Korn Ferry released fiscal first-quarter earnings this morning
Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY) is a global organizational consulting firm. KFY designs organization structures, roles, and responsibilities for clients by helping to hire people and advising on how to reward and motivate a workforce. Korn Ferry has 7,000 experts in more than 50 countries working on five core areas: Organization Strategy, Assessment and Succession, Talent Acquisition, Leadership & Professional Development, and Total Rewards. This afternoon, KFY was last seen up 2.2% at $74.58.
Korn Ferry released financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2022 today before the opening bell. KFY also issued a press release before the market opened today, which was followed by a live webcast hosted by Korn Ferry's Chief Executive Officer, Gary Burnison, and Chief Financial Officer, Robert Rozek. Earnings per share for the first quarter of fiscal 2022 were reported at $1.37. This represents an all-time high EPS for KFY and an earnings beat with a margin of $0.30. This is the fourth-straight outperformance of earnings expectations for Korn Ferry stock.
In recent earnings history, Korn Ferry has beat analyst earnings expectations on three of its last four quarterly earnings reports. For Q1 of fiscal 2021, KFY missed estimates by a margin of $0.27, reporting an EPS of -$0.19. For Q2 of fiscal 2021, the consulting company's EPS increased to $0.54, beating expectations by a margin of $0.49. for Q3 of fiscal 2021, Korn Ferry posted another increase in earnings, rising to $0.95 per share and beating estimates by a margin of $0.45. For Q4 of fiscal 2021, KFY reported an EPS of $1.21 and beat expectations by a margin of $0.23.
Korn Ferry stock has increased by about 143% in price year-over-year and 167% since bottoming out for a 52-week low of $27.93 around this time last year. Additionally, shares of KFY have grown 69% year-to-date and just this afternoon touched a fresh record high of $76.50. Moreover, Korn Ferry stock offers a forward dividend of $0.48 and a dividend yield of 0.66%.
From a fundamental perspective, Korn Ferry stock has a very high valuation. KFY currently trades at a price-earnings ratio of 34.32, which is an inflated value given its relatively slow growth rate.
The most promising feature for Korn Ferry stock at the moment can be found in the company's balance sheet, which holds $905 million in cash and $601 million in total debt. In general, Korn Ferry stock performance has heavily outpaced the company’s performance in the past year, giving investors a potential opportunity to sell at a premium.