Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us and welcome to the KFOR's third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. I will now hand the conference over to Joe Liberatore, President and CEO. Please go ahead, sir.

Good afternoon and thank you for your time today. This call contains certain statements that are forward-looking, are based upon current assumptions, and expectations that are subject to risk and uncertainties. Actual results may vary materially from the factors listed in K-Force's public filing and other reports and filings with the SEC. We cannot undertake any duty to update any forward looking statements. You can find additional information about our results in our earnings release and our SEC filings. In addition, we have published our prepared remarks within the investor relation portion of our website. We are extremely pleased to deliver a quarter of accelerating revenue and earnings growth. Revenues which exceeded the high end of our guidance reflect the continued build of momentum that began in the second half of 2025 as evidenced by another quarter of sequential growth and further accentuated with year-over-year growth rate in our technology business of nearly 8% that is roughly equivalent to our pre-pandemic compounded annual growth rate. If Jeff Hackman will cover in more detail, this momentum is continued into the fourth quarter where we're expected to deliver another quarter of strong sequential billion-day growth. During the challenging years of 2023 to 2025, we didn't hang our heads. We spent considerable time selectively and responsibly investing in our people. strengthening our service offerings and evolving our brand and go-to-market strategy supported by our integrated strategy efforts and fine-tuning our world-class client portfolio. We also weren't unnerved when the dramatic evolution of technology that occurred with AI in the fall of 2022 because across K-Force's 64-year history, we have navigated and helped our clients navigate several defining periods of technological change from mainframe and personal computing and the Internet to mobile technology and cloud computing. We witnessed that each transition reshaped the labor market, yet it also created new opportunities as workers, particularly technology professionals, developed new skills and adapted to the evolving demands. Over time, these cycles ultimately expanded the number and breadth of technology-related roles. In fact, there is some recent evidence supporting our historical experience with technological changes playing out with AI. Recent research and labor market data continues to reinforce the durability of technology talent demand, even as AI automates a significant amount of coding activity. Indeed data showed U.S. software development jobs postings have increased nearly 15% since February 2025. With that growth significantly concentrated in senior roles, which aligns well with where we have historically focused. Longer term, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment for software developers and related roles to grow approximately 10% through 2035, much faster than the average for all occupations. Our approach to AI remains deliberate and balanced, both within KForce and how we support our clients. Internally, we are examining our core processes and introducing AI-enabled capabilities where they can meaningfully improve the quality and speed of the associate and client experience, resulting in improved productivity and operating leverage. Externally, we are continuing to build fluency across our sales team and leadership while expanding the specialized AI expertise within our consulting solutions organization. We believe that enterprise adoption of AI is still at the early stage and will likely develop over time, much like other major technology transitions. The greatest opportunity will extend beyond the technology itself to the thoughtful and secure integration of AI into business processes and operating models. Capturing that value will require organizations to bring together strategy, talent, data, We therefore expect growing demand for highly skilled professionals and teams capable of designing, implementing and scaling AI, data and broader digital transformation initiatives. We believe clients will progressively turn to outside expertise to redesign business to be AI native. A recent example of a major US financial institution bringing in 1,000 technology consultants to help align their internal systems with recently acquired AI tools is indicative of how outside expertise can be leveraged. With our technology talent solutions and consulting capabilities, K-Force is well positioned to help clients modernize their operations, translate technology investments into business value, and build competitive advantage. No matter the pace of innovation, organizations will continue to need experienced professionals who can connect emerging technologies with practical execution. We believe that need supports the long-term demand for technology talent and consulting solutions that is at the center of our strategy. The demand for flexible technology talent is broadly based and extends beyond AI. The labor environment remains a bit mixed, with IT unemployment rates remaining relatively low at approximately 2.9%, indicative of a tight market for technology talent. At the same time, recent BLS data indicates modest job declines in the information and professional services sector. This is an environment where many companies remain hesitant to add full-time staff while the project-based nature of technology work may further incentivize clients to leverage flexible talent solutions. Organizations are also increasingly turning to flexible talent models to advance large backlogs of high-priority technology initiatives. Broader uncertainty including geopolitical tensions, rising interest rates, and related volatility in the global energy markets has further reinforced the need for agility. We believe these dynamics highlight the value of flexible workforce solutions as clients adapt to near-term uncertainty while assessing the longer-term implications of emerging technologies on their business and talent strategies. As a result, we remain encouraged that our operating trends and revenue improvements since late 2025 are consistent with a more typical cyclical demand recovery. Our business model is intentionally simple, organically driven, and intensely focused. By limiting inorganic growth within our existing service areas, we protect our teams from unnecessary complexities and distractions. That focus allows our people to do what they do best, build deep relationships, and partner with clients to solve their most critical business challenges. Our strategy has been thoughtfully refined over time, not overhauled because it has proven durable. That focus, combined with a unified and resilient culture, is a real differentiator for us and central to our consistent market outperformance. I am incredibly proud of the determination of our people and deeply appreciative of the trust our world-class clients continue to place in K-Force. The way our teams collaborate, serve our clients, and move our strategic priorities forward is creating meaningful momentum across K-Force and clear evidence to me that our people are operating more fully as one K-Force. With that, I will turn the call over to Dave Kelly, our Chief Operating Officer, for additional perspective on our performance and operating trends. Jeff Hackman, our Chief Financial Officer, will then review our financial results and outlook in greater detail. Dave? Thank you, Joe.

Total revenues exceeded guidance on the strength of our technology revenue growth of 7.8% year-over-year and 2.5% on a sequential billing day basis. While there has been considerable debate about whether AI tools and technologies will constrain demand across our sector, over the last four quarters, we've seen buying patterns improve and have delivered revenue growth that is at or above pre-pandemic norms. Both consulting and traditional staff augmentation revenues are growing, and our consulting solutions business has been growing in excess of 10% annually for the last few years. Our client portfolio is exceptional, our go-to-market and integrated strategy efforts are gaining traction, and our culture is unmatched. Clients remain measured in their technology spending, though our recent acceleration in revenue growth and leading indicators suggest that more projects are being greenlighted and demand for our services is increasing. Our results and operating trends indicate that clients are prioritizing critical initiatives in data, digital, and the platforms that support AI strategies and other critical projects that may have been deferred. Our growth rates provide concrete evidence that we are gaining share with our clients and across the broader market. Importantly, the improvement in our business has been broad-based, with positive trends evident across a wide range of industries and skill sets within our client portfolio. We continue to see growth in AI-related data, digital, and cloud projects, while also experiencing a ramp in demand for platform engineering roles and projects. It seems increasingly clear that the demand for flexible talent with high-end skill sets and technology is strengthening despite overall technology job growth being tepid, which further validates our focus on delivering high-end solutions to clients. Overall technology demand by industry remains broad. but with particular strength in financial services, wholesale, trade, and in professional and business services. As part of delivering innovative solutions to our clients, we continue to make targeted organic investments that deepen our consulting expertise, assist our clients in translating business problems within AI use cases, and more rapidly developing potential technology solutions. These investments include an increase in our innovation capabilities and increasing the depth and size of our team of domestically based technology experts and ensuring they are engaging in tandem with our talented sales associates to assist with early stage client exploration and use case advancement. During the third quarter, our consulting solutions business achieved record levels of new contract award value and converted the highest percentage of pipeline opportunities in its history. Our fully integrated sales and delivery model combines onshore, nearshore, and offshore talent from our Pune Delivery Center to give clients a unified experience across consulting, project-based work, and traditional staffing needs, spanning a broad range of technologies and skill sets. Demand is strengthening across our service portfolio, with clients increasingly open to discussing new opportunities. After a relatively slower start to the quarter in July, which is fairly typical during the summer, we saw front-end activity levels and conversion ratios meaningfully improve in August, and we've seen continued strength in September and October. These elevated activity levels and improving conversion ratios are translating into increasing project wins and accelerating revenue growth. Assignment attrition also performed better than expected in the third quarter, which speaks to the overall health and sustainability of the operating environment. We continue to outperform broader industry trends and momentum in the business is clearly strengthened as reflected in our Q4 guidance. We've maintained a stable to slightly improving average bill rate in technology over the past four years, which is encouraging and reflective of our higher quality, higher margin revenue stream. Our average bill rate in Q3 was $91 per hour. This reflects the growing mix of consulting-oriented engagements, which command higher bill rates and stronger margin profiles, as well as disciplined management of wage inflation and core technology skill sets. Together, these factors have effectively offset the bill rate pressure associated with a greater mix of consultants based outside the U.S. We expect to continue seeing a stable to slightly improving average bill rate as technology labor continues to upskill in the face of advancements in AI. Demand remains strong across our core practice areas, including data in AI, digital, platform engineering, and cloud. The number of opportunities in our consulting solutions offering continues to expand and will be a key driver for our sequential growth in Q4. These disciplines are foundational to the development and deployment of AI solutions, and we believe organizations will increasingly require specialized talent to execute their strategies. Looking forward to Q4, we expect overall revenues to improve sequentially in the low single digits on a billing day basis, and for year-over-year growth to be stable with third quarter levels, even against a more difficult prior year comp. Over the last several years, we've made responsible adjustments to align headcount with revenue levels and productivity expectations. We've selectively added headcount in the third quarter given our exceptional operating trends. We expect the productivity improvements that we are driving, particularly the greater efficiencies expected from AI-enabled solutions, to generate additional leverage as we grow. At the same time, we've continued to invest in our consulting solutions business and other strategic initiatives that we believe will support long-term revenue and profitability growth. We remain energized by the opportunities ahead and confident in our ability to sustain recent momentum while continuing to deliver strong results that exceed overall market averages. Our success is grounded in the deep trust and long-standing partnerships we've built with our clients, candidates, and consultants. These relationships remain the foundation of our growth, innovation, and long-term success. I'll now turn the call over to Jeff Hackman, K-Force's Chief Financial Officer.

Thank you, Dave. Third quarter revenues of $357.8 million increased 7.5% year over year and exceeded our expectations. Earnings per share of $0.90 benefited in the third quarter by the recognition of a $0.12 gain under our corporate-owned life insurance policies. Excluding this gain, earnings per share would have been near the high end of guidance for the third quarter, improving approximately 24% over the year-ago period. All aspects of the business continued to improve in the third quarter, driving very strong results from top to bottom. Our overall gross profit margin was at the midpoint of our expectations, increasing 50 basis points year over year to 28.2%. The stronger gross margin profile reflects not only strong demand, but also a continuation of highly disciplined pricing by our people and further improvements in the quality of our revenue streams from a business mix standpoint that we are strategically driving. As revenue growth has accelerated over the last 12 months, we have also increased our gross profit margins, which is not a trend that has been universally delivered across our sector. We are really proud of how our firm has executed and that our clients are recognizing the value that K-Force provides across both our technology talent and solutions offerings. Sequentially, gross profit margins decreased as expected by 30 basis points, driven by a lower mix of direct higher revenues and slightly higher healthcare costs. Flex gross profit margins improved 60 basis points year-over-year and was in line with the midpoint of our expectations, as stronger-than-anticipated bill pay spreads offset slightly higher health care costs. Health care costs have generally come in as planned year-to-date but can be difficult to project by quarter. As we look beyond 2026, we expect our higher margin solutions engagements and offshore delivery to continue supporting further margin expansion opportunities. As to the fourth quarter, we expect bill pay spreads to remain broadly stable sequentially and for us to experience typical seasonal impacts from higher pay time off around the holidays. SG&A as a percentage of revenue was 21.6% and benefited by 60 basis points because of the aforementioned gain under our corporate-owned life insurance policies. Adjusting for this gain, SG&A costs were at the low end of our guidance of 22.2% to 22.4%, demonstrating an ability to continue delivering operating leverage as revenues expand. As Dave mentioned, we made selective investments in our sales and recruiting teams to support the accelerating growth and added further depth to our consulting teams. We are largely absorbing the near-term cost implications of these investments through the leverage that our revenue growth is providing. As previously discussed, the Workday implementation is expected to result in higher non-cash depreciation and amortization expense following the early 2027 go-live. We continue to expect the more significant benefits to emerge in late 2027 and build more fully throughout 2028, enhancing operational efficiency and supporting long-term margin expansion. Our operating margin was 6.3%, which benefited by 60 basis points due to the gain, and our effective tax rate in the third quarter was 28.6%, lower than anticipated because of the tax-free nature of this gain. After factoring in this game, our operating margin and effective tax rate met the high end of our expectations. Operating cash flow was $9.5 million in the third quarter, below our expectations due to a temporary payment delay at a large client that was resolved in early October. The overall quality of our accounts receivable portfolio remains very strong. During the quarter, we returned approximately $6.7 million to shareholders through dividends. We did not repurchase shares, which reflects our near-term priority of maintaining current debt levels. We have repurchased approximately $15 million in shares at an average price below $30 per share thus far in 2026 and returned another $20.2 million in dividends, an aggregate amount that has exceeded operating cash flows. Net debt was effectively unchanged quarter to quarter. Our balance sheet remains strong, with leverage of approximately 1.3 times trailing 12-month EBITDA, providing continued financial flexibility. Looking ahead, we will remain disciplined in deploying excess cash after funding our capital needs and quarterly dividend, balancing debt reduction with opportunistic share repurchases. Our return on equity remains strong at approximately 30%, reflecting disciplined capital allocation and our ability to generate attractive returns while investing to support long-term growth. Turning to our outlook, the fourth quarter includes 62 billing days, consistent with the fourth quarter of 2025, but two fewer billing days than the third quarter of 2026. We expect fourth quarter revenue to be in the range of $352 million to $360 million and earnings per share to be between $0.62 and $0.70. Our guidance assumes an effective tax rate of approximately 28.7%. At the midpoint of guidance, revenue is expected to increase 2.7% sequentially and 7.2% year-over-year. Our outlook assumes a stable operating environment and does not reflect any unusual or non-recurring items. We remain confident in our competitive position and our ability to grow faster than the market. Continued progress in business mix, margin expansion, and operating leverage strengthens our earnings potential as demand improves. We remain confident in our ability to achieve an operating margin of at least 8% as annual revenue returns to $1.7 billion, representing more than 100 basis points of improvement from the margin achieved when we last operated at that revenue level in 2022. Operating margins that we have delivered thus far in 2026 are significantly greater than the operating margins reached previously at similar revenue levels, which reflects disciplined execution, a stronger business mix, effective pricing, and continued investment in our sales, solutions, and enterprise capabilities. On behalf of the management team, I want to thank our associates for their continued dedication and commitment to our clients. Their contributions remain central to our performance and our confidence in the opportunities ahead. We would now like to turn the call over for questions.

We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Mark Marcon with Baird. Your line is open, Mark. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good afternoon. Great results. I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about, you know, you're seeing demand pick up. There's lots of companies that are coming off the sidelines and implementing on programs that were deferred. To what extent do you think your results are are a function of just the broad increase in demand relative to picking up share and specifically what you've been doing both offshore as well as with some of your specialized higher margin solutions.

I appreciate the question, Mark. This is Dave. So I would say a few things, and we alluded to these, I think, in some of our remarks. We've been sitting here for the last three or four quarters now indicating that we've seen a pickup of indicators, we've seen improving client conversations. Obviously, there's been a lot of discussion in the marketplace about AI and AI related investments. I would say certainly that is a part of it. Our consulting services team has had a really nice period of growth. We've seen significant improvement in pipelines there. I think our AI and AI related pipelines are up something like 20% year over year. So certainly that is part of the story. and our expectation is that it's going to continue to be the case as we move forward. There frankly isn't anything in the marketplace that we're seeing that suggests that it's going to slow down. I would say in addition to that, we've been talking for quite some time about a lot of deferrals that companies have had in terms of the other technology initiatives that they've wanted to do, right? They've always been trying to prioritize mission critical things, and they've really gotten to a point in many respects that have said, we really got to do this. We can't wait for things to turn around. We've got to leave some visibility that things are going to continue to improve for our business and we've got to make these investments. Certainly still some uncertainty in the marketplace, but they're spending there as well. Their expectations, obviously, and it's reflective of some of the changes that we've made in our model is to make sure that they're effective in meeting those needs in a very cost effective manner. So certainly our offshore facility is helping facilitate that. We've talked in the past, especially about the idea of blended projects in our consulting services area. So we're seeing it pretty broadly across different types of business, not just AI, but general technology spend. We're seeing it broadly across many industries. So I wouldn't suggest to you that there is any particular industry driver as well. I think, in fact, eight of our 10 industry sectors have been stable or growing year over year. So, you know, I think Joe used the word broad based or I did. I can't remember. Maybe both of us did. It clearly is has been and we expect will continue to be the case as it relates to demand.

Yeah, Mark, the last part to your question that Dave didn't touch upon was overall market share. Yeah, I'd have to compliment our teams. Our teams have really been executing. We did a lot of training over the last several years. We've put a lot of new programs in place over the last several years. and I couldn't, you know, we couldn't be more proud of our team, the leadership and just how people are executing. So, you know, based upon the data that we're seeing relative to the space, if you were to look at performance, you know, this quarter and our guide, it would appear that, you know, that is, that's above what market is projected. So obviously that would lead one to the conclusion that we are capturing market share. We do also do know that we're capturing client share.

Mark, there is one other one other way I think we need to slice this business as well. You know, we've talked about as a core staff augmentation is an important part of our business, as is solutions work. Right. Our objective has always been to meet client needs from a talent perspective in any way they want to buy. And so that strength that we're seeing is across that spectrum as well, from staff augmentation all the way through our solution space. So broad in that sense as well.

Great. That actually led to one of my other questions, which is, can you give us a sense for, you know, your gross margins on a year-over-year basis on TechFlex has been improving despite, you know, the higher medical care costs and various elements along those lines. But what are you seeing with regards to the mix of your business that's now offshore and solutions relative to domestic staff? How much has that increased? Can you give us a sense for how big that is? And can we see the gross margins continuing to increase as we look out a little bit further into next year and the following year if this mixed shift continues?

Yeah, Mark, this is Dave again. So it's still certainly a small part of our footprint. We opened up that facility in Pune, gosh, a year, year and a half ago now. We've had some nice growth. Our focus has been obviously in supporting our consulting solutions business. And so we've been very diligent about doing that. We've touched on that. So it is still a small percentage of the business. Frankly, I think it will grow, but we're seeing improving bill rates in our consulting services, which, as we've said in the past, typically carry margins four to 600 basis points higher than a staff augmentation assignment. So you're getting that offset. The other thing I would say is margin improvements also, I think, are a good reflection of scarcity of talent and demand for high skilled labor, right? We've got a very concentrated revenue footprint in the high skill area. And we've been very diligent about maintaining that because we think that that is an area where clients are willing to pay for value and scarcity of talent.

And I think, Mark, this is Jeff. I think you're hitting on a key point to our story as well. I mean, it's pretty, you know, neat when you see the revenue trajectory meaningfully inflecting, you know, us starting to throw off growth that's comparable to our pre-pandemic technology growth rates. You look across our business, our average bill rate actually expanded, I think, for the second consecutive quarter. So it's approaching $91 an hour. The margin profile has continued to be very attractive. I think it was up 60 basis points in our technology business year over year. To Dave's point, he touched on the strategic continuing to drive that higher mix both within our consulting solutions group in addition to the business that we have near shore and offshore. We've talked about that having dramatically higher gross margins, but at a tactical level as well, I would give it to our teams. We've talked about the last couple of quarters at a tactical level. We are exercising really, really strong pricing discipline. Joe talked about some of the training that we've done. We've done training in and around that as well. So, you know, our people from soup to nuts are just executing at a high level. And my compliments go out to the team. And that's that's frankly something, Mark, that within our peer set, you haven't heard a lot about margin enhancements on a year over year basis. And with us, you have. So I think it's my compliments to the team again.

Yeah, I mean, if I'm hearing you correctly, I'm hearing you indicate that you think that we can continue to increase the margins because it sounds like that's the direction where there's a greater percentage on both ends of the higher margin that you're working on. And then you've got price discipline with regards to domestic, that's augmentation. So correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you're basically saying the margins should continue to go up.

Yeah, I think strategically, Mark, we are with intent driving a higher mix of business, and I don't expect that intent in what we're driving to necessarily change. If you look at the long-term trajectory in the more traditional staff augmentation arena, and certainly over time, that has become a bit more compressed. But I think we're overcoming that through some of the tactical measures that we're doing. You saw that over the, you know, kind of year over year comparisons. So, yeah, I think it's a balance mark as you look at the long term trajectory in our business.

OK, great. And then one one last one, just on the free cash flow, Jeff, you mentioned, you know, that you had that client that just basically delayed a payment. But that's coming through. So should the free cash flow, you know, improve, you know, in a noticeable way in the fourth quarter?

Yeah, I think, Mark, I think you hit the nail on the head. You know, our operating cash flow is, you know, normalized for that client that kind of straddle Q3 and Q4 were effectively at our expectations. Q4, we're expecting also to be a cash flow positive quarter as well. Year to date through Q3, we turned cash flow positive at the operating cash flow line. And I think, Mark, we would trade probably all day, any day, working through some of the working capital constraints that we've seen in our business. We're trading that for certainly the revenue payouts. Naturally, as you look back, Q4 and Q1 are historically some of our lighter operating cash flows. Q1 from a profitability, from a payroll tax perspective. and then in Q4, we have a lot of our annualized performance-based compensation plans. Those payments fall in the fourth quarter as well. So it'll be certainly compared to Q3 a little bit more subdued, but certainly expect positive operating cash in Q4. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you, Mark.

Your next question comes from the line of Trevor Romeo with William Blair. Your line is open, Trevor. Please go ahead.

Hi, good evening to the team. Thank you for taking the questions. I did want to follow up maybe on the demand environment a little bit differently and particularly the progression over the past few months. So it sounds like you saw an improvement kind of from the low point in July and saw strength continuing in September and October. So my question here is, would you say what you're seeing now is kind of similar to I guess it's been a few years since we've seen a quote-unquote normal here, but similar to maybe a normal build that you would see into year-end, or is it maybe a bit stronger than that given the momentum that you've been seeing lately?

Yeah, Trevor, appreciate the question. So as you alluded to, July was a little lower. I think that's more of a summer dynamic. Frankly, yes, a nice build in August, September, October. I think we can actually feel very good about that. The strength that we're seeing here is reflective of a very good environment. So as I kind of think about where we are as a business, We've alluded to in the past some pre-pandemic growth. This very much feels like a very normal environment where you've got talent that's shorted. You've got client demand, certainly of work that they want to do. So flexible talent is really important. So I think we can look at this very typically, right? The thought process that All of the AI dynamics might have a long term or at least short term impact on the need for flex. Certainly appears to be a bit overstated, right? We're not seeing that. We're seeing a much more normal environment where skills and skill set needs have changed. And we as a flexible provider of talent, our core competency is recruiting in this space and making sure that we can identify that talent. We do it very well. and we're taking advantage of that and meeting our clients needs where that need is.

Thank you, David. That's helpful. And then, you know, for my follow up here, I know you talked about kind of selectively adding some headcount in Q3 given the revenue trends you're seeing. I think you've also talked in the past about having pent up capacity on the sales side and you're also getting some productivity benefits from technology. So I guess I'm curious for a little more detail there. More on what you're adding and then what gives you the confidence to add resources now rather than trying to maybe harvest more of that excess capacity and operating leverage.

Yeah, I think it's a combination because I do think, Trevor, we are harvesting that capacity as well. So for us, let me answer your question so that I can remember them. So I'll start at the back end. Where are we adding those resources to? We're adding them geographically in the areas where we've had the strongest growth and in the particular markets where we outstrip capacity. We need to make sure we don't fall behind the curve there, number one. Number two, we're adding capabilities within our consulting services business. I've alluded to the growing pipeline there. and I think our thought process here is to make sure that we're putting ourselves in a position where we're meeting our clients' needs, we're able to take the opportunity to gain client share, certainly is the case, and yes, we've got capacity, but frankly, growing near 8% when we came into the beginning of this year, I don't know that our expectation necessarily was to do that, so we want to make sure, because our outlook is quite positive, that we don't get into position where in a particular market we don't we miss an opportunity because we don't have capacity. So this is not a huge surge in adding. This is selective investments in particular markets where we're doing extremely well with our clients. And then in addition to that, making sure that we're building the capacity for the building pipelines and our consulting services business.

All right. Thank you, Dave and the team. I appreciate it.

Thank you, Trevor. Thanks, Trevor.

Your next question comes from the line of Kardic Mehta with North Coast Research. Your line is open, Kardic. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Sorry. Good afternoon. Jeff, maybe to start off on just the margin conversation discussion we're having, I think in the past you've said in twenty seven you still have some workday implementation left and maybe that's in the first half. As you look at kind of revenue growth as we go into 27, if these trends continue, would you anticipate SG&A to grow slower than revenue growth and then also have a positive impact on gross margins as you were answering the questions you expect improvement in margins as we go into 27? Or does that improvement moderate and the real improvement happen to 21 after all the implementation?

So, Carter, good to be with you. Good to hear from you. So to answer your question on our Workday implementation, some of the benefits I did put in the script, and this has been consistent with our prior calls, that a lot of the benefits that we expect from leveraging the Workday products are going to start towards the tail end of 2027, and then we'll ramp more fully to the intended benefits as we work into 2028. From an overall posture perspective, look at our business growing close to 8% year-over-year in the fourth quarter, growing at 7% at the midpoint of our guide. Dave just talked about some of the investments that we've made in that demand and then deepening further our consulting expertise. I think, Carter, because you look into 2027, I would expect as you as it relates to SG&A in proportion to the revenue growth, I certainly would expect SG&A to increase at a lower rate than the overall revenue growth. So we do think that is certainly the expectation and frankly, what we've been seeing over time. You can look back. I think at similar revenue levels is what we're delivering today. You look back to the fourth quarter of 2020 and you kind of look at a revenue per performer. We've done a really nice job and have improved the revenue per performer over that time span by 30%. So to Dave's earlier comments about capacity and harvesting some of The productivity gains, we're certainly doing that. So hopefully that helps, Cardick.

Yeah, Cardick, I would just add a couple other things. So kind of put the whole picture together. So we've got the benefits that we're going to derive from the Workday implementation. Jeff's already talked about the margins. As we think about a strategic mix and the consulting business growing, that's going to be additive to margins, certainly gross margins as well. As we grow our share of our business that's in India, that is also A higher profit business mix for us. That's adding as well. And then we've got scale opportunities, right? Leadership scale and SG&A scale on fixed costs that we're going to have. So you bake all of those things together. And that gives us great confidence in our ability to continue to improve margins well beyond where they are today.

And just as a follow up, you know, I think about the consulting solutions contract and how long it takes to convert that to revenue. And I think you said in the third quarter you had record activity. And I'm trying to just determine when that turns to revenue and how much of an impact you think that could have in 2027.

Well, I would make things are we're at record levels because the business as well continues to grow. Right. I alluded to the fact that that part of our business has been growing for a number of years in a double digit rate. Our expectation is for that to continue. So, you know, as far as that lead lag, we've got things that are coming into the shoot in the coming quarter that had been a quarter or two out an investigation as well. So it's it's it's really just a momentum build on itself. Perfect.

Really appreciate it. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, Carter.

Your next question comes from the line of Josh Chan with UBS. Your line is open, Josh. Please go ahead.

Hi, Gretchen, Joe, Dave, Jeff. Yeah, congrats on a good quarter. I was wondering if you could talk to sort of your commercial success, I suppose, with the consulting and even in the staff augmentation. What do you think is kind of leading you to be able to achieve this level of success versus the market?

Oh gosh, I think that there's a number of things that come to mind. We've touched a lot on the execution of the team, so our team has done an excellent job executing on a plan, focused plan. It goes to our strategic model as well. We are an organic That is not distracted by anything outside of our core effectively technology business, our F&A business, which is also doing a nice job. Our model is very focused on a pretty narrow group of skill sets for which there is consistent demand. And we've got a client portfolio that we are focused on growing client share obsessively. and so you put all of those things together. It's a model that we've been executing on for a number of years unchanged. All of those things, I think, have allowed us over a long period of time to outperform our peers.

And I would also add, I believe the backdrop has shifted a little bit. I mean, we've seen now the last couple of quarters rising conversions. Also, we see more resignations taking place. which I think is creating a replacement demand aspect. We basically view that as a positive signal regarding market health. That's the churn that's really been missing in the marketplace for a number of years now, which is really a sign of an overall healthier employment market. I mean, I think this past quarter our conversions were, I think they were up about 23% year over year. Last quarter they were up a little over 30% year over year. And I think that really reflects a greater client willingness to hire talent directly. In addition to this, our teams are experiencing a lot more counter offers today than what we were experiencing even a year ago. along with consultants receiving multiple offers. So, you know, while that creates challenges, it's actually very positive challenges and the kind of challenges that our team is very well equipped to deal with. So I do believe we have an overall backdrop that is also improving for us in addition to the execution points that Dave had touched upon.

Okay, that's really helpful, Carla. I appreciate that. And then maybe one on the guidance, I guess. I know December is always a tricky month to predict, so I guess what does the guidance assume in terms of sort of the momentum into December and into the holidays? Thank you.

Yeah, and Josh, this is Jeff. I appreciate chatting with you again this quarter. We've got visibility, Josh. I think certainly the Christmas holiday and the New Year's holiday falls at a weekend. We've certainly got a lot of experience in navigating through the holidays. Those are, to your point, always a bit tricky and uncertain. We have taken into account all of what we would know to take into account from a fourth quarter perspective. When you look at our guide at the midpoint in our technology business, it's up overall, we said in the script, 2.7%. Our technology business is expected to be up at the midpoint about 3%. As you look back to the fourth quarter of last year, we delivered 3% per billing day sequential growth. and last year what we saw was somewhat similar to what we started seeing in the third quarter of this year. Mid-August through the end of the quarter was particularly strong. October started off very well last year and this year. Last year, as you remember, Josh, the momentum that we built went through the Thanksgiving Day holiday and went through the first week in December. Time will tell whether we see a repeat of last year, but we've taken into account certainly our recent trends and as best as we can tell what we expect from a fourth quarter standpoint.

Great. Thank you for the color and thanks everybody for your time. Appreciate it, Josh. Thank you, Josh.

The next question comes from the line of Toby Summer with Truist Securities. Your line is open, Toby. Please go ahead.

Thank you. I wanted to ask a question about the path towards an 8% EBIT margin as we get back up to prior revenue levels. Do you expect the margin expansion to be evenly or disproportionately driven by gross margin versus G&A leverage?

Yeah, Toby, it's Jeff. I think you're going to have a little bit more of a linear equation when you look at the gross margin and the flex margin contribution towards that. Dave Kelly touched upon our continued strategic drive of a healthier business mix. More geared towards our consulting solutions and more geared towards our nearshore and offshore business. Each one of those has significantly higher overall flex margins that we have been driving and I would continue to expect us to drive that into the future. We've talked about SG&A leverage. We certainly expect the benefits from our Workday implementation. I would imagine that's going to be a little bit more of a step function into it as opposed to a linear equation. I mentioned in my prepared remarks that we would expect to start to work into those benefits towards the end of 2027. and then more fully into 2028. And then, of course, Toby, between now and the 1.7 billion, you get the natural lift from a scale perspective. So those three components. And I would tell you the productivity comment that I made from earlier. In addition to our workday, we are constantly trying to look to give our people the tools and the technology to position them for the most success and driving productivity. So those are Those are some of the components. I would say the only one that's more of a step function versus linear would be the benefits that we expect from our work to implementation. Hopefully that helps, Toby.

It does. Thank you. In the F&A business, do you have an opportunity to leverage your offshore presence in an equivalent fashion to technology, or are there elements of that that are different?

Yeah, Toby, this is Dave. No, not nearly to the extent. When you think about our technology business, and those are much more larger, for us, larger project-oriented blended models, that's what has lent itself to the use of our offshore. Our F&A business is less of that type of business, so it's probably smaller assignments at clients. you know maybe a little bit shorter duration assignments as well so it is not expected at least at this point to utilize a lot of the offshore that we're building.

Yeah the key is we're you know we're not we're not doing BPO type oriented work which is where you'd really see that come into play from an FA standpoint and as Gavin mentioned remember going back to one of our key drivers of going to India is because we saw more of this need for blended teams a combination of Onshore, nearshore, offshore teams for a variety of reasons. One of those is access to talent, which is obviously why we're in India, because of the access to the talent pools, especially from an AI standpoint in comparison to where the U.S. talent pool is at this point in time. So those are really the drivers, not necessarily in support of the FAA business, because, again, this went back to the solutions oriented and the types of projects that we were working on. Great.

And the last question for me is, like, from a visibility perspective and an assignment length perspective, when you blend in your exposure offshore, how is that trending? And do you have momentum into sort of visibility of that project duration elongating?

Toby, this is Jeff. Yeah, it's been pretty stable. Of course, we've talked in the past that our consulting solutions offering has longer overall assignment lengths. The business that we have offshore is predominantly supporting our consulting solutions offering as well. So there's a little bit of a mixed benefit there. But overall, Toby, when you look at the visibility in the business, it's been very, very stable, if not slightly elongating, but nothing meaningful that I will call out. Thank you very much. Thanks, Toby.

We have reached the end of the Q&A session. I will now turn the call back to Joe Liberatore for closing remarks.

Well, thank you for your interest in and support of K-Force. I'd like to express my gratitude to every K-Forcer for your efforts and to our consultants and clients for your trust and faith in partnering with K-Force and allowing us the privilege of serving you. We look forward to talking with you again after fourth quarter 2026. Thank you.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.