Specialized talent solutions company Robert Half (NYSE: RHI) met Wall Street’s revenue expectations in Q3 CY2025, but sales fell by 7.5% year on year to $1.35 billion. Its GAAP profit of $0.43 per share was in line with analysts’ consensus estimates.

Is now the time to buy Robert Half? Find out by accessing our full research report, it’s free for active Edge members.

"Client and job seeker caution continued during the quarter, subduing hiring activity and new project starts," said M. Keith Waddell, president and chief executive officer at Robert Half.

Company Overview

With roots dating back to 1948 as the first specialized recruiting firm for accounting and finance professionals, Robert Half (NYSE: RHI) provides specialized talent solutions and business consulting services, connecting skilled professionals with companies across various fields.

Revenue Growth

Reviewing a company’s long-term sales performance reveals insights into its quality. Any business can experience short-term success, but top-performing ones enjoy sustained growth for years.

With $5.46 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, Robert Half is one of the larger companies in the business services industry and benefits from a well-known brand that influences purchasing decisions. However, its scale is a double-edged sword because it’s harder to find incremental growth when you’ve penetrated most of the market. For Robert Half to boost its sales, it likely needs to adjust its prices, launch new offerings, or lean into foreign markets.

As you can see below, Robert Half struggled to increase demand as its $5.46 billion of sales for the trailing 12 months was close to its revenue five years ago. This shows demand was soft, a rough starting point for our analysis.

Long-term growth is the most important, but within business services, a half-decade historical view may miss new innovations or demand cycles. Robert Half’s recent performance shows its demand remained suppressed as its revenue has declined by 9.4% annually over the last two years.

This quarter, Robert Half reported a rather uninspiring 7.5% year-on-year revenue decline to $1.35 billion of revenue, in line with Wall Street’s estimates.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to remain flat over the next 12 months. While this projection indicates its newer products and services will spur better top-line performance, it is still below average for the sector.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it should be obvious by now that generative AI is going to have a huge impact on how large corporations do business. While Nvidia and AMD are trading close to all-time highs, we prefer a lesser-known (but still profitable) stock benefiting from the rise of AI. Click here to access our free report one of our favorites growth stories.

Operating Margin

Operating margin is one of the best measures of profitability because it tells us how much money a company takes home after subtracting all core expenses, like marketing and R&D.

Robert Half was profitable over the last five years but held back by its large cost base. Its average operating margin of 8.3% was weak for a business services business.

Looking at the trend in its profitability, Robert Half’s operating margin decreased by 8.1 percentage points over the last five years. Robert Half’s performance was poor no matter how you look at it - it shows that costs were rising and it couldn’t pass them onto its customers.

This quarter, Robert Half generated an operating margin profit margin of 1%, down 3.1 percentage points year on year. This contraction shows it was less efficient because its expenses increased relative to its revenue.

Earnings Per Share

Revenue trends explain a company’s historical growth, but the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) points to the profitability of that growth – for example, a company could inflate its sales through excessive spending on advertising and promotions.

Sadly for Robert Half, its EPS declined by 11.6% annually over the last five years while its revenue was flat. This tells us the company struggled because its fixed cost base made it difficult to adjust to choppy demand.

Diving into the nuances of Robert Half’s earnings can give us a better understanding of its performance. As we mentioned earlier, Robert Half’s operating margin declined by 8.1 percentage points over the last five years. This was the most relevant factor (aside from the revenue impact) behind its lower earnings; interest expenses and taxes can also affect EPS but don’t tell us as much about a company’s fundamentals.

Like with revenue, we analyze EPS over a shorter period to see if we are missing a change in the business.

For Robert Half, its two-year annual EPS declines of 40.9% show it’s continued to underperform. These results were bad no matter how you slice the data.

In Q3, Robert Half reported EPS of $0.43, down from $0.64 in the same quarter last year. This print was close to analysts’ estimates. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Robert Half’s full-year EPS of $1.54 to grow 27.2%.

Key Takeaways from Robert Half’s Q3 Results

Revenue and EPS were roughly in line with Wall Street's estimates. Overall, this quarter didn't have many surprises, good or bad. The stock remained flat at $29.64 immediately after reporting.

So do we think Robert Half is an attractive buy at the current price? The latest quarter does matter, but not nearly as much as longer-term fundamentals and valuation, when deciding if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it’s free for active Edge members.