Kelly Services Inc Q3 FY2025 Earnings Call

Good morning, and welcome to Kelly Services Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded at the request of Kelly Services. I would now like to turn the meeting over to your host, Mr. Scott Thomas, Kelly's Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome to Kelly's third quarter conference call. With me today are Kelly's Chief Executive Officer, Chris Layden; and our Chief Financial Officer, Troy Anderson. Before we begin, I'll remind you that the comments made during today's call, including the Q&A session, may include forward-looking statements about our expectations for future performance. Actual results could differ materially from those suggested by our comments. We do not assume any obligation to update the statements made on this call. Please refer to our SEC filings for a description of the risk factors that could influence the company's actual future performance. In addition, we'll discuss certain data on a reported and on an adjusted basis. Discussion of items on an adjusted basis are non-GAAP financial measures designed to give insight into certain trends in our operations. For more information regarding non-GAAP measures and other required disclosures, please refer to our earnings press release, presentation and once filed Form 10-Q, all of which can be accessed through our Investor Relations website at ir.kellyservices.com. With that, I'll turn the call over to Kelly's Chief Executive Officer, Chris Layden.

Thank you, Scott, and good morning, everyone. It's great to be with all of you. Let me start by saying what a privilege it is to serve as CEO of Kelly, the sixth in our storied history and the first to be selected from outside the company. Having spent my entire career in this industry, I've known and admired Kelly for many years. Our brand is iconic, synonymous with the industry we created when we were founded by William Russell Kelly in 1946. Since then, Kelly has connected millions of people to work, improving families, communities, economies and the world. This is also a company I've competed with. Throughout my career leading commercial organizations and customer pursuits, I've experienced up close Kelly's ability to win in the market. Our diverse portfolio of businesses has significant scale in attractive specialties and differentiated global capabilities that are widely recognized as leading the industry. With our Education business, Kelly has proven the ability to drive rapid organic growth in emerging markets, having established a dominant position in K-12 staffing and tripling the revenue of the business since 2020. This is among the best examples in our industry of what's possible when a team combines clear vision, sound strategy and consistent execution. Instead, I've watched a business that has acquired scale in higher-margin, higher-growth specialties like technology and telecom, moving up the value chain as a consultative partner to employers, seeking differentiated technical solutions. At the same time, SET has continued to win and retain market share in our established life sciences and engineering specialties, where for years, Kelly has led the market as the second and fourth largest staffing provider, respectively. In ETM, Kelly brings enterprise customers unmatched global workforce capabilities and insights to our technology-enabled and AI-powered offerings delivered at scale. This includes talent solutions, business process outsourcing and staffing services, which Everest just recently recognized as leading the market. I've seen firsthand the competitive advantage that this breadth and depth of capabilities creates as employers increasingly seek partners who can meet their total talent management needs. Because of these assets, Kelly's track record of driving value for customers, including many of the largest employers in the world is as strong as any company in this space. Never have our core strengths and ability to enhance flexibility and agility in an employer's workforce been more important than they are today. As I step into this role, the operating environment is evolving, driven by a dynamic macroeconomic landscape, a sluggish labor market, global and domestic policy shifts and the AI boom. The impact of these trends on our industry is significant, and Kelly is not immune. These dynamics were more visible in our results in the third quarter. Despite continuing to capture growth in more resilient markets, our performance as a company fell short of expectations. Our team and I know that we can achieve more, having proven as much in the organic growth and margin expansion that Kelly has delivered in recent years. But to consistently win in the market and unlock Kelly's full potential, it's critical that we maximize our core strengths and address head-on opportunities to improve our strategy and execution. To better understand where these opportunities exist, I'm spending much of my time in the field meeting with and listening to our employees and customers. Through my conversations with our team, it's clear that we have a highly engaged group of workforce experts who are passionate about winning in the market and serving our clients and talent. The expertise and high level of service they provide are among our key differentiators that drive employers to choose Kelly to meet their workforce needs. In meeting with many of our top customers, I've heard how Kelly's tailored solutions and unique insights are helping our clients maintain a competitive edge in their industries. I've also had the pleasure of connecting with the investment community who have shared with me their growing interest in the value creation opportunity we have here at Kelly. During my time in the field, a few common themes have emerged. First, it's fundamentally important to customers that it will be easy to do business with Kelly. We must ensure our structure and processes are designed with customers in mind, and they must be straightforward and intuitive to navigate. Next, the scale Kelly has acquired in higher-margin, higher-growth specialties is a tremendous asset that has repositioned the company in the market. This has created inroads with employers in attractive end markets who are eager to know how our expanded capabilities can meet their evolving needs. Completing the integration of these investments is critical to our ability to realize their full value and capitalize on these growth opportunities. And finally, much work has been done by our team to reduce complexity and improve efficiency. This work continues today with the efforts underway to consolidate disparate front-, middle- and back-office systems, leveraging the leading technology stack we obtained when we acquired MRP. We must continue to assess our resources from technology platforms to our workforce mix to ensure they're optimized to drive profitable growth. These early observations are helping inform how we move forward on the next leg of Kelly's strategic journey. I'll share more in a moment about our short-term priorities and long-term focus. First, I'll turn it over to our CFO, Troy Anderson, to provide more details on our results in the quarter.

Thank you, Chris, and good morning, everybody. Before I walk through our results, as a reminder, beginning in the third quarter, the Motion Recruitment Partners acquisition we completed in the second quarter of 2024 is fully in our year-over-year comparable results. Thus, I will only speak to reported and adjusted results for the current quarter. Revenue for the third quarter of 2025 totaled $935 million, a decrease of 9.9% versus Q3 of last year. This was lower than our expectations, most notably due to lower-than-expected growth in the ETM staffing specialty, education and select other specialties. As we discussed last quarter, we had discrete impacts from reduced demand from the federal government and three of our top customers. Combined, these impacts drove approximately 8% of year-over-year revenue decline, consistent with our expectations, leaving us with an underlying decline of 2%, excluding these impacts, which is in line with industry performance. Kelly's underlying performance reflects positive trends in each business area that reinforces our confidence in our strategy. Education continued its long-running streak of quarterly growth and achieved a 90% fill rate overall in the quarter for the first time. Within SET, the telecom specialty achieved double-digit growth in the quarter after strong growth in the second quarter, while the engineering specialty has grown each quarter this year. SET's underlying performance was consistent with the second quarter and continues to outperform the market. And within ETM, staffing underlying revenue has been consistent across the quarters despite the macro variability. Outcome-based solutions, excluding contact center and Payroll Process Outsourcing, continued to grow in the quarter and have shown growth all year. Finally, our managed service provider, or MSP specialty, showed modest growth in the quarter for the first time this year, reflecting the new customer wins we have referenced in prior quarters. For Q3 revenue by service type, staffing services reflects modest growth in our education business and pressure from government, large customer and macro environment impacts in SET and ETM. Our outcome-based offerings, excluding Contact Center solutions, were down year-over-year, reflecting timing of both project demand and new business within SET and ETM. Talent Solutions was down modestly year-over-year in the quarter, reflecting a mix of performance across the individual specialties. Perm fees represented approximately 1% of revenue, which was consistent with the prior year. Drilling down into revenue by segment, Education grew 0.9% year-over-year in the quarter, driven primarily by ongoing fill rate improvement. While we believe we won our fair share of the new business opportunities for the school year, we saw a number of decision delays in light of the broader macro environment and the fill rate improvement benefit was lower year-over-year given our maturing customer portfolio, thus the relatively lower growth in the quarter. As a reminder, education volumes and revenues are reduced significantly in the third quarter due to the summer break. In the SET segment, revenue was down 9% in the quarter or 3.5% excluding the federal government impact. Our Telecom and Engineering specialties continue to be growth areas within SET, while Life Sciences and Technology saw year-over-year declines consistent with the second quarter. In the ETM segment, revenue declined 13.1% year-over-year or an underlying decline of 1.9%. Staffing services revenues declined 16.4%, driven primarily by the large customer and federal contract demand reductions, along with lower hours volume across other clients. Outcome-based revenues decreased by 17.2%, reflecting demand pressure from the large contact center customer that has fully run off as of the end of the quarter. Excluding Contact Center, ETM outcome-based solutions grew modestly. Talent Solutions revenue decreased 1.4% overall, reflecting growth in PPO, MSP new customer wins and reduced customer volumes and recruitment process outsourcing. Reported gross profit was $194 million, down 12.5% versus the prior year quarter, primarily from reduced revenue. The gross profit rate was 20.8%, a decrease of 60 basis points compared to the prior year quarter and a 30 basis point sequential increase. The sequential lift, which is typical with the seasonality of our business, was more muted than we expected given the revenue dynamics, along with elevated employee-related costs in the quarter. Education's GP rate increased 20 basis points, while SET declined 80 basis points and ETM declined 60 basis points. We made significant progress improving our SG&A expense profile in the quarter with reported SG&A expenses of $194.4 million, a decrease of $24.6 million or 11.2%. On an adjusted basis, SG&A expenses decreased 9.7% year-over-year, reflecting the momentum we are gaining on structural and volume-related cost optimization efforts. Expenses increased in our Education segment in support of the revenue growth, while expenses decreased across the rest of the company. With the increased revenue pressure, we're enhancing our efforts to drive durable and sustainable efficiencies in our operating model through technology enhancements, including leveraging AI, process efficiencies and multiple other levers. Existing initiatives like the formation of the ETM segment and integration of MRP and other acquisitions within SET are progressing well and will drive both go-to-market and cost efficiencies going forward. In connection with our various efforts, we recognized $4.7 million of charges in the quarter, down from $6.4 million in the second quarter. These included costs associated with improving technology and processes across the enterprise as well as severance expenses and executive transition costs. We expect to see these expenses increase in the fourth quarter as we make continued progress and expand upon our various optimization efforts. Related to the realignment of SET and acquisition integration, during the quarter, we assessed the current goodwill reporting units and determined it was appropriate to combine them into a single SET segment reporting unit. As a result of the assessment, along with declines in the current and projected business performance driven by macroeconomic and industry conditions, we concluded that there was a triggering event for a noncash goodwill impairment totaling $102 million in the quarter. We are excluding the impairment from our adjusted results. Additionally, with the impairment activity, we were also required to reassess the recoverability of our deferred tax assets. While we have confidence in our business over the future recoverability time period, with a three-year cumulative loss position in our near-term actual and expected financial performance, it was necessary to record a valuation allowance of $70 million, which is also noncash and excluded from our adjusted results. As a result of the goodwill impairment and tax valuation allowance, our reported loss per share was $4.26 for the quarter. On an adjusted basis, earnings per share was $0.18 compared to $0.21 in the prior year, with the decline over the prior year primarily due to lower profitability and discrete tax items. Adjusted EBITDA was $16.5 million, a decrease of 36.7% versus the prior year period, while adjusted EBITDA margin declined to 1.8%, both of which were below our expectations, reflecting the revenue and gross profit declines I previously noted. SET expanded margins by 60 basis points year-over-year despite the lower gross profit due to their expense optimization efforts. ETM saw margin pressure due to the elevated revenue and gross profit declines despite substantial progress on their SG&A. Education experienced margin compression due to the seasonality of that business. Moving to the balance sheet and cash flow. We are generating strong operating cash flow this year with $94 million through the third quarter, up significantly versus the prior year. Total available liquidity as of the end of the quarter was $269 million, comprising $30 million in cash and $239 million of available liquidity on our credit facilities, leaving us ample capital allocation flexibility. Total borrowing of $118 million increased versus the prior quarter due to our normal working capital seasonality. Our debt-to-EBITDA leverage ratio was less than one at the end of the quarter. We don't expect a material change in our net debt position over the remainder of the year from normal operations. We ended the quarter with $40 million remaining on our current Class A share repurchase authorization. We continue to believe the data demonstrates that the company is measurably undervalued by the market. With that backdrop and our capital allocation flexibility, we anticipate being active in our repurchase program during the remainder of the year. We also maintained our quarterly dividend of $0.075 per share. These actions reflect our confidence in Kelly's strategy and our commitment to opportunistically deploying capital in pursuit of attractive returns for shareholders. As we look at the fourth quarter, we are assuming no material change in the macroeconomic or industry dynamics and a positive resolution to the federal government shutdown during the quarter. For revenue, we expect a decline of 12% to 14% in the quarter, which includes 8% of negative impact associated with reduced demand from discrete large customers and for federal contractors, consistent with the third quarter impact. Excluding these items, our underlying revenue decline would be 4% to 6%. The incremental revenue decline relative to the third quarter is primarily due to the strong growth we saw in the fourth quarter of last year and includes a modest impact related to the government shutdown. For adjusted EBITDA, we expect margin of approximately 3% in the quarter. This represents a sequential increase of 120 basis points, consistent with the prior year change despite the incremental revenue pressure and a decrease of approximately 70 basis points year-over-year in the quarter, consistent with what we experienced in the third quarter. While we're not providing specific guidance beyond the fourth quarter, as we look out over the next few quarters and the anticipated residual year-over-year impacts from the reduced demand for federal contractors and from the three large customers in ETM, it's likely we'll see continued revenue and margin pressure at least through the first half of 2026. As Chris said, across Kelly, we're addressing head-on opportunities to continue to improve our execution. This includes in the finance organization, where we're well underway with implementing measures that will enhance our agility, efficiency and business impact in this evolving operating environment. I'm grateful to all of the Kelly team members for their unwavering commitment and resilience as we position the company for growth and enhanced profitability over the long term. I'll now turn the call back to Chris for his closing remarks.

Thank you, Troy. As we move forward, our immediate focus is on stabilizing Kelly's performance and actions to this end are underway. We're moving swiftly to align resources with current demand trends while continuing to drive structural efficiencies across the enterprise. As part of this effort, we made the difficult but necessary decision last month to implement strategic restructuring actions that resulted in a targeted workforce reduction. These actions address excess capacity while further streamlining our organizational structure following the consolidation of the OCG and P&I businesses into the single ETM segment. We're also continuing and, where possible, accelerating our technology modernization initiative within SET and ultimately across the enterprise. This initiative will unlock substantial growth and efficiency opportunities, making it easier for our employees to serve our customers and talent, reducing expenses associated with managing disparate and outdated systems and enabling more rapid innovation and integration of AI. While executing our near-term priorities, we're also keeping our sights set on the future. As I conclude my initial assessment of the business, our team is aligned where we must focus longer term to accelerate progress on Kelly's strategic journey. First and foremost is growth. Growth is the single most important value creation lever at this stage in Kelly's journey. To drive organic growth, we'll continue to enhance how we go to market, especially with our large enterprise customers to bring to bear the full strength of Kelly's portfolio and win more market share. We'll also continue to drive inorganic growth by pursuing targeted investments that add scale and capabilities in higher-margin specialties. We'll focus on evolving our product mix as well to address changing buyer preferences such as the shift towards statement of work solutions and to capitalize on the AI boom. Our widely recognized Global Re:work Report found nearly half of executives surveyed are struggling to find the talent with the right operational and technical skills in AI. This unmet demand represents a significant opportunity to position Kelly as the partner of choice for employers, navigating the transition to an AI-enabled workforce. Next, we'll continue to focus on efficiency. This means continuing to align resources with demand while reengineering our cost base to drive further structural efficiencies. That includes our initiatives to modernize our technology stack and integrate legacy acquisitions. And finally, culture. Culture is fundamental to how we'll achieve our ambitions and win in the market. We're committed to building on the strong culture that exists here at Kelly, doubling down on customer centricity, visibility and accountability. I look forward to sharing with you more about these areas of focus and our progress as we move forward. We're navigating a complex moment for our industry and our company. These circumstances call for decisive action to address near-term dynamics while positioning the company to realize the significant value creation opportunity before us. There is much work to be done, but I'm excited and energized to meet this moment together with our team and contribute my operational experience to accelerate our progress. Our core strengths, an iconic brand, a differentiated portfolio and an engaged team give me the confidence that we'll emerge more agile, resilient and primed for growth. I'm grateful to the Board of Directors for placing their trust in me to lead Kelly at this moment on the company's journey. I also want to extend my appreciation to Peter Quigley for his support as I stepped into this role and for his distinguished service to the company over the last 23 years. And to our team, thank you for welcoming me with openness and enthusiasm. I look forward to working alongside you to realize our collective ambitions and create long-term value for all of our stakeholders. Operator, you can now open the call to questions.

Our first question will go to Joe Gomes from NOBLE Capital.

I wanted to start out, Troy, I don't know if you can break out these discrete impacts between the federal government and the large customer impacts. I know in total, it was roughly 8%. But I don't know if you could break that down what was for the federal government, and what was for the large customers?

Yes, Joe, thanks for the question. They're roughly equal. So it's roughly 2 points each, plus/minus a little bit. But I'd say, generally speaking, they're roughly equal.

Okay. Chris, you mentioned some strategies for optimizing our share of wallet with large enterprise customers. I understand that goal, but I also noticed that three customers significantly influenced our revenue this quarter. How do you plan to ensure we increase our focus on these major customers without repeating this situation in the future?

Yes, thank you, Joe. This is Chris. That's a great question. I want to emphasize that we believe Kelly can achieve even more. We recognize the challenges we faced and acknowledge the execution gaps we need to tackle directly. I've mentioned the wide array and depth of our portfolio. We've built significant scale over the past few years on a strong foundation, achieving #1 in education, #2 in science, and #4 in engineering, while being just outside the top 10 in technology. We've also received recognition for our expertise in MSP, BPO, and Staffing Services. In my discussions with customers, including the three that were impacted and the thousands we serve globally, there’s a clear desire for them to engage more with Kelly. They want to ensure that working with us is seamless and that we are delivering all our capabilities. I've been particularly impressed by the depth of our customer relationships and the long-term collaborations we’ve established worldwide. We know we will continue partnering with them in innovative ways as we strive to be responsive and comprehensive in our service delivery. We see opportunities for improvement as we move forward, and I'm confident based on my recent interactions with customers over the last two months.

Yes, Joe, this is Troy. I would like to add that these four distinct items are unique and entirely unrelated, though they coincidentally occur around the same time. The macro environment has impacted each of them differently. Policy decisions have also influenced them in various ways, and their respective industry challenges have contributed to this as well. Therefore, it's not primarily about customer concentration; it's more about providing stickier services and maintaining our relationships. We still have significant relationships with all those customers, especially with at least one or two of them. So, I just wanted to remind everyone of this, as we didn't delve into the specifics earlier.

Appreciate that. And one more for me, if I may. Troy, you got a slide here in the deck about the revenue trends, and you kind of break out excluding discrete impacts. And if I take a quick glance at those that quarter 1, quarter 2, quarter 3, they're pretty much trending the wrong way. And just trying to get an idea, I understand the federal government shutdown. But what else needs to occur in the macro environment that you think we can start to see these revenue trends reverse and start becoming positive or as opposed to negative and/or start growing again as opposed to trending downward?

It's a reasonable question. I would describe SET as fairly consistent across the quarters, particularly showing strength in telecom with double-digit growth this quarter, following a similar trend last quarter. Engineering has been steadily growing throughout the year, while technology and life sciences have experienced a consistent decline. Although we anticipated slightly better results from SET this quarter, we are still satisfied that we observed consistent performance and some strengths in those segments, despite the broader environmental challenges. In education, there are unique dynamics at play, including some decision delays. We still expect to secure those decisions in the future, though there has been some market hesitancy due to policy changes and the overall macro environment. We are confident education will continue to grow and that we will capture our fair share, if not more, as we have been increasing our presence in that growing market. As for ETM, we are seeing underlying growth in low single digits. We believe we are competitive, as noted by industry experts, and have seen growth in MSP, indicating we are beginning to benefit from our new client acquisitions. Staffing has remained steady throughout the year even with macro headwinds, though the decline in that area was due to reduced growth in PPO and some downturn in recruitment process outsourcing. Each segment is facing different dynamics, but there are significant opportunities in all, as Chris previously mentioned. It ultimately comes down to advancing our initiatives and navigating the current softness present in the macro environment.

Our next question comes from the line of Kevin Steinke from Barrington Research Associates.

So I wanted to start out by asking about the various factors in the operating environment that you noted in your earnings release are currently impacting your results, largely the macroeconomic landscape and sluggish labor market. But on top of that, you specifically added in the AI boom. And so I'm just kind of wondering what you're seeing in terms of the impact of AI on demand for your business currently? And on the flip side, you also mentioned that could be an opportunity over the longer term as your customers look to find AI talent. So maybe if you could walk through the dynamics you're seeing with AI currently.

Yes, Kevin, thanks. This is Chris. We really see there to be an opportunity to continue to capture new AI growth opportunities. And from our standpoint, really not just in the SET business, but in ETM and in Education, we've got a unique opportunity in the market based on our capability to bring employers a flexible, more scalable solution as they're bridging into a more AI-enabled workforce. We think that's going to unlock a lot of value in a way that will combine the power of people and technology. And we have that opportunity as we move up the value chain in our SET business with a lot of the work we're doing in data modernization and other digital work, that's solutions-based business. And again, that's in growing demand. And as we indicated in our prepared remarks, more broadly across employers in our research, 50% told us that they are struggling to find the right operational and technical skills to help them navigate this transition into the AI-enabled workforce. So we see it as a real opportunity for us on the go-to-market side. Now internally, you heard Troy and I both talk about how we are going to continue to accelerate the modernization of our technology stack, the technology stack that we acquired when we acquired MRP. That continues to be a priority as we think about ways to improve both process and efficiency across our teams and bring our teams new tools. A lot of that is underway. The integration of those AI-based tools in our recruiting process and our client portals, and we're going to continue to see that add value and drive opportunities for efficiency and productivity over the next couple of quarters.

Okay. Great. So it sounds like AI offers a nice longer-term growth opportunity for you. I was just curious if in the shorter term, perhaps are some customers kind of holding off or delaying hiring decisions as they assess the impact of AI on their businesses and as they assess whether they need to add as many people in the past, given that AI will bring them greater productivity. I'm just wondering if that's having any short-term impact on demand for your services?

Well, let me start, and I'll have Troy build on it. First, I think we just need to step back in the broader context of what we've been seeing, a pretty sluggish labor market. Many of the businesses that would support some of the disruption you may have seen and the lack of job growth that we've seen really pretty consistently across every month this year is a bit embedded already in the workforce dynamics. And so we see and have been seeing that sluggish impact all year. Now outside of that, we continue to see companies invest in bridging themselves into a more AI-enabled workforce. And we believe there could actually be opportunities, not only on the solutions side of how we can help companies navigate that, but it also could be an indication at some point on the staffing part of our business that companies use flexible labor as a bridge into that as they're navigating more certainty around the demand for their products and services. And so we'll continue to be navigating those indicators that will impact both parts of our business, our staffing and our solutions.

Yes, Kevin, this is Troy. I wouldn't say there has been a change this quarter compared to last quarter or the quarter before in terms of the impact that AI may have had on our positions, the types of positions we staff, or the opportunities we pursue. However, we are noticing an increase in our ability to utilize AI to support our customers, whether through our platforms from a workforce management perspective in the ETM space or through some of the solutions we are offering in SET, not only in technology but also in telecom, engineering, and life sciences. We are beginning to compete with major consulting firms thanks to our agility and the capabilities we offer, aiming to bridge the gap highlighted by Chris regarding companies struggling to find the right skills and workers. So, there hasn't been a significant change in what we've experienced, and if anything, it is creating more opportunities for us to implement our solutions.

Okay. Great. All right. So I just wanted to get a little more insight on education. You mentioned just some delayed decision-making there due to macro factors. And I'm just kind of trying to relate the macro environment to the K-12 space and perhaps why customers have been holding off on decisions there.

Yes, this is Troy. I want to highlight that we have reached a billion-dollar business in our portfolio, primarily in the K-12 substitute teacher segment, achieving a 90% fill rate this quarter for the first time. This represents significant value for our clients, with some of our largest customers nearing a 100% fill rate. Our offerings are strong, and we're seeing new opportunities for outsourcing rather than just competing for each other's clients. When we do lose a client, it's often because they decide to bring the service in-house, having gained confidence through new technology solutions. However, this is a rare occurrence. Regarding the fill rate, we are maturing our portfolio with substantial growth over the years. As mentioned by Chris, we have tripled this business over the last five years. As our clients develop their relationships with us and operate in the 90% fill rate range, we won't see as much lift in fill rate compared to previous years, which had augmented new business wins, but we will continue to see some benefits. Additionally, there have been decision delays, particularly due to a $6 billion grant from the Department of Education being withheld for review last summer, impacting typical award timelines. This uncertainty has made some school districts hesitant to pursue outsourcing for substitute teacher delivery. However, we have established relationships and a solid value proposition, so we are confident that as the market opens up, we will capture more than our fair share of these opportunities.

Okay. Got it. That's helpful. And can you just talk a little bit more about the timeline on the integration work going on in the SET segment? Chris, I believe you said you're looking to even accelerate that a bit and just tie that to completion of the process, I think you said would be also beneficial with taking that SET offering to the market in an integrated way and driving greater growth out of that offering.

Yes, exactly. We have substantial scale and have invested around $900 million in capital, primarily in the SET business. Our customers consistently express a desire to utilize our capabilities across technology, telecom, and life sciences. We are enhancing the modernization of our tech stack. When we acquired MRP, they already had an advanced tech stack, and we are currently exploring ways to unify our various front, middle, and back offices. We have chosen the tech stack from our MRP acquisition and are in the process of transitioning the entire organization to that system, starting with the integration of our SET business. We believe this integration will facilitate our market efforts by making it easier for our internal teams to collaborate, secure new business, and expedite our go-to-market strategy. As we integrate SET and the legacy acquisitions into this tech stack, we will also include our education and ETM segments. This work is in progress and is on track.

Yes, Kevin, this is Troy. We have a significant transition planned for the end of the year as we integrate the legacy acquisitions into the MRP technology stack, followed by the rest of SET in 2026. As Chris mentioned, we will begin to roll out some enterprise capabilities, starting with the human capital management component along with the rest of SET, and then will quickly add education and ETM after 2026. These are the main near-term milestones. The go-to-market aspect of SET has been integrated, but as Chris pointed out, the management and sales teams are currently on separate systems. This situation leads to some inefficiencies and challenges in collaboration, but we expect to resolve them swiftly. We are focused on the major transition at the year’s end and continuing into 2026.

Okay. Great. Yes, that's helpful. Lastly, you mentioned the fourth quarter outlook assuming a positive resolution to the government shutdown. It seems like the impact on you has been quite modest, but what factors could come into play if the shutdown lasts longer than we anticipated?

Yes. So we can measure the direct impact, right? We know what our government business is. We were fortunate that there was a larger percentage of the positions that we have that were deemed essential. That was a pleasant surprise, if there's such a thing in the dynamic. Less than a point. It goes all the way through the quarter, maybe closer to a point of revenue impact, and we tried to capture that in the 12 to 14 expectation, give us some room there. What we can't measure is the indirect impact. So just yesterday, 10% of flights across 50 major airports being reduced, 10%. That's going to have a ripple effect. There could be other ripple effects in other industries the longer this goes on. That's a bit of a wildcard that we don't know. All we know right now is what we can directly see. I think the longer this goes on, it's not going to help anybody.

Our next question comes from the line of Marc Riddick from Sidoti.

I was wondering if we could discuss cash usage and prioritization. Perhaps we can begin by looking at our CapEx for this year and then explore how technology might influence our plans for 2026. I have a follow-up after that.

Yes, Marc. This is Troy. The capital expenditures so far this year are around $7 million, and we anticipate they will be about $10 million for the full year, give or take. Some of the spending on technology deployment involves cloud-based implementation, which doesn't appear as capital expenditures but is still capitalized. This includes third-party labor and certain software costs, which fall under the operating section of the cash flow statement. Overall, we have seen strong cash flow this year. Additionally, due to our debt reduction efforts, we have the opportunity to engage in share repurchase activity in the fourth quarter, considering the current share price and the stock's undervaluation. As mentioned in my prepared remarks, there has been no significant change in our net debt position from the third quarter, which is about $90 million, with $118 million in debt and $30 million in cash. There is the possibility of a small acquisition before the year's end, but otherwise, that's what we expect.

Okay. You mentioned acquisitions, so I’m curious about the current pipeline and valuation. Are there more opportunities now compared to six months ago? It seems there's been an increase in activity. What is your current appetite for this? Additionally, are you focusing on larger acquisitions, or are you taking a more cautious approach at this time?

Yes, it's a fair question. We are active. We have an active corporate development team. They're constantly evaluating the pipeline. We've been expanding our network of sources for opportunities. We have seen certain assets that are fairly richly valued and that we've passed on or we've thrown in maybe an inquiry but quickly decided that was going in a direction we didn't want to go. We continue to be active, looking primarily across the SET and Education areas for type of opportunities, therapy add-ons, and some other add-ons that we can do in the SET verticals, be it technology, engineering or life sciences. As we sit here today, unlikely that there's a large acquisition in the near term, but we never say never. We're certainly going to continue looking at building upon the scale that we've achieved. We're going to continue looking at adding capabilities. We believe we have a great foundation to be building upon both organic growth and inorganic growth. We've got strong cash flow, and we expect to continue to be able to deploy capital opportunistically across various options, as I mentioned earlier.

Our next question comes from the line of Jessica Luce from Northcoast Research.

First of all, I don't know if it was already touched on, but I have a brief question and then a follow-up. First, in terms of the current macro environment having an impact on the quarter, just to go a bit deeper, how would you characterize the sales cycle for the business overall?

The sales cycle is still really robust. We're continuing in some of the work I shared in my prepared remarks, our focus on growth is at the core of what we're doing right now, making sure that we are in front of our customers, helping them understand all of the ways that we can add value. We're going to continue to make sure that all of Kelly is coming to our largest enterprise customers. We've also seen in our SET business a really strong retail pickup this year, which has been driving some of the stability in the SET business and some of the growth in engineering and in telecom. Finally, in the education space, as Troy indicated earlier, we're #1 in the market on the heels of a 90% fill rate in the quarter. It is maybe as exciting of a time as any to go and sell with that track record of success. We are everywhere in the market, talking to districts, they're in-sourcing their model and helping them understand how we could add value as their partner. We're going to continue to have that be a priority as we drive growth into the future.

All right. And then just as a brief follow-up again, if it was touched on or not. In terms of the pricing environment for the three segments, do you see any specific pressures within any of the segments?

I'll maybe start, and Troy, you feel free to weigh in. We're going to continue, I would say, overall, just to kind of set the stage to be disciplined in how we're going to approach new opportunities in the market. We're not going to go by business. We continue to see rationality in terms of where we play. We've got a huge opportunity to continue to move up the value chain in the statement of work solutions-based business, particularly in SET, and that continues to be a priority. We'll continue to monitor that over the next couple of quarters. I don't know, Troy, if there's anything else you want to add?

Yes. Looking at the three segments, Education and SET appear to be stable, with improvements in their margins as we enhance our offerings for both existing and potential clients. In ETM, the situation is somewhat mixed as we engage with large enterprises during their renewal process, which may involve some cost concessions. Overall, there seems to be more positive momentum in ETM compared to the other two segments, although it hasn't fully materialized in our financials. Our gross profit was not as strong as anticipated, declining by 60 basis points year-over-year, largely due to the business mix and higher service costs this quarter, rather than any pricing pressures.

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn it back to Chris Layden for closing remarks.

Thank you all for joining today. That concludes, we'll see you next quarter.

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program, and you may now disconnect.