Professional staffing firm Kforce Inc. (NASDAQ: KFRC) reported second-quarter revenue rose 1.2% amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Growth at the Tampa, Florida-based firm was concentrated in its finance/accounting temporary staffing business line where revenue rose 28.7% year over year. Technology temporary staffing revenue fell 3.0%. Direct-hire revenue was down in both technology and finance/accounting.
“We believe the strength in our second-quarter results speaks to the resiliency of our business to perform during an adverse economic environment, particularly in our technology business, which was down 3% on a year-over-year basis,” Chairman and CEO David Dunkel said.
The pandemic also appears to be strengthening demand for technology as businesses accelerate their digitalization and technology transformation efforts, Dunkel added. “We may be looking at digitalization as the next industrial revolution.”
| (US$ thousands) | Q2 2020 | Q2 2019 | % change |
| Revenue | $343,020 | $338,861 | 1.2% |
| Gross profit | $97,361 | $94,524 | 3.0% |
| Gross margin percentage | 28.4% | 27.9% | |
| Net income | $9,885 | $9,106 | 8.6% |
Kforce temp staffing revenue was up 3.4% year over year in the second quarter while direct-hire revenue fell 51.1%.
Revenue by segments
| (US$ thousands) | Q2 2020 | Q2 2019 | % change |
| Total flex revenue | $336,417 | $325,354 | 3.4% |
| Total direct-hire revenue | $6,603 | $13,507 | -51.1% |
| Technology | |||
| Technology flex revenue | $251,948 | $259,707 | -3.0% |
| Technology direct-hire revenue | $3,802 | $5,598 | -32.1% |
| Total technology revenue | $255,750 | $265,305 | -3.6% |
| Finance & Accounting | |||
| Finance & Accounting flex revenue | $84,469 | $65,647 | 28.7% |
| Finance & Accounting direct-hire revenue | $2,801 | $7,909 | -64.6% |
| Total Finance & Accounting revenue | $87,270 | $73,556 | 18.6% |
Guidance
Kforce forecast third-quarter revenue would increase between 1.9% and 4.8% to between $352 million and $362 million.
Share price and market cap
Shares in Kforce were up 29.87% to $41.26 as of 11:51 a.m. Eastern time, but they were 3.24% below their 52-week high. The company had a market cap of $696.5 million.