Earnings Call Transcript - FCN Q2 2022

Operator, Operator

Welcome to the FTI Consulting Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. Please note that this event is being recorded. And I would now like to turn the conference over to Mollie Hawkes, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Mollie Hawkes, Vice President of Investor Relations

Good morning. Welcome to the FTI Consulting Conference Call to discuss the company's second quarter 2022 earnings results as reported this morning. Management will begin with formal remarks, after which they will take your questions. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that this conference call may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events, future revenues, future results and performance, expectations, plans or intentions relating to financial performance, acquisitions, share repurchases, business trends, ESG-related matters and other information or other matters that are not historical including statements regarding estimates of our future financial results and other matters. For a discussion of risks and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ from those contemplated by forward-looking statements, investors should review the Safe Harbor statement in the earnings press release issued this morning, a copy of which is available on our website at www.fticonsulting.com as well as other disclosures under the heading of Risk Factors and Forward-Looking Information in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2022, our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 and in our other filings with the SEC. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements which speak only as of the date of this earnings call and will not be updated. During the call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures such as total segment operating income, adjusted EBITDA, total adjusted segment EBITDA, adjusted earnings per diluted share, adjusted net income, adjusted EBITDA margin and free cash flow. For a discussion of these and other non-GAAP financial measures as well as our other reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures, investors should review the press release and the accompanying financial tables that we issued this morning which include the reconciliations. Lastly, there are two items that have been posted to the Investor Relations section of our website for your reference. These include a quarterly earnings presentation and an Excel and PDF of our historical financial and operating data which have been updated to include our second quarter 2022 results. Of note, during today’s presentation, management will not speak directly to the quarterly earnings presentation posted to the Investor Relations section of our website. To ensure our disclosures are consistent, these slides provide the same details they have historically. With these formalities out of the way, I’m joined today by Steven Gunby, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Ajay Sabherwal, our Chief Financial Officer. At this time, I will turn the call over to our President and Chief Executive Officer, Steve Gunby.

Steven Gunby, President and CEO

Thank you, Mollie. Welcome, everyone and thank you all for joining us this morning. This quarter, like all quarters, there are a lot of puts and takes in our results at the disaggregated levels, the segments, the regions, the subregions. So I will, as usual, let Ajay talk to those in some detail. And let me talk to the macro levels. At the macro level, the results were for the first time in a while a bit below my expectations. Important, however, I want to underscore that, that shortfall was primarily due to the sort of quarterly noise that our business is often subject to, whether it's revenue deferrals, FX remeasurement gains or losses, taxes, the timing of success fees, et cetera. So I've looked into this extensively. And the bottom line for me about this quarter is nothing about this quarter changes my sense or our sense of the prospects for the medium term and the long term or for this year. So as Ajay will talk about, we are reaffirming our guidance for this year. So I'll leave the rest of the details in the quarter then to Ajay. And for the rest of my time, perhaps instead of talking to the quarter, we turned to some of the general themes that we've talked about before which is the commitment we are making to continue to invest in the strong positions we have and the numerous strong opportunities that we see. The investments this quarter are, for the most part, in the same areas that our investments have typically been which is, as you know, senior headcount and junior headcount and I'll talk to that. But in this quarter, you'll notice in addition, we have invested heavily in SG&A in a way that we haven't over the last several years. So I want to give you a flavor of that as well. Let me start with the senior headcount and junior headcount. With respect to senior headcount, I'm hoping you saw this quarter that we announced the hiring of 33 new senior professionals at the MD and SMB levels which is, on average, over 50% above the already impressive levels that we've been achieving in the last few years. This quarter, we had particular success at the MD level where we announced three times as many hires as we had been in the second quarter of last year. Our success in these hiring efforts is critical because as we've discussed several times, even with all the promotions we are making, reaching the sort of bold aspirations that I and our teams have requires ongoing success in attracting great senior people laterally as well. And so I'm very gratified to see yet another powerful quarter in that hiring. Importantly, that hiring is happening across multiple geographies. As we've discussed, this year, we are, in particular, investing heavily in a number of areas where we historically weren't as strong like France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and UAE, all of which reflect our strong commitment to deepen our penetration in the EMEA region as well as the strength of the leadership we now have there that we can invest behind. But equally important, we are continuing to have great opportunities to hire strong people elsewhere. Among those numbers for this quarter, we hired great senior professionals in the United States, Australia, Mexico, China, and other places, all of which reflect the strength of our brand among the leading professionals in each of those markets and our belief that we have opportunities in every segment and every geography. So a lot of senior hiring was one of the investment areas this quarter. Behind the senior investments, we also hired less tenured people, junior people who can grow and develop in their own rights to become senior people and people who can support the senior people today. Overall, our headcount is up just under 10% which is generally in line with our aspirations. And on top of that, this fall, we're going to welcome the largest campus hire group that we've had by far, reflecting the commitment we've made and the success we've had in building our presence on campus and our commitment to growing in that most core source of organic growth which is hiring great people at the most junior levels and then developing them up through the ranks. So a good part of our investment this quarter was in the same form as we've had in the past, great senior hires, great junior hires, great people behind them. But what's a little different about this quarter than some recent quarters, we've also made major investments in SG&A. Let me go into that for a bit. As we discussed, I think we did a terrific job during COVID of maintaining connectivity remotely. We put in place tools to help like Teams and Zoom. But more important than those tools and processes, our people made incredible efforts to support their clients through difficult times and remain connected emotionally to each other during the height of COVID. So I think we did a great job. But in my experience, any high-powered professional services firm that works on high stakes complex matters that we do need what we can to invest in face-to-face connection among our people. I don't think we're ever going to go back to the old days where everybody is in the office or at a client site five days a week or sometimes seven days a week. Nor do I think of here virtual reality makes sense for a company like this which deals with sets of issues that are major and stakes that are high. Given that and since we've had so little face-to-face contact in the last few years, this year, we are consciously making major efforts to reestablish that connectivity and that showed up particularly this quarter. Let me give you a few examples. On our last call, we talked about how in April we hosted the first all-SMD meeting that we've had in almost three years and how energizing that was. What I didn't mention was how enthusiastic the attendance was for that. We have a person on our team here who arranges everything for that meeting and all the hotel room. He never plans wrong and we ended up running out of hotel space and had to scramble in that room for nearby hotels to have space for everyone. So it was a major investment. It's an example. We also made investments like this in a disaggregated way by segment, by subsegment and region throughout the quarter. Our Capital Advisors in real estate each hosted major in-person meetings, some of them gathering the entire global team. Our tech business development team hosted their first in-person sales kickoff in over two years. For me and I'm sure many of you, it's ridiculous to think about having a sales pickup only once every three years. There's so much motivation that comes from an in-person meeting. When salespeople get together, they not only share best practices but share energy and though some of that can be done virtually, nothing can replace the energy level you would get when we have it in person. So I was pleased we were able to return to that sort of event this quarter. And similarly, in Econ, FLC, tech teams in EMEA and Australia each hosted days for professionals. And that segment and region, in addition, we brought back in-person talent development training programs. For example, we’ve historically hosted annual milestone programs for newly hired and promoted professionals and we’ve done that live face-to-face to enhance connectivity in our firm. We were not able to do that during COVID and I was pleased we were able to bring them back in person this year. So the SG&A this quarter reflects, in particular, our commitment to increase in-person connectivity. But it also reflects some other things as well, including more travel to in-person client meetings and proposals, higher airfares and so forth but also more investment in infrastructure. We can't hire all the people we hired this quarter without recruiters to do the actual hiring. And in particular, when you have new geographies, you need those recruiting professionals to be able to speak the local language. So in many of these new geographies, we made significant investment not just in recruiters, but in finance and marketing and legal professionals we need to support those businesses. So we invested in travel, in connectivity but also in infrastructure. Those major SG&A expenses are obviously in the classic accounting expenses. But I also believe they are appropriately thought of as investments. They are critical parts, making sure we continue to attract great people. And then once we do, we support their development and we support and maintain and build upon the culture in this firm that has led to the success of this firm over the last years that has turned this firm into one that is today ever more powerfully able to deliver for each other in terms of our professional development but most directly for our clients as well. And behind those investments is a deeper conviction that we've talked about a number of times which is as much success as we have had, I believe, we are in the early innings. There are powerful market opportunities in front of every segment and every geography. And there are always new adjacencies to attack. The most critical gating factor for our growth is not the market. It is finding great people, retaining them, supporting their development, supporting the best professionals so they can become the best versions of themselves. As long as we do that and along with that support, the continued conviction of the right attitude and the right capabilities, the commitment to clients first and foremost, we will continue to be able to seize those opportunities as we find them and as they arise. And if we do, the opportunities for our people will be as bright as they have ever been but also the power for our clients will continue to grow and shine through into the marketplace. And for both of those, the results for you, our shareholders, will continue to be terrific. So with that in mind, let me turn over the stage to Ajay. Ajay?

Ajay Sabherwal, Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Steve. Good morning, everybody. In my prepared remarks, I will take you through our company-wide and segment results and discuss guidance for the full year beginning with our second quarter results. Today, we reported yet another quarter of record revenues with 6.1% year-over-year growth. Without the negative FX impact from the strengthening of the U.S. dollar, revenues grew 9.2% compared to the prior year quarter. We also continued to invest in capacity globally. Our billable headcount grew 9.4% year-over-year and total headcount grew 9.9%. As we expected, earnings per share declined year-over-year because revenue growth was more than offset by an increase in SG&A and direct compensation costs. I want to acknowledge at the outset that this year-over-year decline was larger than our expectations for three key reasons. First, in our Economic Consulting segment, we had a significant deferral in revenue as all client approvals required for revenue recognition for certain matters had not yet been received. This factor is merely timing of revenue recognition. We expect this revenue to be recognized in the third quarter. Second, we anticipated an increase in SG&A expenses because we are investing in infrastructure to support a larger business. And SG&A was depressed in prior quarters because of the global COVID-19 pandemic. However, travel and entertainment expenses were even higher than we expected, not only due to inflationary impacts on costs such as airfare and hotels but also, as Steve mentioned, because of a pent-up desire to meet in person. Third, large M&A activity is down year-over-year which impacts our Economic Consulting and Technology segments. As a reminder, last year, we benefited from large M&A-related engagements that have since concluded. There are also pockets within our Forensic and Litigation Consulting business where work involving our litigation-related services has been slower to get started than we expected. Conversely though, we had better-than-expected performance in our Corporate Finance & Restructuring segment. Over the last two quarters, we have seen sequential increases in restructuring activity without any letup in our transactions and business transformation businesses. As Steve mentioned, we are reiterating our guidance for the full year despite the lower-than-expected second quarter performance. Now turning to our second quarter results in more detail. Revenues of $755 million increased $43.5 million compared to $711.5 million in the prior year quarter. Excluding FX, revenues increased $65.5 million or 9.2% compared to the prior year quarter. GAAP EPS of $1.43 in 2Q '22 compared to $1.77 in 2Q '21. Adjusted EPS for the quarter were $1.43 which compared to $1.74 in the prior year quarter. Net income of $51.4 million compared to $62.8 million in the prior year quarter. This decrease is primarily because the 6.1% growth in revenues was not sufficient to offset the increase in SG&A and compensation expenses. SG&A expenses of $167.9 million were 22.2% of revenues. This compares to SG&A of $133.9 million or 18.8% of revenues in the second quarter of 2021. Approximately half of the year-over-year increase in SG&A expenses was due to higher travel and entertainment expenses. As Steve mentioned, this quarter, we hosted many in-person events for talent development, team building and marketing and business development purposes. Higher compensation and consulting expenses made up most of the rest of the year-over-year increase. In EMEA, in particular, we are adding employees to support a larger business in areas such as recruiting, HR, finance and legal. Second quarter 2022 adjusted EBITDA of $76.2 million or 10.1% of revenues compared to $92.3 million or 13% of revenues in the prior year quarter. Our second quarter effective tax rate of 20.6% compared to 19.3% in the prior year quarter. For the balance of 2022, we expect our effective tax rate to be between 22% and 25%. Fully diluted WASO for Q2 of 35.9 million shares increased 535,000 shares compared to 35.4 million shares in 2Q '21, primarily because of the dilutive impact of our convertible notes. Our convertible notes had a potential dilutive impact on EPS of approximately 1.2 million shares for the quarter, included in WASO as our average share price of $164.97 this past quarter was above the $101.38 conversion threshold price. Billable headcount increased by 482 professionals or 9.4% compared to the prior year quarter. Nonbillable headcount increased by 155 professionals or 12% for the same period. Now, I will share some insights at the segment level. In Corporate Finance & Restructuring, revenues of $277.1 million increased 20% compared to the prior year quarter. Excluding the estimated negative impact from FX, revenues increased 22.7%. The increase in revenues was primarily due to higher demand and realized rates across our transactions, business transformation and restructuring services as well as an increase in pass-through revenues and higher success fees compared to the prior year quarter. Adjusted segment EBITDA of $55 million or 19.8% of segment revenues compared to $40.2 million or 17.4% of segment revenues in the prior year quarter. Adjusted segment EBITDA increased due to higher revenues which was partially offset by higher compensation which includes the impact of an 8.4% increase in billable headcount and higher SG&A expenses. Business transformation and transactions represented 60% of segment revenues, while restructuring represented 40% of segment revenues this quarter. This compares to 56% for business transformation and transactions and 44% for restructuring in 2Q of '21. Year-over-year, business transformation and transactions grew 27% and restructuring revenues grew 11%. On a sequential basis, revenues increased 9.4%, primarily driven by an increase in demand for transactions and restructuring services. Sequentially, restructuring revenues grew 9%, primarily resulting from improved demand in North America. Adjusted segment EBITDA improved $1.4 million as higher revenues were partially offset by annual merit increases and higher SG&A expenses. Turning to FLC. Revenues of $164.2 million increased 9% compared to the prior year quarter. Excluding the estimated negative impact from FX, revenues increased 10.8%. The increase in revenues was primarily due to higher demand for our Health Solution services and higher realized rates for our investigation services. Adjusted segment EBITDA of $16.7 million or 10.2% of segment revenues compared to $18 million or 11.9% of segment revenues in the prior year quarter. The decrease in adjusted segment EBITDA was primarily due to higher compensation which includes the impact of a 7.9% increase in billable headcount and higher SG&A expenses. Sequentially, revenues increased 6.7%, primarily due to increased demand for Health Solutions services. Our Economic Consulting segment's revenues of $164 million decreased 10.5% compared to the prior year quarter. Excluding the estimated negative impact from FX, revenues decreased 6.6%. The decrease was primarily due to lower demand for our M&A-related antitrust services and lower realization, primarily related to revenue deferrals or non-M&A-related antitrust services which was partially offset by higher demand for such non-M&A-related antitrust services. Adjusted segment EBITDA of $21.6 million or 13.2% of segment revenues compared to $30.7 million or 16.7% of segment revenues in the prior year quarter. The decrease in adjusted segment EBITDA was due to lower revenues and higher SG&A expenses which was partially offset by lower variable compensation. Of note, as I mentioned before, our Economic Consulting segment experienced more than the typical revenue recognition deferrals in the quarter which negatively impacted the segment's performance for revenues and adjusted EBITDA. Revenue was deferred on work already undertaken as certain client approvals necessary for revenue recognition had not yet been obtained. We expect these deferrals to be reversed in the third quarter of 2022 as all conditions for revenue recognition are met. Sequentially, revenues decreased 1.2% primarily due to lower realized rates and demand for financial economic services. Excluding FX, revenues increased 1.2%. In Technology, revenues of $77.8 million decreased 1.1% compared to the prior year quarter. Excluding FX, revenues increased 1.4%. The increase in revenues was primarily due to increased demand for information governance, privacy and security and investigation services which was partially offset by lower demand for litigation and M&A-related second request services. Adjusted segment EBITDA of $8.4 million or 10.8% of segment revenues compared to $18.5 million or 23.5% of segment revenues in the prior year quarter. The decrease in adjusted segment EBITDA was due to higher compensation which includes the impact of an 18.2% increase in billable headcount and an increase in as-needed contractors as well as higher SG&A expenses. Sequentially, revenues decreased 3.4%, primarily due to decreased demand for M&A-related and litigation services. Adjusted segment EBITDA declined $5 million which was due to lower revenues, coupled with higher compensation expenses. Revenues in Strategic Communications segment of $71.9 million increased 6% compared to the prior year quarter. Excluding the estimated negative impact from FX, revenues increased 11.7%. The increase in revenues was primarily due to higher demand for our corporate reputation services compared to the prior year quarter. Adjusted segment EBITDA of $11.5 million or 16% of segment revenues compared to $13.5 million or 19.9% of segment revenues in the prior year quarter. The decrease in adjusted segment EBITDA was primarily due to higher compensation which includes the impact of a 13.7% increase in billable headcount and higher SG&A expenses. Sequentially, revenues increased 2.7%, primarily due to higher demand for financial communications services. Adjusted segment EBITDA decreased $4.2 million as the increase in revenues was more than offset by higher compensation and SG&A expenses. Now, let me discuss key cash flow and balance sheet items. We generated net cash from operating activities of $35 million which decreased $90.6 million compared to $125.6 million in the second quarter of '21. The year-over-year decrease was largely due to higher compensation, operating expenses and income tax payments, as well as a decrease in cash collections compared to the same period last year. We generated free cash flow of $22 million in the quarter. Total debt net of cash of $60.5 million on June 30 of '22 compared to $159.4 million on June 30, '21 and $60.1 million at March 31, '22. Turning to guidance. We are reaffirming our full year 2022 guidance ranges for revenues and EPS as we expect performance in the second half of the year to be stronger than the first half. We expect revenues will range between $2.920 billion and $3.045 billion. EPS is expected to range between $6.40 and $7.20. We do not currently expect EPS and adjusted EPS to differ. Before I close, I want to emphasize a few key themes. First, as mentioned earlier, we have seen an uptick in restructuring activity, particularly in North America. But as of yet, we have not seen an associated uptick in other geographies. We have the world's leading team of restructuring experts who are now better positioned than ever before to support any such increase in activity when it occurs globally. Second, our business has a diverse set of offerings across both geographies and services. In this quarter, in particular, we had terrific performance in our Health Solutions business within our FLC segment, in information governance, privacy and security in our Technology segment and our corporate reputation business in Strategic Communications and in the Middle East. Third, we are the go-to destination for leading talent in our practice areas, thereby giving us the ability to sustain growth over time. And finally, our balance sheet remains exceptionally strong and we have the ability to boost shareholder value through share buybacks, organic growth and acquisitions when we see the right ones. With that, let's open the call up for your questions.

Operator, Operator

And our first question today will come from Andrew Nicholas of William Blair.

Andrew Nicholas, Analyst

To follow up on what you mentioned earlier, Ajay, regarding the lack of restructuring activity outside of North America, what are your thoughts on the factors contributing to this situation? Do you have any visibility on when we might see improvement outside the U.S.? I'm interested in understanding the different dynamics affecting that market.

Ajay Sabherwal, Chief Financial Officer

Andrew, the U.S. is more marked. We can see it in the number of matters coming in and the number of pitches and so on and so forth. I think it's a matter of time but I can't predict that time. And we certainly have all the visibility in the world. We are the leading practice. So I just didn't want us to get ahead of ourselves.

Andrew Nicholas, Analyst

Sure. And in terms of the business and transformation and transactions pipeline, it seems like that's continued to grow quite nicely. So I'm wondering what the underlying drivers of that are? Are you seeing success primarily in the mid-market? I know you mentioned large-scale M&A starting to slow in other segments. But maybe a little bit more color on the pipeline and the market backdrop there. And then somewhat relatedly and I apologize for the lengthy question here but hoping you could kind of opine on the mix shift going forward from restructuring to BTT. How long can a quarter like this, the second quarter last where you’re seeing really good growth in both? And at some point, would you expect that to flip? Or are there enough kind of share gains going on under the hood within BTT where you think there can be a period of both of those sub-businesses growing?

Steven Gunby, President and CEO

Let me address that. It's something we actively discuss. Ajay might want to contribute or offer a different perspective. However, you've raised a valid point. At a broader level, the factors prompting restructuring and bankruptcy can negatively impact other segments of the business. As interest rates rise, we anticipate a decline in deals, which would subsequently reduce the need for merger integration and financial due diligence. Typically, you would expect these broader forces to favor one side over the other. On the flip side, we are no longer just passive observers; we now have teams successfully capturing market share in non-restructuring businesses. So, even if the market weakens, the real question is how much it declines versus our growth momentum. That's a key consideration for us. Additionally, we are not equally represented across all market segments; we lean more towards middle market or upper middle market than on the mega deals in corporate finance. In our antitrust practice, we do focus on the larger deals, while our transformation services are more aligned with private equity on mid-market or upper mid-market projects. As you've observed, the middle market remains notably robust and is projected to continue thriving this year compared to larger deals. So, your question about how various factors balance out is important. We are optimistic that this quarter isn’t just a one-time occurrence and that we can sustain growth in restructuring while maintaining some strength in transformation services. Whether we can remain unaffected by market fluctuations is uncertain. Does that help clarify the question, Andrew?

Andrew Nicholas, Analyst

Yes. No, that’s very helpful.

Operator, Operator

Our next question today will come from Tobey Sommer with Truist Securities.

Tobey Sommer, Analyst

Could you speak to the impacts that you either are seeing or anticipate associated with the Big 4 firms or at least some of them considering splitting their auditing and consulting businesses?

Steven Gunby, President and CEO

Yes. That's something we've been discussing. Currently, it has a modest impact. We've noticed an increase in inquiries from some individuals within a few of the firms, as we've been engaged in many conversations with various firms interested in lateral moves. Mollie has observed a rise in interest over the last month amid ongoing developments. However, we're uncertain about the longevity of this trend. Generally, similar deals unfold over a significant period; they are rarely resolved quickly, and sometimes they may not happen at all because these situations are complex. This situation will likely evolve over several quarters rather than days. Historically, these transitions usually come with some challenges. We have already been recognized as an attractive destination for top talent from the Big 4 globally, and we believe this will enhance that momentum. Nevertheless, there might be a slight slowdown in the short term at the senior levels as individuals wait to see potential pay changes. Typically, we see talent leaving from levels below partners, and that's where we've noticed an increase in inquiries recently. We’re keeping an eye on it. Our main focus remains on building our business. If we excel at attracting great talent and helping them succeed, we believe the word will spread, bringing in even more candidates. So, while we are monitoring the situation, our priority continues to be doing what’s right for our business and identifying any opportunities that arise. We expect to actively observe this process over the coming months. Does that answer your question, Tobey?

Tobey Sommer, Analyst

It does. I’m curious what are your thoughts around what has been sort of a sluggish rebound in FLC as a whole? You highlighted some areas of strength but I would have thought based on what I’ve heard from other players around port throughput normalizing that the business would be operating at a higher level by now?

Steven Gunby, President and CEO

Yes. I believe some areas of our business are not quite where I anticipated they would be, and we will keep an eye on that. I consider these issues to be temporary. I agree with some of your points, and I am confident that this quarter we will meet the expectations of our leadership team in that segment. However, I want to provide a bit of context. Some of the challenges we are facing stem from the investments we are making. We are investing more than ever, especially in EMEA and other areas because we have strong leadership now. That was expected. Additionally, there has been some weakness in certain businesses which we actually consider to be strong, including some historical issues in our construction business, which remains robust as usual. I believe that this is also a temporary situation. Looking at the bigger picture, I am optimistic about this business. Over the past decade, it saw no growth, but we have made significant investments in recent years with a new leadership team to turn this into a growth engine. Then we faced COVID, which added a lot of external noise. Despite that, we have demonstrated our capability to grow. For instance, we started with nothing in the cyber business, invested in it, and now it is thriving. Our data analytics business continues to grow globally and is crucial to some of our largest contracts. Health Solutions struggled during COVID but managed to nearly double the number of small and medium businesses served and almost double the headcount as well, and now that division is thriving. This shows that with the right teams and sustained investment, growth is achievable, and our leadership is dedicated to that effort. I am confident about the future of this business, though this particular quarter has not been our best. Does that answer your question, Tobey?

Tobey Sommer, Analyst

It does. From sort of a medium-term perspective, you talked about investments a decent amount, SG&A and revenue-generating folks. How do you think about incremental margin between your U.S. operations and your international operations over – I’m not asking for guidance but over some decent stretch of quarters and years?

Steven Gunby, President and CEO

Ajay may have more precise answers. I prefer not to set long-term EBITDA percentage targets because it's crucial to invest time with people and their growth potential. The way we invest influences EBITDA, and if we acquire a company, it might not initially affect EBITDA. Hiring people who have restrictions or making disruptive hires impacts EBITDA. Bringing on junior staff ahead of demand also affects EBITDA. Similarly, our SG&A decisions contribute to EBITDA. Thus, the way we invest also impacts EPS, and if there are strong investment opportunities, I want to pursue them, even if it temporarily lowers our EBITDA margins. That’s why I've avoided specifying an EBITDA percentage. Setting these targets can lead to confusion, but over time, this approach fosters significant EBITDA dollar growth without resorting to financial manipulations. It's about strengthening the business, which in turn drives EPS growth and shareholder value. I focus on creating shareholder value, but I refuse to commit to a specific EBITDA percentage target that could hinder my ability to cultivate a strong team if it leads to a temporary decline in EBITDA percentage. Does that address your question, if not fully satisfy it?

Tobey Sommer, Analyst

I was kind of – that’s a helpful perspective. But I was kind of aiming more towards incremental margin, like between your North American U.S. business and international compare and contrast. Can you talk about investing internationally but should we be able to get sort of differentiated kind of margin going forward as those businesses get scale. So I was aiming for a different angle.

Steven Gunby, President and CEO

I want to mention that there are areas in Europe where our investments currently yield negative EBITDA, but we do not expect this to continue in the future. The reason I bring this up is that some of our business in France has been focused on improving profit margins. You might decide to enter certain markets and accept losses as a strategy for aggregation. However, it's true that our current investments are resulting in EBITDA margins that are below our long-term expectations. Does this answer your question more directly?

Tobey Sommer, Analyst

It does.

Operator, Operator

And ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will conclude the question-and-answer session and we will also conclude FTI Consulting Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call.

Steven Gunby, President and CEO

Thank you for your support. Thank you.

Operator, Operator

Thank you all for attending today and you may now disconnect your lines.