Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY) Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript December 6, 2023 12:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Gary Burnison - CEO

Bob Rozek - CFO, EVP and Chief Corporate Officer

Gregg Kvochak - SVP Business Development & Analytics

Tiffany Louder - VP, IR

Conference Call Participants

George Tong - Goldman Sachs

Mark Marcon - Baird

Tobey Sommer - Truist Securities

Trevor Romeo - William Blair

Josh Chan - UBS

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Korn Ferry Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2024 Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the prepared remarks, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded for replay purposes. We have also made available in the Investor Relations section of our website at kornferry.com a copy of the financial presentation that we will be reviewing with you today.

Before I turn the call over to your host, Mr. Gary Burnison, let me first read a cautionary statement to investors. Certain statements made in the call today, such as those relating to future performance, plans and goals, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although the company believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements. Actual results in future periods may differ materially from those currently expected or desired because of a number of risks and uncertainties, which are beyond the company's control. Additional information concerning such risks and uncertainties can be found in the release relating to this presentation and in the periodic and other reports filed by the company of the SEC, including the company's annual report for fiscal year 2023 and in the company's soon-to-be-filed quarterly report for the quarter ended October 31, 2023.

Also some of the comments today may reference non-GAAP financial measures such as constant-currency amounts, EBITDA, and adjusted EBITDA. Additional information concerning those measures, including reconciliations to the most direct comparable GAAP financial measures, is contained in the financial presentation and earnings release relating to this call, both of which are posted in the Investor Relations section of the company's website at www.kornferry.com.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Mr. Burnison. Please, go ahead, Mr. Burnison.

Gary Burnison

Okay. Good afternoon, everybody, and thank you for joining us and season's greetings. The team is going to get into this in more detail. But there is no doubt that the strategy is working. Despite a softer labor market, our results demonstrate the resiliency of our business. Through a marquee and regional account strategy, multiple talent product offerings, and cross-referring those solutions to our clients, we generated $704 million in fee revenue in the quarter, which was down about 3% year-over-year. Despite a persistent uneven economic environment, earnings and profitability held steady sequentially as we delivered a 14% adjusted EBITA margin.