Shares of Kelly Services Inc. were indicated up more than 3% in premarket trading Thursday, after the staffing services company beat profit and revenue expectations and boosted its dividend by 50%. The company swung to a net loss of $47.6 million, or $1.23 a share, from income of $25.6 million, or 64 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, such as a losses on its Persol Holdings investment and on foreign currency matters, adjusted earnings per share of 46 cents beat the FactSet consensus of 25 cents. Revenue rose 7.5% to $1.30 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $1.26 billion, citing increased customer demand and the impact of the acquisition of Softworld. Cost of services rose just 4.6%, as gross margin improved to 19.9% from 17.7%. Separately, the company raised its quarterly dividend to 7.5 cents a share from 5 cents, with the new dividend payable June 9 to shareholders of record on May 26. Based on Wednesday’s stock closing price of $18.28, the new annual dividend rate implies a dividend yield of 1.64%, compared with the implied yield for the S&P 500 of 1.63%. The stock has gained 9.0% year to date, while the S&P 500 has dropped 17.4%.
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