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NASDAQ NMS - GLOBAL MARKET · Professional Services · CIK 0000055135
$16.39
+3.60% · delayed ~15 min
Last price from Oct 21, 2026
$575.3M market value
From KELLY SERVICES INC's FY2025 10-K, filed Feb 12, 2026 · read the filing
KELLY SERVICES provides business and staffing services. It took in $4.25B last year, which makes it a mid-sized company. It spends more than it earns — losing about 6 cents on every dollar of sales.
The financial picture is led by accounting, while profitability, growth and debt remain weak.
A conclusion from the filings, not a recommendation. Detailed figures and supporting evidence appear in their dedicated sections below.
Financial health
Several areas of financial weakness.
From KELLY SERVICES INC's FY2025 annual filing · share price scored separately
Largest year-over-year changes in FY2025
Operating income
-$15.1M → -$69.8M
Profit
-$600.0K → -$254.1M
Free cash flow
$15.8M → $114.1M
Earnings per share
-$0.02 → -$7.24
Measured against FY2024, from the 10-K filed Feb 12, 2026
Deteriorated: $54.7M wider
-$15.1M to -$69.8MCritical
Why it matters: Profit from running the business, before interest and tax. Less exposed than profit to one-off financing and tax items, so a clearer read on the business itself.
Deteriorated: $253.5M wider
-$600.0K to -$254.1MCritical
Why it matters: Profit swings far more than sales do, and one-off items — a legal settlement, a tax charge, an asset sale — move it without the underlying business changing.
How the latest move compares (quote delayed ~15 min), and what was published around it
KELYA rose 3.60% on the latest quote. The average Industrials company tracked here moved +0.37%, and the S&P 500 −1.04%. That is 3.2 points above its sector and 4.6 points above the market.
Expectations
Not from the filings — what other people are betting on, and what the price already assumes.
The growth rate someone buying today is paying for, against what the company has delivered
At today's price, the market is paying for free cash flow to shrink by about 12% a year for the next 10 years. Over the last 12 years it grew by about 2% a year.
The essentials
Each answered from the filings, with the numbers behind it.
No. It lost $254.1M last year, losing about 6 cents on every dollar of sales.
No. Sales shrank 1.9% last year.
No. Its borrowings would take under a year of cash flow to clear. For every $1 it owes, it owns $1.77 in assets. Its operating profit does not cover its interest bill — -5.63x against the interest it owes.
Core operating and valuation reference metrics
Whether the dividend is covered by what the business actually earns
It paid a dividend while making a loss, so the payment did not come out of profits — it came from reserves, borrowing or asset sales. It paid out 9% of the cash its operations generated. It has paid in each of the last 12 years.
WeakNext payment expected around , projected from how regularly it has paid before rather than from a date the company has announced.
Figures from the FY2025 annual filing
Last year it lost $254.1M and generated $122.6M of cash from operations.
Reported annual figures
As reported to the SEC, in USD. Hover or show sources to see where each figure came from.
| Income statement | FY202510-K · Feb 12, 2026Filing for FY2025 | FY202410-K · Feb 12, 2026Filing for FY2024 | FY202310-K · Feb 12, 2026Filing for FY2023 | FY202210-K · Feb 17, 2022Filing for FY2022 | FY202110-K · Feb 18, 2021Filing for FY2021 | ChangeFY2025 vs FY2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RevenueWhat is this? | $4.25B | $4.33B | $4.84B | $4.91B | $4.52B | −1.9% |
| Cost of revenue | $3.40B | $3.45B | $3.87B | $3.99B | $3.69B | −1.5% |
| Gross profit | $853.0M | $882.6M | $961.4M | $919.2M | $827.6M | −3.4% |
| Gross marginGross profit ÷ revenueWhat is this? | 20.1% | 20.4% | 19.9% | 18.7% | 18.3% | −0.3 pts |
| Selling, general and administrative | $825.9M | $818.4M | $934.7M | $870.6M | $805.6M | +0.9% |
| Operating income | -$69.8M | -$15.1M | $24.3M | $48.6M | -$93.6M | −362.3% |
| Operating marginOperating income ÷ revenueWhat is this? | -1.6% | -0.3% | 0.5% | 1.0% | -2.1% | −1.3 pts |
| Interest expense | $12.4M | $10.9M | $3.2M | $2.5M | $3.0M | +13.8% |
| Income before tax | -$78.8M | -$21.9M | $24.9M | $185.8M | -$106.8M | −259.8% |
| Net income | -$254.1M | -$600.0K | $36.4M | $156.1M | -$72.0M | −42250.0% |
| Net marginNet income ÷ revenueWhat is this? | -6.0% | -0.0% | 0.8% | 3.2% | -1.6% | −6.0 pts |
| Earnings per shareNet income ÷ shares outstanding at the period end — close to, but not the same as, the reported EPSWhat is this? | $-7.24 | $-0.0169 | $1.01 | $3.96 | $-1.83 | −42732.6% |
† calculated from other reported figures, such as total liabilities as assets minus equity.
Insider activity, ownership stakes and what's coming — straight from EDGAR, before any article is written about it
Officers, directors and major shareholders must report within two business days of a trade.
Had shares withheld to cover taxes — 27,716 shares at $15.57 ($431.5K)
Holds 201,770 shares after this filing.
Had shares withheld to cover taxes — 3,047 shares at $15.57 ($47.4K)
Holds 73,238 shares after this filing.
20 recent filings, newest first. Each is labelled from its form and item numbers, not from its wording.
Quarterly report for Q2 FY2026
Revenue -5.8% · Profit -40.0% · Operating income -27.5% — against Q2 FY2025
Read the filingPublished results
Read the filingWrite down why you are following KELLY SERVICES INC, what has to go right and what would change your mind, then see each new annual report measured against it. Sign in to start one.
Go deeper
Every figure above traces back to a filing in the timeline, each linked to the document itself.
Coverage from the last 30 days
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Kelly Services: Doesn't Look Like An Attractive Opportunity In The Long Term
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KellyOCG® Ranks No. 1 in Healthcare and No. 2 Overall on HRO Today's 2026 RPO Baker's Dozen
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Kelly Services Reports Q2 2026 Results: Full Earnings Call Transcript
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Resources Connection (RGP) Reports Q1 Loss, Misses Revenue Estimates
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Every company's figures are checked for internal consistency: the balance sheet adding up, figures sharing one currency, cash flow and share counts within plausible ranges, and how recent the latest annual report is. Nothing here changes a figure.
Financial figures are from KELYA's 10-K for fiscal year 2025 (period ending 2025-12-28, filed Feb 12, 2026), reported under the US GAAP taxonomy. View the source filing. Total liabilities were not tagged directly and were calculated as assets minus equity.
4 of 4 scored areas had enough reported figures to judge
The score averages profitability, growth, debt and accounting. All four had enough reported figures. Cash generation is shown for context and already feeds profitability. Valuation is scored separately, because a share price says nothing about whether the business is sound. 9 of the 9 Piotroski checks could be evaluated. How the score works
Each year scored only from its annual report as it was first filed
| Fiscal year | Health | F-Score | Scored from |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | 4.0 | 5/9 | 10-K, filed Feb 12, 2026 |
| FY2024 | 4.0 | 5/9 | 10-K, filed Feb 13, 2025 |
| FY2023 | 6.0 | 7/8 | 10-K, filed Feb 20, 2024 |
| FY2022 | 7.3 | 5/8 | 10-K, filed Feb 17, 2022 |
| FY2021 | 2.0 | 2/3 | 10-K, filed Feb 18, 2021 |
| FY2019 | 6.0 | 6/8 | 10-K, filed Feb 13, 2020 |
A later restatement never reaches back into an earlier year, and every year is scored without a share price, so the latest point can differ a little from the headline score, which uses today's price.
Every check behind the three models, and what each one tests
5 of 9 checks passed
Nine yes-or-no tests of whether this year's finances improved on last year's.
3.30
In the safe zone
For this model, above 2.6 is safe and below 1.1 is distress.
Distance from bankruptcy, from a model fitted on companies that did and did not go bust. It describes a balance sheet's shape today; it does not forecast a failure.
-3.36
Below the threshold — nothing unusual flagged
Scores above -1.78 are the ones the model associates with earnings manipulation.
Screens eight accounting ratios for the pattern earnings manipulators tend to leave. A flag is a reason to read the filing closely, never evidence of wrongdoing.
Every figure above comes from the FY2025 filing as filed with the SEC.
Improved: +622.2%
$15.8M to $114.1MCritical
Why it matters: Cash left after paying for the plant that produced it — the money genuinely available for dividends, buybacks or paying down debt. Harder to flatter than profit.
Deteriorated: $7.22 wider
-$0.02 to -$7.24Critical
Why it matters: Profit divided by the shares in issue at the period end, so it sits close to but not on the company's own reported figure. It can rise with no growth in profit when the company buys back stock — read it beside the share count.
Improved: -57.4%
$239.4M to $101.9MCritical
Why it matters: Rising debt is not automatically bad — borrowing to build something that earns more than the interest is ordinary. It matters when it grows faster than the profit meant to service it.
Deteriorated: −6.0 pts
-0.0% to -6.0%Significant
Why it matters: What survives to the very end of each sale. Worth reading beside revenue: growing sales on a shrinking margin means the company is buying its growth.
Deteriorated: -15.4%
$39.0M to $33.0MSignificant
Why it matters: A falling cash pile is only a warning if the company is consuming it. Paying down debt, buying back stock and paying a dividend all reduce cash by choice.
Changed: -23.4%
$11.1M to $8.5MSignificant
Why it matters: Neither good nor bad on its own. Heavy spending is a company building capacity or a company struggling to stand still, and the two look identical in this figure.
Deteriorated: −1.3 pts
-0.3% to -1.6%Notable
Why it matters: What survives each sale after running the business. A falling operating margin beside a steady gross margin points at overheads — wages, marketing, research — rather than pricing.
Improved: -1.1%
35.5M to 35.1MNotable
Why it matters: The company bought back stock, so each remaining holding owns slightly more of it. Worth checking it was not funded by borrowing.
Q2 FY2026 against Q2 FY2025, from the 10-Q filed Aug 6, 2026 — read it.
Deteriorated: -40.0%
$19.0M to $11.4MCritical
Why it matters: Profit swings far more than sales do, and one-off items — a legal settlement, a tax charge, an asset sale — move it without the underlying business changing.
Deteriorated: -27.5%
$22.2M to $16.1MSignificant
Why it matters: Profit from running the business, before interest and tax. Less exposed than profit to one-off financing and tax items, so a clearer read on the business itself.
Deteriorated: -39.1%
$0.54 to $0.33Significant
Why it matters: Profit divided by the shares in issue at the period end, so it sits close to but not on the company's own reported figure. It can rise with no growth in profit when the company buys back stock — read it beside the share count.
Improved: +34.4%
$18.0M to $24.2MSignificant
Why it matters: A falling cash pile is only a warning if the company is consuming it. Paying down debt, buying back stock and paying a dividend all reduce cash by choice.
Deteriorated: -5.8%
$1.10B to $1.04BNotable
Why it matters: Sales are what everything else is built on. A fall can be lost customers, lower prices, or a business the company sold — the filing itself says which.
Deteriorated: -6.0%
$225.5M to $212.0MNotable
Why it matters: What is left of sales after the direct cost of producing them. It normally moves with revenue, so a move out of step with revenue is the part worth noticing.
Deteriorated: +5.1%
$74.3M to $78.1MNotable
Why it matters: Rising debt is not automatically bad — borrowing to build something that earns more than the interest is ordinary. It matters when it grows faster than the profit meant to service it.
Improved: -1.4%
35.2M to 34.7MNotable
Why it matters: The company bought back stock, so each remaining holding owns slightly more of it. Worth checking it was not funded by borrowing.
Q2 FY2026 against Q1 FY2026, from the 10-Q filed Aug 6, 2026 — read it. Quarter-to-quarter moves include seasonal swings — a retailer's holiday quarter — which the year-earlier comparison removes.
Improved: turned positive
-$5.1M to $16.1MCritical
Why it matters: Profit from running the business, before interest and tax. Less exposed than profit to one-off financing and tax items, so a clearer read on the business itself.
Improved: turned positive
-$5.9M to $11.4MCritical
Why it matters: Profit swings far more than sales do, and one-off items — a legal settlement, a tax charge, an asset sale — move it without the underlying business changing.
Improved: turned positive
-$0.17 to $0.33Critical
Why it matters: Profit divided by the shares in issue at the period end, so it sits close to but not on the company's own reported figure. It can rise with no growth in profit when the company buys back stock — read it beside the share count.
Improved: -40.2%
$130.5M to $78.1MCritical
Why it matters: Rising debt is not automatically bad — borrowing to build something that earns more than the interest is ordinary. It matters when it grows faster than the profit meant to service it.
Improved: +7.9%
$196.4M to $212.0MNotable
Why it matters: What is left of sales after the direct cost of producing them. It normally moves with revenue, so a move out of step with revenue is the part worth noticing.
Improved: +1.6 pts
18.9% to 20.4%Notable
Why it matters: What survives each sale before overheads. Falling gross margin usually means the company is discounting or its input costs rose — it is the earliest place pricing pressure shows.
Improved: +2.0 pts
-0.5% to 1.6%Notable
Why it matters: What survives each sale after running the business. A falling operating margin beside a steady gross margin points at overheads — wages, marketing, research — rather than pricing.
Improved: +1.7 pts
-0.6% to 1.1%Notable
Why it matters: What survives to the very end of each sale. Worth reading beside revenue: growing sales on a shrinking margin means the company is buying its growth.
Deteriorated: -5.5%
$25.6M to $24.2MNotable
Why it matters: A falling cash pile is only a warning if the company is consuming it. Paying down debt, buying back stock and paying a dividend all reduce cash by choice.
4 other measures barely moved. Figures compare the two most recent annual filings — read the latest one. Moves are graded on fixed lines — 5%, 15% and 40% for amounts, and 1, 3 and 8 points for margins — as notable, significant or critical. Nothing here reads the management commentary, which is where a company explains its own numbers.
These coincide with the move in time. None is presented as its cause: a price can move on news that names no company, on the wider market, or on trading that no document records.
Filter by minute, hour, day or week — or compare against peers
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Discounted at 8%–10% a year, with growth settling to 2.5% after 10 years. Those rates are ordinary choices, not measurements: across that range the assumed growth works out between -13% and -10%. This describes what the price implies — it is not a forecast, and not a view on whether the price is right.
Opinions from 11 analysts covering this company, as of . Their views, not this site's.
Of 11 analysts publishing on this company, 4 say strong buy, 5 say buy and 2 say hold. Analysts are paid to publish a view and are wrong often; the split above says how much they agree with each other, which is the part a single headline rating hides.
Published by Finnhub. Analyst coverage skews towards larger companies and towards optimism — sell ratings are rare across the whole market, so a company with none is ordinary rather than endorsed.
Measured on and published about a week later — this is a fortnightly snapshot, not a live position.
About 3.0% of this company's shares have been borrowed and sold by people expecting to buy them back cheaper. That is a bet the price falls. Those people can be wrong, and when a heavily shorted share rises they have to buy it back, which pushes it up further.
Collected by FINRA from broker-dealers twice a month. It counts positions, not intentions, and some of it is hedging rather than a directional bet against the company.
Nothing in this section is a figure this company reported about itself. These are expectations and positions — what the price implies, what analysts have published, what short sellers are betting, and what large funds held at the last count. WylthIQ reports them; it does not endorse them, does not forecast prices, and takes no view on whether any of them will turn out to be right.
Trailing P/E is not meaningful because the latest trailing earnings are zero or negative. The price-to-book and price-to-sales figures below still provide reference points.
Nothing unusual. Its accounting patterns look like those of companies that report earnings straightforwardly.
Had shares withheld to cover taxes — 15,998 shares at $16.45 ($263.2K)
Holds 366,515 shares after this filing.
Had shares withheld to cover taxes — 1,025 shares at $14.33 ($14.7K)
Holds 23,457 shares after this filing.
Estimated from how often this has happened before, not a confirmed date.
Not investment advice, and not a signal to act on by itself — a filing says what happened, not why, and insiders trade for ordinary reasons having nothing to do with where they think the company is headed.
Amended its charter or changed its financial year · Held a shareholder vote
Quarterly report for Q1 FY2026
Revenue -10.7% · Operating margin −1.4 pts · Operating income turned negative — against Q1 FY2025
Read the filingPublished results
Read the filingProxy statement for a shareholder meeting
Read the filingAnnual report for FY2025
Operating margin −1.3 pts · Operating income $54.7M wider · Profit $253.5M wider — against FY2024
Read the filingPublished results
Read the filingSigned a material agreement · Took on a direct financial obligation · Changed the rights attached to its shares · Changed control of the company · Had a director or senior officer leave or join · Made a Regulation FD disclosure
Read the filingSigned a material agreement · Changed the rights attached to its shares · Made a Regulation FD disclosure
Read the filingHad a director or senior officer leave or join
Read the filingHad a director or senior officer leave or join
Read the filingHad a director or senior officer leave or join
Read the filingQuarterly report for Q3 FY2025
Revenue -9.9% · Operating margin −11.2 pts · Operating income turned negative — against Q3 FY2024
Read the filingPublished results
Read the filingQuarterly report for Q2 FY2025
Profit margin +1.3 pts · Operating income +82.0% · Profit +313.0% — against Q2 FY2024
Read the filingHad a director or senior officer leave or join
Read the filingHad a director or senior officer leave or join · Published results
Read the filingHad a director or senior officer leave or join
Read the filingMade a Regulation FD disclosure
Read the filingPrimary sources and further research