Crispr Therapeutics shares tumble after significant earnings miss
Introduction & Market Context
CBIZ Inc (NYSE:CBZ), a leading provider of professional services to middle-market businesses, presented its Q2 2025 investor presentation on July 30, 2025, highlighting the company’s performance following its transformative acquisition of Marcum. The presentation comes after CBIZ reported mixed Q1 results earlier this year, when the company beat earnings expectations but missed revenue forecasts, resulting in an 11% stock decline.
CBIZ has positioned itself as the 7th largest accounting services provider in the U.S., according to the Accounting Today 2025 Top 100 Firms Report, with approximately $2.8 billion in pro forma revenue for fiscal 2024. The company serves over 135,000 clients across 22 major U.S. markets with more than 10,000 employees.
As shown in the following snapshot of CBIZ’s market position and scale:
Q2 2025 Performance Highlights
CBIZ reported strong year-to-date performance through Q2 2025, with total revenue growth of 66.4%, driven primarily by the Marcum acquisition. The Financial Services segment, which constitutes the largest portion of the company’s business, showed particularly robust growth at 88.2% year-to-date. Benefits and Insurance Services grew at a more modest 4.4%, while National Practices experienced a decline of 13.1%.
The company’s adjusted diluted earnings per share reached $3.26 year-to-date, with GAAP EPS at $2.58. This performance reflects the accretive nature of the Marcum acquisition, which the company had projected would contribute approximately 10% to adjusted diluted EPS in 2025.
The following chart details CBIZ’s year-to-date performance and 2025 guidance:
CBIZ’s revenue mix remains heavily weighted toward Financial Services, which accounts for 84% of pro forma revenue based on 2024 figures. The company’s service offerings span accounting and tax, financial advisory, government healthcare consulting, employee benefits, payroll, property and casualty insurance, and IT services.
The revenue breakdown by service line is illustrated in the following chart:
A key strength of CBIZ’s business model is its high percentage of recurring revenue, which stands at approximately 72% of total revenue. This includes annual accounting and tax services, government healthcare consulting, group health benefits, payroll, property and casualty insurance, retirement services, and technology support. The remaining 28% comes from project-based work such as financial consulting, litigation support, risk advisory, and transaction advisory services.
The company’s recurring vs. project-based revenue split is shown here:
Marcum Acquisition Integration
The Marcum acquisition represents a significant strategic move for CBIZ, solidifying its position in the middle market and expanding its service capabilities. The company outlined several strategic rationales for the acquisition, including enhanced market position, accelerated growth, talent attraction, expanded client offerings, deeper industry expertise, and technology investment opportunities.
The strategic rationale for the Marcum acquisition is detailed in this slide:
CBIZ has developed a three-phase integration plan for Marcum. The initial phase focused on people-oriented onboarding, brand elevation, client engagement, and financial alignment. The current phase, spanning the first 18 months post-acquisition, centers on operational alignment, standardization of client services, and resource consolidation. By 2026 and beyond, the company anticipates achieving over $25 million in cost synergies along with process and practice innovations.
The company’s acquisition strategy has historically focused on entering attractive geographic markets, strengthening existing market presence, adding service breadth or expertise depth, expanding into high-growth industries, and accessing top talent. CBIZ typically targets successful local or regional companies with strong leadership and cultural fit, structuring deals based on trailing twelve-month EBITDA with earnouts contingent on reasonable growth targets.
Financial Outlook & Guidance
CBIZ maintained its 2025 guidance, projecting revenue between $2.8 billion and $2.95 billion, GAAP EPS of $1.97 to $2.02, and adjusted EPS of $3.60 to $3.65. The company also expects a tax rate of approximately 29% and weighted average fully diluted share count of 64.5 to 65.0 million.
A key focus for CBIZ is reducing leverage following the Marcum acquisition. The company’s pro forma net leverage ratio of adjusted EBITDA was approximately 3.25x to 3.50x at closing, with plans to reduce this to 2.00x to 2.25x within 24 months post-close through strong free cash flow generation.
The company’s leverage reduction plan is illustrated in the following chart:
Looking beyond 2025, CBIZ has set long-term annual growth goals of 8-10% for revenue and 1.5x-2x for earnings growth. These targets build on the company’s strong historical performance, with a 2019-2023 revenue growth CAGR of 13.8% and adjusted EPS growth CAGR of 17.6%.
The company’s financial goals are summarized here:
Strategic Growth Initiatives
CBIZ’s growth strategy encompasses three primary components: organic growth, cross-serving existing clients, and strategic acquisitions. The company aims to leverage its established national platform, full integration of acquired businesses, and infrastructure to drive margin expansion.
Internal growth drivers include net new business powered by enhanced client coverage capabilities, pricing discipline, cross-serving opportunities, producer and business development manager relationships, and targeted marketing efforts. The company’s high client retention rate of approximately 90% provides a stable foundation for these growth initiatives.
CBIZ highlighted several investment strengths, including operational leverage through its national platform, strong financial attributes such as consistent cash flow and a diverse client base, and a demonstrated ability to grow earnings faster than revenue.
The company’s investment highlights are presented in this comprehensive overview:
As CBIZ continues to integrate Marcum and execute on its strategic initiatives, the company remains focused on maintaining its strong market position while delivering value to shareholders through disciplined growth and operational excellence. The company’s balance of recurring revenue streams and specialized project-based services positions it well to navigate market uncertainties while capitalizing on growth opportunities in the middle-market professional services space.
Full presentation:
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