Kforce (KFRC) Earnings: Will They Disappoint This Season?

Staffing company Kforce Inc. (NASDAQ:KFRC) is scheduled to report first-quarter 2016 results after the market closes on May 3.

In the last reported quarter, Kforce posted a negative earnings surprise of -2.27%. Kforce, however, has a pretty good earnings track record over the past few quarters, with the company beating earnings estimates in three of the trailing four quarters. The average earnings surprise over the last four quarters is + 7.03%.

Let’s see how things are shaping up for this announcement.

Factors to Consider

Kforce provides professional and technical specialty staffing services and solutions globally. The company is in a restructuring mode as it continues to divest non-core operations and invests the proceeds in higher-growth markets.

Kforce has been witnessing strong growth across its businesses. Highly skilled specialty staffing demand is likely to boost the company’s revenues. The company expects to leverage its strong customer relationships to further penetrate and capture more of those customers and expand in the growing markets. The company’s cash flow generation continues to be strong and aims to return capital to its shareholders in the form of dividends and stock repurchases.

However, the business of the company is subject to government regulations and licensing and the failure to obtain all necessary licenses or approvals could adversely affect Kforce’s financial results. In addition, softness in the labor market, slowing GDP growth and increased competitive pressure are causes of concern for the company.

For the first quarter, the company expects revenues to be in the range of $323 million to $328 million with earnings in the range of 24 cents and 27 cents per share.

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not conclusively show that Kforce will beat earnings estimates this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), #2 (Buy) or #3 (Hold) for this to happen. This is not the case here as you will see below.

Zacks ESP: Earnings ESP, which represents the difference between the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate, is -4.00%.

Zacks Rank: Though Kforce’s Zacks Rank #3 increases the predictive power of the ESP, a surprise prediction becomes difficult when it is combined with a -4.00% ESP. We caution against stocks with Zacks Ranks #4 and #5 (Sell-rated stocks) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Stocks That Warrant a Look

Here are some companies you may want to consider as our model shows they have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat shortly.

Baytex Energy Corp. (TO:BTE) has an Earnings ESP of +29.41% and carries a Zacks Rank #3.

Cobalt International Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CIE) has an Earnings ESP of +9.09% and holds a Zacks Rank #3.

Garrison Capital Inc. (NASDAQ:GARS) has an Earnings ESP of +6.25% and holds a Zacks Rank #3.