Kforce (KFRC 0.20%) stock is seeing a day of monster gains in Tuesday's trading. The company's share price had rocketed 44.9% higher in the daily session as of 2 p.m. ET despite the S&P 500 being down 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite being down 1.1% at the same point in the day's trading.
Kforce published its first-quarter results after yesterday's market close, and performance for the period topped Wall Street's expectations. Following today's dramatic valuation surge, the stock is up roughly 50% year to date.
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Kforce posted better-than-expected Q1 results
Kforce recorded earnings per share of $0.46 in the first quarter, significantly exceeding the average Wall Street analyst estimate's call for per-share earnings of $0.39 in the period. The company's sales of $330.4 million in the period also beat the average analyst estimate by roughly $1 million. While revenue was up just 0.1% year over year, the business avoided the sales decline that analysts had expected -- and profitability was significantly better than anticipated in the period.
NYSE: KFRC
Key Data Points
What's next for Kforce?
For the current quarter, Kforce is guiding for sales to be between $344 million and $352 million -- good for annual growth of roughly 4%. Hitting the midpoint target would also mean delivering sequential quarterly growth of roughly 5%. The staffing solutions company's unexpected return to posting meaningful sales growth has caused investors to reassess the company's outlook, and management's target for per-share net income between $0.67 and $0.75 this quarter suggests midpoint earnings growth of 20% and a shifting profit story.
