One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$84.09 our estimate vs market $16.47
Wall Street consensus: $20.00 (-76.2% lower than our fair-value estimate)
80% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
Kelly Services, Inc.
KELYA · NMS · Industrials · Staffing & Employment Services
Current price
$16.47
52-week range
$7.98 - $17.75
Market cap
$572.04M
Balance sheet
Stretched
2.19x Stretched
Net debt $104.50M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
2 Rewards
1 Risk
2 rewards · 1 risks
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 9/10 years.
- Reward Dividend yield is 1.8% with 40-year payout history.
- Risk Return on equity was -24.3% last year — the company lost money on shareholders' equity.
What this company does
Kelly Services, Inc.
Kelly Services helps businesses find the right people for jobs, like temporary workers or permanent hires, across different fields such as administrative tasks, IT, and education. Most of their money comes from staffing services, where they connect companies with employees, and this matters because it shows how much demand there is for their help in finding talent.
How the company got here
Kelly Services was founded in 1946 by William Russell Kelly in Detroit, Michigan, initially as Russell Kelly Office Service. Kelly is credited with pioneering the modern temporary staffing industry, starting with providing office support staff, famously known as "Kelly Girls." Over the decades, the company expanded its services beyond clerical roles to include industrial, technical, and professional staffing. By 1966, it had broadened its offerings significantly enough to be renamed Kelly Services, Inc., reflecting its wider scope in workforce solutions. The company continued to grow, entering international markets in the late 1960s and diversifying into specialized sectors like science, engineering, and education.
What it actually does
Kelly Services operates as a global specialty talent solutions company. It connects businesses with the right people for various roles, managing talent programs and providing workforce solutions. The company offers services that range from temporary staffing to permanent placements and outcome-based solutions, aiming to help clients build workforces that drive business results rather than just filling open positions. Kelly's expertise spans across numerous industries, including finance, IT, engineering, science, and education.
Enterprise Talent Management
This segment focuses on providing a broad range of workforce solutions, primarily in North America. It includes temporary staffing, permanent placement services, and outcome-based solutions for roles in light industrial, contact centers, and office/clerical specialties. This part of Kelly's business also encompasses Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), where Kelly manages specific business functions for clients, and other talent solutions designed to streamline hiring and workforce management.
Science, Engineering & Technology
This segment specializes in providing talent for highly skilled and technical roles. It offers temporary staffing, permanent placement, and outcome-based services for positions in science and clinical research, engineering, technology, and telecommunications. Kelly aims to connect companies with specialized professionals who possess the unique expertise required in these rapidly evolving fields, ensuring clients have access to critical talent for innovation and project success.
Education
Kelly's Education segment addresses the staffing needs of the education sector. It provides staffing, permanent placement, and executive search services specifically for pre-K-12 school districts and other educational organizations. This segment ensures that schools and educational institutions have access to qualified teachers, administrators, and support staff to maintain effective learning environments and operations.
Outsourcing & Consulting Group (OCG)
This segment, also known as KellyOCG, offers comprehensive workforce management solutions beyond traditional staffing. It includes services like Managed Service Provider (MSP) programs, where Kelly manages a client's contingent workforce, Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), where Kelly handles a client's recruitment processes, and other consulting services. This part of the business focuses on creating deeper client relationships by integrating with clients' HR strategies and managing complex talent needs.
What management is betting on now
Kelly's current strategy is centered on evolving from a broad temporary-help provider to a higher-value specialty talent solutions platform. Management is focusing on shifting the company's mix towards more specialized and outsourced offerings, which are typically less commoditized and offer better margins. Recent initiatives include strategic acquisitions, like Motion Recruitment Partners, to enhance capabilities in technology talent and recruitment process outsourcing. The goal is to build deeper client relationships and position Kelly closer to enterprise workforce strategy, driving more sustainable growth and profitability.
Price history
How the share price has moved
—
Loading price history…
Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q3
$-22.70M
FY2024 Q4
$13.00M
FY2025 Q1
$21.40M
FY2025 Q2
$93.40M
FY2025 Q3
$-27.60M
FY2025 Q4
$26.90M
FY2026 Q1
$-26.50M
FY2026 Q2
$47.70M
Revenue
$1.04B
Net income
$11.40M
Diluted EPS
0.31
Operating cash flow
$49.20M
Free cash flow
$47.70M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.04B
Net income
$-5.90M
Diluted EPS
-0.17
Operating cash flow
$-25.40M
Free cash flow
$-26.50M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.05B
Net income
$-128.80M
Diluted EPS
-3.66
Operating cash flow
$28.60M
Free cash flow
$26.90M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$935.00M
Net income
$-150.10M
Diluted EPS
-4.26
Operating cash flow
$-25.30M
Free cash flow
$-27.60M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.10B
Net income
$19.00M
Diluted EPS
0.52
Operating cash flow
$95.40M
Free cash flow
$93.40M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.16B
Net income
$5.80M
Diluted EPS
0.16
Operating cash flow
$23.90M
Free cash flow
$21.40M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.19B
Net income
$-31.80M
Diluted EPS
-0.86
Operating cash flow
$15.00M
Free cash flow
$13.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.04B
Net income
$800.00K
Diluted EPS
0.02
Operating cash flow
$-20.30M
Free cash flow
$-22.70M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $84.09 vs current price $16.47
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $20.00 (-76.2% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $84.09 a share — about 410.6% above today's price of $16.47, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Stretched
Net debt $104.5M. Interest coverage 2.2x.
Net debt
$104.50M
Interest coverage
2.19x
Kelly Services, Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 2.2 times over. and 1 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Stretched
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
KELYA
BASELINE
Kelly Services, Inc.
Total debt $128.70M Interest coverage 2.19x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $240.81M Interest coverage 6.48x +197% vs KELYA Carries about 3.0x more debt cushion than KELYA.
Total debt $1.46B Interest coverage 2.50x +15% vs KELYA Has roughly the same debt cushion as KELYA.
Total debt $24.50M Interest coverage 363.53x +16,534% vs KELYA Carries about 166.3x more debt cushion than KELYA.
Total debt $138.44M Interest coverage -27.98x -100% vs KELYA This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with KELYA.
What you should know
The case for and against KELYA
2 Rewards
1 Risk
Rewards
-
Free cash flow was positive in 9/10 years.
-
Dividend yield is 1.8% with 40-year payout history.
Risks
-
Return on equity was -24.3% last year — the company lost money on shareholders' equity.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
—
Forward P/E
9.05x
P/B
0.58x
P/S
0.14x
EV/EBITDA
9.36x
PEG ratio
0.68x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
19.7%
Operating margin
1.9%
Net margin
-6.7%
ROE
-24.3%
ROA
0.8%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.13x
Current ratio
1.50x
Quick ratio
1.44x
Total debt
$128.70M
Total cash
$24.20M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$4.06B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
-3.5%
EPS TTM
-7.79
EPS 5Y CAGR
—
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$27.10M
Free CF TTM
$114.10M
FCF margin
2.8%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
1.8%
Payout ratio
25.9%
Last ex-div date
2026-08-19