Hays (LON:HAS) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

Hays (LON:HAS) posted its earnings results on Friday. The company reported GBX 0.46 EPS for the quarter, Digital Look Earnings reports. Hays had a negative net margin of 0.07% and a negative return on equity of 0.84%.

Here are the key takeaways from Hays’ conference call:

• Dirk Hahn has stepped down as CEO and Mark Dearnley is interim, creating near-term leadership transition risk while the board conducts a CEO search.
• Group net fees fell 9% to £453m and pre-exceptional operating profit dropped 25% to £20.1m (perm down 14%), showing profitability remains below management’s targets.
• Management cut operating costs ~8% (~£40m), improved consultant productivity by 7% (UK +15%, ANZ +7%) and has delivered ~£80m per annum of cost savings over 2.5 years, limiting the profit hit from lower fees.
• Strong cash generation with cash from operations of £43.7m, net cash of £40m, free cash flow £16.9m, a completed pension buy-in removing prior deficit funding, and reduced FY26 CapEx guidance to £30m.
• Progress on the proprietary Hays Digitise platform and AI agents (e.g., “Smarter Meetings”) is reducing admin, improving structured data and consultant effectiveness, which management expects to drive further structural savings and scalable revenue benefits.

Hays Stock Down 9.6%

HAS stock traded down GBX 4.30 on Friday, reaching GBX 40.56. 14,450,462 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,062,295. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of GBX 49.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of GBX 54.98. The company has a market cap of £648.44 million, a P/E ratio of -82.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.24 and a beta of 1.13. Hays has a one year low of GBX 39.62 and a one year high of GBX 89.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 43.81, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 1.31.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on Hays from GBX 100 to GBX 90 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Hays has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of GBX 81.20.

About Hays