Second-quarter revenue at Barrett Business Services (NASDAQ: BBSI) rose 0.9% to $264.6 million. The Vancouver, Washington-based company also reported revenue growth for its professional employer organization business that rose 5.2%, while temporary staffing services revenue fell 32.1%.
Gross billings, which include PEO employee wages paid by clients, rose 5% to $1.91 billion in the second quarter, driven by new worksite employees and higher average billings per worksite employee.
“In the second quarter, we continued to exceed expectations by adding net new clients and expanding benefits sales,” BBSI President and CEO Gary Kramer said in a statement. “These positive results in our controllable growth have helped offset slower client hiring in the quarter as small businesses remained cautious.”
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Guidance
Looking ahead, Barrett forecasts full-year gross billings growth of between 4% and 6%.
Shares in Barrett were up 3.5% to $94.12 as of 11:45 am Eastern time; they were 6.67% below their 52-week high, according to FT.com. The company had a market cap of $619.1 million.