CRA International Reports Third Quarter Fiscal 2007 Financial Results.Domestic and International Demand Drives 16% Revenue Growth; Net Income Flat on Office Openings and Increased Costs BOSTON -- CRA See Community Reinvestment Act. International, Inc. (Nasdaq: CRAI CRAI Centre De Recherche En Architecture Et Ingénierie (French) CRAI Continuous Regional Arterial Infusion CRAI Consorzio per la Ricerca e le Ipplicazioni di Informatica (Italy) ), a worldwide leader in providing economic, financial, and management consulting Noun 1. management consulting - a service industry that provides advice to those in charge of running a business service industry - an industry that provides services rather than tangible objects services, today reported financial results for its fiscal third quarter, the sixteen weeks ended August 31, 2007. Revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2007 increased 16.2 percent to $124.3 million from $107.0 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2006. Net income for the third quarter of fiscal 2007 was $8.6 million, or $0.72 per diluted share, compared with net income of $8.7 million, or $0.71 per diluted share, in the comparable period of fiscal 2006. Weighted average diluted shares outstanding used to calculate earnings per share in the third quarter of fiscal 2007 were 12.0 million versus 12.3 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2006. Revenue for the first three quarters of fiscal 2007 was $295.9 million, a 12.3 percent increase from $263.6 million in the same period a year earlier. Net income for the first three quarters of fiscal 2007 was $22.3 million, a 5.7 percent increase from $21.1 million in the first three quarters of fiscal 2006. Earnings per diluted share were $1.81 in the first three quarters of fiscal 2007, compared with $1.73 in the first three quarters of fiscal 2006. Weighted average diluted shares outstanding used to calculate earnings per share in the first three quarters of fiscal 2007 were 12.3 million, versus 12.2 million in the first three quarters of fiscal 2006. Comments on the Third Quarter "We are pleased that third-quarter revenue increased more than 16 percent led by significant contributions in several of our U.S.-led practice areas including Competition, Transfer Pricing Transfer pricing refers to the pricing of goods and services within a multi-divisional organization, particularly in regard to cross-border transactions. For example, goods from the production division may be sold to the marketing division, or goods from a parent company may be , and Finance," said James C. Burrows Burrows is a provincial electoral division in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It was created by redistribution in 1957, and formally came into existence in the provincial election of 1958. The riding is located in the northern part of Winnipeg. , CRA's president and chief executive officer. "The growth was almost entirely organic. In particular, we were pleased to see our overall Finance platform rebound from a challenging second quarter. Within our business consulting group, our Energy & Environment and Chemicals & Petroleum practices were our top performers during the quarter, contributing to CRA's continued strong international growth." "Overall hiring in the quarter was successful, as we attracted a number of industry experts in their respective fields," Burrows said. "In conjunction with some of these hirings, we made the strategic decision to focus on internally generated growth and to invest in additional offices beyond our original plan for 2007. During the quarter, CRA opened an office in Hamburg Hamburg, city, Germany Hamburg (häm`b rkh), officially Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg (Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg), city (1994 pop. , Germany and two new domestic
offices in Tallahassee and Austin. Based on the demand for our services,
we determined that these offices, which raise our operating costs operating costs npl → gastos mpl operacionales in the
near-term, were necessary investments in our long-term growth through
expanded service offerings in our Labor and Employment, Financial
Markets, and Chemicals & Petroleum practices, respectively. Our
occupancy costs Occupancy costs are the whole life costs of buildings and their associated land from occupancy until disposal. These costs may be incurred on a regular or irregular basis. Occupancy costs are those costs related to occupying a space including; rent, real estate taxes, personal increased approximately $1.8 million during the quarter
as compared to the third quarter of 2006, reflecting our new offices,
the relocation of our London facilities, which we moved into during the
quarter, and an expansion of our New York New York, state, United StatesNew York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of office." "In addition to the expenses related to these office openings and other infrastructure investments, our bottom-line was hindered by the combination of several factors," said Burrows. "First, we incurred a $245,000 charge related to a software write-off. Second, we recorded a foreign exchange rate loss of approximately $225,000 in the quarter. And lastly, our indirect travel expenses, which essentially represent a marketing investment, increased by nearly $1 million as compared to the third quarter of 2006. As a result of these higher costs, earnings were flat compared to the same period of 2006." "A 1.9 percentage point increase in client reimbursable expenses as a percent of revenue from the third quarter of 2006 lowered our gross margin and operating income Operating Income The profit realized from a business' own operations. Notes: This would not include income from things such as investments in other firms. Also referred to as operating profit or recurring profit. percentages in the third quarter of 2007," Burrows said. "Client reimbursable expenses carry little to no mark-up for the Company." "Our utilization rate in the third quarter of 2007 showed a modest improvement over the sequential second quarter increasing to 76 percent despite the summer holiday season," Burrows said. "We remain on track towards our annual goal of achieving fiscal 2007 utilization of 76 to 78 percent. We expect to be at the low end of the range based on year-to-date utilization of 76 percent." During the quarter, the Company bought back approximately 915,000 shares under its previously announced stock repurchase Stock repurchase A firm's repurchase of outstanding shares of its common stock. program. Outlook and Financial Guidance "For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007, we expect continued strong demand for our services across our three business platforms and a return to more normalized margins," said Burrows. "Based on this outlook and current market conditions, we continue to anticipate revenue growth in the range of 10 to 12 percent for the year. We expect to achieve the high end of this range. Our previous guidance reflected annual net income growth in the mid to high teens percent range, and an EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) A PostScript file format used to transfer a graphic image between applications and platforms. EPS files contain PostScript code as well as an optional preview image in TIFF, WMF, PICT or EPSI, the latter being an ASCII-only format. growth rate in the range of 12 to 18 percent over fiscal 2006. We expect to be at the low end of the range for net income growth and the middle part of the range for EPS growth." The Company's fiscal 2007 EPS growth estimate assumes an average diluted share count of 12.1 million shares for the year (assuming no further stock repurchases in 2007) and a stock price of $48.66, which was derived from the average of the past 10 trading days In Business, the trading day is the time span that a particular stock exchange is open. For example, the New York Stock Exchange is, as of 2006, open from 09:30AM to 4:00PM. Trading days never take place on weekends. . Deviations from this stock price will cause EPS to vary based on share dilution from CRA's stock options and convertible bonds. Conference Call/Webcast Information CRA International will host a conference call this morning at 9:00 a.m. ET to discuss its third-quarter fiscal 2007 financial results. To listen to a live webcast of the conference call, please visit the Investor Relations Investor relations The process by which the corporation communicates with its investors. section of CRA's website, www.crai.com. CRA's third-quarter fiscal 2007 conference call also can be heard live by dialing (913) 981-5591 or (877) 502-9276 prior to the start of the call. A replay of the call also will be available on the Company's website. About CRA International Founded in 1965, CRA International is a leading provider of economic and financial expertise and management consulting services. Working with businesses, law firms This list of the world's largest law firms by revenue is taken from The Lawyer and The American Lawyer and is ordered by 2006 revenue:[1]
consulting company business firm, firm, house - the members of a business organization that owns or operates one or more establishments; "he worked for a for complex assignments with pivotal and high-stakes outcomes. The firm is distinguished by a unique combination of credentials: deep vertical experience in a variety of industries; broad horizontal expertise in a range of functional disciplines; and rigorous economic, financial, and market analysis. CRA offers a proven track record of thousands of successful engagements in regulatory and litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. support, business strategy and planning, market and demand forecasting, policy analysis, and engineering and technology management. Headquartered in Boston, the firm has sixteen offices within the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. and ten offices in Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia Pacific region. Detailed information about CRA is available at www.crai.com. Statements in this press release concerning the future business, operating results, and financial condition of the Company and statements using the terms "anticipates," "believes," "expects," "should," or similar expressions, are "forward-looking" statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA) implemented several significant substantive changes affecting certain cases brought under the federal securities laws, including changes related to pleading, discovery, liability, class representation and awards fees and of 1995. These statements are based upon management's current expectations and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties. Information contained in these forward-looking statements forward-looking statement A projected financial statement based on management expectations. A forward-looking statement involves risks with regard to the accuracy of assumptions underlying the projections. is inherently uncertain and actual performance and results may differ materially due to many important factors. Such factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements made by the Company include, among others, changes in the Company's effective tax rate, share dilution from the Company's convertible debt offering and stock options, the impact of Financial Accounting Standards Board Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Board composed of independent members who create and interpret Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Statement No. 123R and total stock-based compensation, dependence on key personnel, attracting and retaining qualified consultants, dependence on outside experts, utilization rates, factors related to its recent acquisitions, including integration of personnel, clients, offices, and unanticipated expenses and liabilities, risks associated with acquisitions it may make in the future, risks inherent in international operations Internal Operations (I.O., IO or I/O) is a fictional American Intelligence Agency in Wildstorm comics. It was originally called International Operations. I.O. first appeared in WildC.A.T.S. volume 1 #1 (August, 1992) and was created by Brandon Choi and Jim Lee. , the performance of NeuCo, changes in accounting standards, rules and regulations, changes in the law that affect our practice areas, management of new offices, the potential loss of clients, dependence on growth of the Company's business consulting practice, the unpredictable nature of litigation-related projects, the ability of the Company to integrate successfully new consultants into its practice, intense competition, risks inherent in litigation, and professional liability. Further information on these and other potential factors that could affect the Company's financial results is included in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company cannot guarantee any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievement. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of its forward-looking statements after the date of this press release. CRA's consolidated statements of income and consolidated balance sheets consolidated balance sheet A balance sheet in which assets and liabilities of a parent company and its controlled subsidiaries are combined, thereby presenting balance sheet items for the parent and its subsidiaries as if they were a single firm. are attached. [TABLE OMITTED] [TABLE OMITTED] |
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