Back to top

Image: Bigstock

The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights Cross Country Healthcare, Kforce, RCM Technologies and KornFerry International

Read MoreHide Full Article

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – June 10, 2022 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Cross Country Healthcare, Inc. (CCRN - Free Report) , Kforce Inc. (KFRC - Free Report) , RCM Technologies, Inc. (RCMT - Free Report) and KornFerry International (KFY - Free Report) .

Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

4 Staffing Stocks to Watch on Solid Additions to the Economy

Rising costs and surging inflation have been concerns for months now, compelling the Fed to aggressively tighten its monetary policy. However, wages and jobs are also. A record number of job additions in May proves the underlying strength of the U.S. economy.

More jobs and higher wages mean more disposable cash. With thousands of vacancies still left, jobs additions to the U.S. economy are likely to continue in the coming months too. Given this scenario, staffing firms like Cross Country Healthcare, Inc., Kforce Inc., RCM Technologies, Inc. and KornFerry International are likely to benefit in the near term.

Job Additions Continue to Surge

The Labor Department said on Jun 3 that the U.S. economy added 390,000 new jobs in May, following the revised 436,000 job gains in April. May's figures also beat analysts' expectations of an increase of 318,000.

The unemployment rate remained steady at 3.6% for the third straight month, while the workforce participation level inched higher. The report suggests that employers are finally being successful in recruiting people after months of unfilled vacancies that barred businesses and organizations from performing at the optimum level.

Also, average hourly earnings grew 0.3% despite soaring inflation. On a year-over-year basis, wages continued to grow at the rate of 5.2% in May. Although hourly earnings have somewhat slowed down from the highs of 2021, they are still increasing at a steady pace, which is an indication that the economy is recovering at a faster pace than expected.

The job market had somewhat slowed last year despite a record number of vacancies as a surge in cases of the Delta and Omicron variants of coronavirus kept many out of work. Things are finally changing, and more jobs are being generated as the economy reopens.

Furthermore, the government's economic stimulus to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, which provided people with more purchasing power at the time, has expired, and many people are preparing to return to work. 

Steady Economic Recovery 

Despite inflationary pressures, May's job growth demonstrates that the economy is recovering at a rapid pace. Job growth was widespread, according to the report. The leisure and hospitality sector that took a massive hit during the pandemic is finally recovering and that is evident from the job additions.

In May, the leisure and hospitality industry added 84,000 jobs, the majority of which were in the hotel and food service industries. Also, there were steady job additions in business services, education and healthcare.

Employment in business and professional services jumped an impressive 75,000, while 74,000 jobs were added in the healthcare and education sectors each. Payrolls increased by 36,000 in the construction sector, the highest in three months.

However, the rate of job additions has gathered steam only lately. Employment was at an all-time high prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. Millions of jobs were lost or furloughed during the pandemic. Despite the fact that the unemployment rate is declining, labor shortages continue.

That said, what is more assuring is that the labor force participation rate, which measures how many people are employed or searching for employment, jumped to 62.3%.

Our Choices

The situation makes for an ideal opportunity to invest in staffing stocks.

Cross Country Healthcare, Inc. is a national leader in providing innovative healthcare workforce solutions and staffing services. CCRN's diverse client base includes both clinical and nonclinical settings, servicing acute care hospitals, physician practice groups, outpatient and ambulatory-care centers, nursing facilities, both public schools and charter schools, rehabilitation and sports medicine clinics, government facilities, and homecare. Cross Country Healthcare is able to place clinicians on travel and per diem assignments, local short-term contracts and permanent positions.

Cross Country Healthcare's expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 35.3%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 66.3% over the past 60 days. CCRN has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Kforce Inc. and its subsidiaries provide professional staffing services and solutions to clients on both a temporary and permanent basis through its Technology and Finance, and Accounting segments. KFRC's Tech Segment provides both Flex and Direct Hire services to clients, focusing primarily on areas of information technology such as systems/applications architecture and development, data management, business and artificial intelligence, machine learning and network architecture and security.

Kforce Inc.'s FA segment provides both Flex and Direct Hire services to clients in areas such as accounting, transactional finance, financial analysis and reporting, taxation, budgeting, loan servicing, professional administration, audit services and systems, and controls analysis and documentation.

Kforce's expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 24%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 3.8% over the past 60 days. KFRC has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

RCM Technologies, Inc. is a national provider of Business, Technology and resource solutions in information technology and professional engineering to customers in corporate and government sectors. RCMT has grown its information technology competencies in the areas of resource augmentation, e-business, Enterprise Resource Planning support, network and infrastructure support and knowledge management.

RCM Technologies' expected earnings growth rate for the current year is more than 100%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved more than 100% over the past 60 days. RCMT has a Zacks Rank #2.

KornFerry International is the world's leading and largest executive recruitment firm with the broadest global presence in the executive recruitment industry. KFY provides executive recruitment services exclusively on a retained basis and serves the global recruitment needs of our clients from middle to executive management. KornFerry International clients are many of the world's largest and most prestigious public and private companies, middle-market and emerging growth companies as well as governmental and not-for-profit organizations.

KornFerry International's expected earnings growth rate for the current year is more than 100%. Shares of KornFerry have gained 0.5% in the past three months. KFY has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Why Haven't You Looked at Zacks' Top Stocks?

Our 5 best-performing strategies have blown away the S&P's impressive +28.8% gain in 2021. Amazingly, they soared +40.3%, +48.2%, +67.6%, +94.4%, and +95.3%. Today you can access their live picks without cost or obligation.

See Stocks Free >>

Media Contact

Zacks Investment Research

800-767-3771 ext. 9339

support@zacks.com                                      

https://www.zacks.com                                                 

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

Published in