Are we talking 1 quarter, 2 quarters? Where does that stand?

Well, I mean, it varies in my experience from person to person and from type of service. But generally speaking, I think we expect those things to have maturation periods of between 6 months and 9 months. Sometimes you're lucky and they're shorter. Perhaps in the AI space, for example, we're having a lot of conversations and Jessica joining immediately. We're seeing already impact there. I think that might be shorter. But in other things, it could be longer. So I think with nothing more than just my own instinct from being in the business for a long time, I would say I'm looking at a 6- to 9-month period of time, which is why I'm comfortable that we'll start to see revenue growth in fiscal year 2027, but it will probably come in the latter 2 quarters of that fiscal year.

So Roger, so just kind of going on that, you're confident you'll see revenue growth in '27. What needs to happen? Do we need to see an upswing in the overall market? Do we just need to see RGP start to take more share of wallet from existing customers? I mean, what are you kind of counting on when you're saying you're confident we'll see revenue growth in '27 over '26?

Yes. Good question. I think, first of all, we don't -- I don't need the market to change dramatically worse, right? I mean I just need it to be -- nor do I need it to be, in my mind, dramatically better. I just need it to be sort of in its current condition throughout that maturation period. And then I think it's mostly in our hands, whether we are ultimately taking market share. I mean, probably any time we win something if someone doesn't, that you could say is moving some share, but I don't know if it's significant enough to say you're moving total market share. But we need to continue with the people that we're adding, the new salespeople, the new consulting leaders, the new leaders like Jessica and others, we need to keep having the conversations we're having at the pace we're having them. And frankly, if we just keep winning at the current pace, I mean, I think we'll win more. But if we can win at the current pace, we're having more of those conversations, more opportunities coming to the top of the pipeline, I think we'll see that we're starting to grow the revenue. Essentially, we're going to have -- we're having -- we have more people, we're having more and better conversations, and I think that's going to result in revenue growth.

Okay. And then one more for me, if I may. I mean given where the stock is these days and given the cash and the authorized buyback, I mean, kind of what's your thought process on when you would look to step into the market and maybe repurchase some shares here?

Yes. Joe, this is Jenn. Yes, I mean, as you know, we've been working on taking out costs and also been reassessing strategic priorities, and we started reinvesting into the business. So given all the moving pieces, we're still assessing just impact holistically, including where we are from a liquidity standpoint. But yes, I mean, no doubt, we think our shares are very attractive, and we'll look to begin executing on buybacks when we are ready.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Kartik Mehta with Northcoast Research.

Roger, in the previous earnings calls, you talked about AI displacing some lower-level opportunities, but also creating opportunities. And I'm wondering, as you look over the next 12 months to 24 months and maybe as you look at the current pipeline, is AI a tailwind for you or headwind for you or neutral at this point in time?

I think at this point in time, it's a tailwind. I mean I think it's going to be a tailwind for a lot of professional services companies, notwithstanding what the popular media was saying as long as they're diligently doing something about it and executing. I mean if you said by, you do nothing, then the world will pass you by. In the short run, there's internally just using the tools for ourselves and making ourselves more efficient can be a tailwind on our cost structure and the kinds of conversations we're having with clients that range all the way from helping them get their data prepared to apply AI tools against it up through helping them make sort of buy or buy build decisions and implementing that. Those are all services that we provide to clients. And so I think those are going to also be tailwinds for us.

And Jenn, I know you guys are investing in the business. You've hired salespeople. Obviously, you've hired leaders for the business. And as you look at your SG&A, are we at a trough or kind of at a stability level for SG&A?

Yes. I mean I would say, yes, we are nearing the stability level for SG&A. As you know, I mean, we are going -- we started reinvesting this quarter in Q3. So over the next couple of quarters, you'll see the full impact of those reinvestments come in. But offsetting that, we will also be realizing the benefits from the cost actions that we've taken. So those 2 things will have some offset. But timing-wise, it's not going to line up perfectly. I would say that given the reinvestment starting in Q1 of fiscal '27, we will see a slight kind of elevation of our SG&A expenses. But like Roger said, we're also expecting that investment to pay off in the latter half of fiscal '27.

And just one last question, Roger. Any other portfolio actions you anticipate over the next 12 months to 24 months?

Well, nothing that I have in process at the moment. So I couldn't comment, but by portfolio, maybe you mean service areas or business units. But we're constantly -- I think we mentioned, right, simplification is one of our focal points. But that includes a number of things, the processes that we do, the services we offer and where we offer those services. So we're constantly looking at that, and that will be continuing.

Our next question comes from Alexander Sinatra with Baird.

This is Alex on for Mark Marcon. I was just wondering, you mentioned in the press release that there's been some reduced demand in traditional finance roles related to the adoption of AI and automation. And this is something you mentioned last quarter, too. So I was just kind of wondering if we can get a little bit more detail on that, what kind of negative impact you're seeing?

Yes. Well, I think what we mentioned this quarter is really just consistent with what we were seeing last quarter. I don't think there's been any acceleration on that. I think the comments I made about the overall market for our services was that it was pretty consistent with what we saw in the prior quarter. So I mean there are certainly some kinds of roles that as clients install AI tools that are then less in demand. And the ones that we saw that in were the operational accounting, those types of skills. But nothing accelerating on that. I think it's sort of a steady state on that right now.

Great. Super helpful. And then in terms of the sale of Sitrick, I was just kind of wondering how much you expect to net from that, not just the revenue, but like on a margin perspective, how that's expected to impact you?

Sure. Yes. So the Sitrick disposition, Sitrick has been around $9-ish million on an annual basis from a revenue standpoint. And this will actually be -- from a profitability standpoint, it's not going to have any material impact on the business.

I would now like to turn the call back over to Roger Carlile for any closing remarks.

Thank you, operator, and thanks, everyone, for joining our call today. As I said last time, we appreciate your interest in RGP, and don't hesitate to reach out with any additional questions. Thank you.

Thank you. This concludes the conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.