Three months ago, Resources Global (NASDAQ:RECN) turned in a fiscal Q1 2007 earnings report that suggested the firm had been knocked off its axis. Targeting 15% to 18% sales growth this year, the firm produced just 10% in the first quarter. And although it's true that the firm historically turns in its best performance in the fiscal year's second half, the longer Resources waited to resume mid-double digit growth, the harder it was going to be to hit its own internal revenue target.

Fortunately, the firm rose to the challenge in Q2, beating consensus estimates and achieving at least the low end of its own long-term sales goal. Fiscal Q2 saw Resources produce nearly 16% sales growth and $183 million in quarterly revenues, along with a 6% profits decline to $0.29 per share.

A nice start
Beating analyst estimates is fun and all, but what we're really hoping to see is Resources beating, or at least achieving, its own internal goal for the year. So how's that effort shaping up?

So far this year, Resources has booked $347.9 million in sales -- but that's only a 13% improvement over last year. To hit the low end of its full-year target, the firm really needs to ramp up its sales growth in the second half of this fiscal year. The $730 million it aims to book, at a minimum, will require Resources to accelerate sales growth to 16.5% in its second half. (As for where Resources might find this growth, the best bet is in its international offices, where sales growth continues to outpace North American growth rates.)

For more details . . .
. . . than you can shake a stick at, I'd encourage Fool readers, and Motley Fool Stock Advisor subscribers in particular, to take a look at the meticulous write-up of Resources' earnings conference call that Fool member vevyvevyvicket posted on the Resources Global discussion board last week. There you'll learn everything you need to know about the firm's strong (and improving) client retention rates, the increasing diversity of its revenue streams, and management's latest thoughts on how Sarbanes-Oxley will affect its business going forward. (And don't forget to recommend vevyvevyvicket's post. This is exactly the kind of high-quality, member-generated content we want to encourage at The Motley Fool. Give this Fool a hand, and a rec.)

Valuation
With the conference call covered, I'll use the rest of this space to sketch out a thought or two on Resources' valuation. Over the last year, this Stock Advisor recommendation has beaten the S&P 500 handily, by a good 8.5 percentage points. Unfortunately, my view (and this may not be the view of Tom Gardner or other members of the Stock Advisor team) is that the shares are not attractively priced at this time. Weighing its last-reported $48.2 million in trailing free cash flow against its $1.5 billion market cap, I do not believe the resulting 32 price-to-free cash flow ratio offers us much of a bargain today. Not unless the firm can grow its free cash flow significantly faster than analysts' long-term estimates of 20% per annum profit growth.

Not sure whether you should invest in Resources Global? Get the CEO's own views on its future in our recent interview with Donald Murray.

Then play fly-on-the-wall at the firm's last conference call, and see how much (if anything) has changed in: Fool on Call: Resources Discovered.

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Fool contributor Rich Smith does not own shares of any company named above. The Fool has a disclosure policy.