FTI Consulting Stock Rallies 4.5% Following Q1 Earnings Beat

FTI Consulting, Inc. FCN reported mixed first-quarter 2025 results. Earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate, while revenues lagged the same.

Quarterly adjusted earnings per share of $2.29 beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 27.9% and increased 2.7% from the year-ago quarter’s actual. The company reported revenues of $898.3 billion, which lagged the consensus estimate by 0.3% and decreased 3.3% on a year-over-year basis.

FTI Consulting, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

FTI Consulting, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | FTI Consulting, Inc. Quote

FTI Consulting shares have risen 4.5% in response to its earnings beat, outperforming the 0.8% decline of the industry.

FCN’s Segmental Performance

Technology revenues decreased 3.5% year over year to $97.2 million. The decline was primarily due to lower demand for merger and acquisition (M&A)-related “second request” services.

Economic Consulting revenues dropped 12.1% year over year to $179.9 million due to lower demand for merger and acquisition (“M&A”)-related antitrust, financial economics and non-M&A-related antitrust services, partially offset by higher realized bill rates. 

Corporate Finance & Restructuring revenues declined 6.1% year over year to $343.6 million. The decrease in revenues was primarily due to lower demand and realized bill rates for transformation & strategy and transactions services.

Strategic Communications revenues increased 7.2% year over year to $87 million. The rise in revenues was primarily due to a $3.5 million jump in pass-through revenues and higher demand for corporate reputation services.

Forensic and Litigation Consulting revenues rose 8.3% year over year to $190.6 million. Acquisition-related revenues contributed $1.3 million in the quarter. Excluding acquisition-related revenues, higher realized bill rates for risk and investigations services, along with increased bill rates and demand for data & analytics services, primarily drove the increase in revenues.

FCN’s Margins Expand

Adjusted EBITDA came in at $115.2 million, up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. The adjusted EBITDA margin declined 80 basis points year over year to 12.8%.

FCN’s Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Figures

FTI Consulting exited the quarter with a cash and cash equivalent balance of $151.1 million compared with the prior quarter’s $660.5 million. FCN generated $465.2 million of cash from operating activities in the quarter. The capital expenditure was $17.8 million.

FCN’s Guidance

The company expects its SG&A to be approximately $15 million to $20 million higher in each of the next two quarters than in the first quarter of 2025.

For full-year 2025, FCN continues to expect the effective tax rate between 23% and 25%.

FCN currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Earnings Snapshot

Fiserv, Inc. FI reported mixed first-quarter 2025 results. Earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate, while revenues missed the mark.

FI’s adjusted earnings per share of $2.14 beat the consensus mark by 2.9% and gained 13.8% year over year. Adjusted revenues of $4.8 billion missed the consensus estimate by 1.6% but rose 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. (See the ZacksEarnings Calendar to stay ahead of market-making news.)

The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. IPG reported mixed first-quarter 2025 results. Earnings topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate, while revenues missed the mark.

IPG’s adjusted earnings of 33 cents per share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 10% but decreased 8.3% from the year-ago quarter. Revenues before billable expenses (net revenues) of $2 billion missed the consensus estimate by a slight margin and declined 20% year over year. Total revenues of $2.3 billion decreased 7.2% year over year but outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2 billion.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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