Huron Consulting Group Q1 2025 Earnings Report

Huron Consulting Group EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $1.68
• Consensus EPS: $1.16
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.52
• One Year Ago EPS: $1.23

Huron Consulting Group Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $404.14 million
• Expected Revenue: $389.27 million
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$14.87 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: +11.20%

Huron Consulting Group Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2025
• Date: 4/29/2025
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Tuesday, April 29, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 5:00PM ET

Huron Consulting Group (NASDAQ:HURN) (NASDAQ:HURN) is a professional services firm that helps organizations improve performance, manage change and address complex business challenges. The company works with clients across the healthcare, education, commercial and public sectors, providing consulting, technology and managed services.

Huron’s services include strategic planning, operational improvement, organizational transformation, financial and performance management, data and analytics, and technology implementation. In healthcare, the company supports hospitals, health systems and other providers with clinical, financial and operational initiatives. Its education practice works with colleges, universities and research institutions, while its commercial and public-sector practices serve businesses and government-related organizations.

Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Huron serves clients primarily in the United States as well as organizations in international markets. The company combines industry expertise with technology-enabled solutions intended to help clients improve operations, enhance decision-making and achieve sustainable results.

Huron Consulting Group Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• 11.2% YoY RBR growth to $395.7 M in Q1 driven by strong performance across healthcare, education, and commercial segments, with overall margin expansion.
• Healthcare segment RBR up ~10% on robust demand for performance improvement and financial advisory as clients face rising operating pressures and regulatory changes.
• Education segment RBR up 10% fueled by solid demand for strategy, operations advancement, and software offerings amid evolving federal directives, with Huron aiding clients on liquidity and model redesign.
• Commercial segment RBR up 17% YoY (11% sequentially) driven by the Axia acquisition and strong digital offerings, partially offset by softer strategy and financial advisory work.
• Key financial metrics improved with net income up 36.3% to $24.5 M, adjusted EPS up 36.6% to $1.68, adjusted EBITDA margin rising to 10.5%, and full-year guidance reaffirmed.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good afternoon, and welcome to Huron Consulting Group's webcast to discuss financial results for the first quarter 2025. At this time, all conference call lines are on a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session for conference call participants, and instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. Before we begin, I would like to point all of you to the disclosure at the end of the company's news release for information about any forward-looking statements that may be made or discussed on this call. The news release is posted on Huron's website. Please review that information along with the filings with the SEC for a disclosure of factors that may impact subjects discussed in this afternoon's webcast. The company will be discussing one or more non-GAAP financial measures.

[Operator]

Please look at the earnings release and on Huron's website for all of the disclosures required by the SEC, including reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP numbers. I would like to turn the call over to Mark Hussey, Chief Executive Officer and President of Huron Consulting Group. Mr. Hussey, please go ahead.

[Mark Hussey, President and CEO at Huron Consulting Group]

Good afternoon, and welcome to Huron Consulting Group's First Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. With me today are John Kelly, our Chief Financial Officer, and Ronnie Dale, our Chief Operating Officer. Driven by strong growth across all three operating segments, revenues before reimbursable expenses, or RBR, grew 11% over the first quarter of 2024 while we continue to expand our margins. Our first quarter results reflect our continued progress in executing our growth strategy, which we refreshed and shared at our Investor Day in March. We're encouraged by our performance in the first quarter in the face of a dynamic external environment. Today, we reaffirm our annual guidance. As we stated on our year-end earnings call and reiterated at our Investor Day last month, we believe the challenges and opportunities of the external environment are contemplated within our guidance range.

[Mark Hussey, President and CEO at Huron Consulting Group]

Our strong client relationships, incredibly talented team, industry expertise, and breadth of capabilities, including our performance improvement offerings, collectively position us well to serve our clients as they navigate an evolving and complex regulatory landscape and continued market disruption. I'll now share some additional insights into our first quarter performance. In the healthcare segment, first quarter RBR grew 10% over the prior year quarter. The increase in RBR in the first quarter of 2025 was primarily driven by continued strong demand for our performance improvement and financial advisory offerings. Our healthcare business continues to perform exceptionally well as our clients respond to increasing financial pressures and potential regulatory changes. Despite increased patient volumes, many of our large health system clients continue to face operating expenses that are outpacing reimbursements. We believe this is a trend that will continue for the foreseeable future.

[Mark Hussey, President and CEO at Huron Consulting Group]

In addition, potential changes to Medicaid funding, reductions in research funding, changes to the 340B drug pricing program, and increases in the cost of imported drugs and medical devices are forcing health systems to evolve their clinical and administrative functions as they manage declining margins. Providers are positioning their businesses to stay ahead of the evolving external environment while operating in an increasingly competitive landscape. In some cases, our clients are responding to near-term financial pressures, while others are executing strategic operational and digital initiatives to sustain or advance their market position while preparing for a more challenging financial environment in the future. To execute these initiatives, providers are turning to Huron as their trusted advisor, given our long track record of delivering significant tangible results.

[Mark Hussey, President and CEO at Huron Consulting Group]

The pipeline continues to grow, and demand for our healthcare offerings remains strong, which is a testament to the investments we've made to diversify our portfolio. Our offerings today meet the broad needs of the market, focus on both accelerating growth in our clients' markets and driving efficiency across their administrative and clinical operations. Across the full range of market conditions, we're well-positioned to address the wide array of opportunities and challenges facing our hospital, physician group, and health system clients. Education segment RBR grew 10% in the first quarter of 2025 over the prior year quarter, driven by strong demand for our strategy and operations and advancement offerings, and increased demand for our software product offerings. Let me share some context on our education business.

[Mark Hussey, President and CEO at Huron Consulting Group]

While we have successfully diversified our client base over time, large public and private research universities have been and continue to be at the core of our business. Nearly every day, new headlines hit the press about potential regulatory impacts affecting the higher education industry. It's important to note that these recent regulatory initiatives and federal directives do not impact colleges and universities uniformly. While nearly all research universities are experiencing some impact related to the evolving regulatory environment, the magnitude, timing, and strategic implications of these impacts vary significantly, depending on the unique attributes of the institution. The most significant and publicized policy changes have largely impacted a relatively small number of private universities where, incidentally, we have and continue to provide services.

[Mark Hussey, President and CEO at Huron Consulting Group]

In the uncertainty that exists today, many of our clients are turning to Huron to understand potential scenarios, evaluate their options, and take preemptive actions to position their organizations for the best possible outcome during this period. For example, we're helping clients understand the financial impacts of the federal directives, potential options, and mitigation strategies. More specifically, we're helping them identify opportunities to improve liquidity, redesign their long-range planning and budget models, and accelerate transformation of their operating models. We're also analyzing clients' funding mechanisms and expenses to determine how best to close potential operating deficits or future funding gaps. Similar to healthcare, the needs of our large and small, public and private clients are wide-ranging.

[Mark Hussey, President and CEO at Huron Consulting Group]

The breadth of our diverse portfolio, the deep understanding of the industry, as well as our clients' institutions, is unmatched by our competition and positions us well to be their trusted partner as they navigate the current disruption. Now, let me turn to the commercial segment. In the first quarter of 2025, commercial segment RBR grew 17% over the prior year quarter and grew 11% sequentially compared to the fourth quarter of 2024. The year-over-year increase in RBR was driven by the incremental RBR from our acquisition of AXIA and strong demand for our digital offerings, partially offset by decreases in RBR from our strategy and innovation and financial advisory offerings. Excluding the incremental RBR from our acquisition of AXIA, our commercial digital capability grew 12% over the prior year quarter.

[Mark Hussey, President and CEO at Huron Consulting Group]

Our commercial clients are also facing increased pressure from the dynamic external environment, stemming from the uncertainty related to tariffs and a more volatile macroeconomic environment. Similar to healthcare and education, commercial clients are also turning to Huron as their partner of choice to navigate the market disruptions. For example, leveraging our supply chain offerings, we're building analytic models to simulate the impact of global tariffs on their financial positions over time and the ripple effects that may arise. Despite this volatile environment, clients continue to advance their digital transformation imperatives, which in turn advance their competitive positions, drive operational efficiency, and leverage data to make better, faster decisions.

[Mark Hussey, President and CEO at Huron Consulting Group]

As I mentioned at our Investor Day in March, we believe we have a strong foundation to continue to grow this segment, building on the scale we've achieved to date in our digital capability while selectively adding advisory capabilities both organically and through programmatic M&A. Let me turn to our outlook for the year. Today, we reaffirm our guidance for 2025, and that Adjusted EBITDA margin, and adjusted diluted earnings per share. Let me close by saying that we're confident in our refreshed strategy and our ability to deliver upon the financial goals outlined at our Investor Day last month. We're encouraged by our performance in the first quarter in the face of a dynamic external environment.

[Mark Hussey, President and CEO at Huron Consulting Group]

Our markets that we serve continue to be under increased pressure, and we believe we're well-positioned to help clients navigate through the complex challenges through deep industry expertise, the breadth of our portfolio, our strong competitive positions, and our highly talented team. Let me turn it over to John for a more detailed discussion of our financial results. John?

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

Thank you, Mark, and good afternoon, everyone. Before I begin, please note that I will be discussing non-GAAP financial measures such Adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, Adjusted EPS, and free cash flow. A press release, 10-Q, and investor relations page on the Huron website have reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures, the most comparable GAAP measures, along with a discussion of why management uses these non-GAAP measures. Why management believes they provide useful information to investors regarding our financial condition and operating results. Before discussing our financial results for the quarter, I would like to discuss several housekeeping items. First, our first quarter results exclude the operating results from the student education business, which was divested on December 31, 2024.

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

Second, our first quarter results do reflect a full quarter of operating results from the acquisition of AXIA Consulting, primarily in the commercial segment, which closed effective December 1, 2024. Finally, our acquisitions of Advancement Resources and Halpin closed on March 1 and 17, respectively, and as such, a partial period of their operating results are included within the education segment. The operating results of Advancement Resources and Halpin were not material to our first quarter results. Now, I will share some of the key financial results for the first quarter. RBR for the first quarter of 2025 was $395.7 million, up 11.2% from $356 million in the same quarter of 2024. The increase in RBR for the quarter was driven by strong growth across all three operating segments.

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

Net income for the first quarter of 2025 increased 36.3% to $24.5 million, $1.33 per diluted share compared to net income of $18.95 per diluted share in the first quarter of 2024. As a result, or as a percentage of total revenues, net income increased to 6.1% in the first quarter of 2025 compared to 5% in the first quarter of 2024. The increase in net income was driven by revenues that outpaced expenses and an increase in the discrete tax benefit for share-based compensation awards that vested during the quarter. As a result of this discrete tax benefit, our effective income tax rate in the first quarter of 2025 was negative 14.4%, as we recognize the income tax benefit on our pre-tax income. Adjusted EBITDA was $41.5 million in Q1 2025 for 10.5% of RBR compared to $33.8 million for 9.5% of RBR in the first quarter of 2024.

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

The Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was primarily due to increases in segment operating income in our healthcare and education segments, excluding the impact of segment depreciation and amortization and segment restructuring charges, partially offset by a decrease in segment operating income in the commercial segment and increased unallocated corporate expenses to support the growth of our business. Adjusted net income was $31.1 million for $1.68 per diluted share in Q1 2025 compared to $23.3 million for $1.23 per diluted share in the first quarter of 2024, resulting in a 36.6% increase in adjusted diluted earnings per share over Q1 2024. Now, I'll discuss the performance of each of our operating segments. The healthcare segment generated 50% of total company RBR during the first quarter of 2025. This segment posted RBR of $198.5 million, up $17.7 million or 9.8% from the first quarter of 2024.

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

The first quarter of 2024 included $3.4 million of RBR from the student education business, which was divested in the fourth quarter of 2024. Excluding the results for student education, healthcare segment Q1 revenues grew 12% over the first quarter of 2024. The increase in the segment's RBR in the quarter reflects continued strong demand for our performance improvement and financial advisory offerings. Operating income margin for healthcare was 28.4% in Q1 2025 compared to 23.6% in Q1 2024. The increase in margin was primarily due to revenue growth that outpaced the increase in salaries and related expenses for our revenue-generating professionals and decreases in contractor expenses, practice administration and meeting expenses, salaries, and related expenses for our support personnel. The education segment generated 31% of total company RBR during the first quarter of 2025.

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

The education segment posted RBR of $122.7 million, up $11.2 million, 10% from the first quarter of 2024. The increase in RBR in the quarter was driven by strong demand for our strategy and operations and advancement offerings and increased demand for our software product offerings within our digital capabilities. The inorganic RBR contributions from our acquisitions, including GG+A, which closed on March 1st, 2024, as well as AXIA, Advancement Resources, and Halpin, were $3.9 million in the first quarter of 2025. The operating income margin for education was 18.8% for Q1 2025 compared to 19.7% for the same quarter in 2024.

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

The decrease in operating income margin in the quarter was primarily driven by expenses related to a team-wide leadership meeting during the quarter, performance bonus expenses for our revenue-generating professionals, salaries and related expenses for our support personnel, and amortization of our internally developed software, all as percentages of RBR, partially offset by revenue growth that outpaced the increase in salaries and related expenses for our revenue-generating professionals. The commercial segment generated 19% of total company RBR during the first quarter of 2025 and posted RBR of $74.5 million, up $10.8 million, 17% from the first quarter of 2024. The increase in RBR was driven by $11.2 million of incremental RBR from our acquisition of AXIA Consulting, which we closed in December of 2024. Strong demand for our digital offerings partially offset by decreases in RBR from our strategy and innovation and financial advisory offerings.

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

Operating income margin for the commercial segment was 15.2% for Q1 2025 compared to 22.1% for the same quarter in 2024. The decrease in operating income margin reflects the mix of RBR during the quarter that was driven by increases in compensation costs for our revenue-generating professionals and support personnel and contractor expenses as percentages of RBR. We continue to expect full-year operating income margin in the range of 21%-23% for the commercial segment. Corporate expenses not allocated at the segment level, excluding corporate restructuring charges, were $52.4 million in Q1 2025 compared to $50.9 million in Q1 2024. Unallocated corporate expenses in the first quarter of 2025 included $900,000 of income related to the decrease in the liability of our deferred compensation plan compared to expense of $2.4 million in the first quarter of 2024.

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

These amounts are offset by the change in market value of the investment assets used to fund the plan reflected in other income. Excluding the impact of the deferred compensation plan in both periods, unallocated corporate expenses increased $4.8 million in the first quarter of 2025, primarily driven by increases in compensation costs for our support personnel, software and data hosting expenses, partially offset by a decrease in legal expenses. Now, turning to the balance sheet and cash flows. Cash flow used in operations in the first quarter of 2025 was $106.8 million, reflecting our annual incentive payments during the quarter. Cash flow used in operations during the first quarter of 2024 was $130.7 million. During the quarter, we used $8.5 million to invest in capital expenditures, inclusive of internally developed software costs, resulting in negative free cash flow of $115.4 million.

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

Continue to expect full-year free cash flow to be in a range of positive $160 million-$190 million net of cash taxes and interest, excluding the non-cash stock compensation. DSO came in at 79 days for the first quarter of 2025 compared to 91 days for the first quarter of 2024. The decrease in DSO reflects the impact of collections on certain larger healthcare and education projects in alignment with their contractual payment schedules. Total debt as of March 31, 2025, was $576.3 million, consisting entirely of our senior bank debt. We finished the quarter with cash of $23.4 million for net debt of $552.9 million. This was a $217.1 million increase in net debt compared to Q4 2024, primarily due to the payment of our annual cash bonuses and share repurchases during the quarter.

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

In the quarter, we used $72.9 million to repurchase approximately 509,000 shares, representing 2.9% of our common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2024. As of March 31, 2025, $191.7 million remained available for share repurchases under the current share repurchase authorization from our board of directors. Our leverage ratio, as defined in our senior bank agreement, was Adjusted EBITDA as of March 31, 2025, compared to Adjusted EBITDA as of March 31, 2024. As a reminder, our first quarter typically represents a seasonal high leverage ratio given the payout of our annual bonuses in March. Finally, let me turn to our guidance for full-year 2025.

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

As Mark mentioned, today we reaffirm our annual RBR, margin, and Adjusted EPS guidance, which includes RBR in a range of $1.58, Adjusted EBITDA in a range of 14.14%-14.5% of RBR, and adjusted non-GAAP EPS in a range of $6.80-$7.60. Thanks, everyone. I'd now like to open the call to questions. Operator.

[Operator]

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question at this time, please press star one one on your touchtone telephone. If your question has been answered or you wish to remove yourself from the queue, you may do so by pressing star one one again. One moment for our first question. Our first question comes from the line of Andrew Nicholas of William Blair and Company. Please go ahead, Andrew.

[Andrew Nicholas, Analyst at William Blair]

Thanks and good afternoon. I wanted to ask first about the commercial segment outlook.

[Andrew Nicholas, Analyst at William Blair]

Obviously, it feels like quite a bit's happened since the March Investor Day. Could you speak a little bit more specifically to the pipeline for that business, whether or not you're seeing any kind of pockets of indecision or pullback on discretionary projects? Maybe relatedly, if you have any kind of changes to the segment-level growth expectations for that business.

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

Yeah, Andrew, it's John. I'll start. No changes to our guidance at the segment level. Actually, if you look at the first quarter, we had record levels of sales conversion during the first quarter in our commercial segment, and that was primarily driven by the digital business. If you look at the results for the first quarter, you've got the inorganic contribution from AXIA that we talked about.

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

Our commercial digital business, as Mark referenced, was up 12% during the quarter, which I think corresponds to that pipeline in backlog strength. On the consulting side, that is where we did see negative growth during the quarter. I would probably put that into a couple of buckets. I think on the strategy part, I think that is an area where you do see some impact from the current macro environment. There is just a lot of disruption there. I would say strategy within commercial is an area that we have got a little bit of caution on as we will continue to look at as the year goes on.

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

I think in terms of the financial advisory part of the business, it's really a case of that team was very busy during the quarter, but it happened to be that a lot of their work came in the healthcare segment for some of our clients that were going through distress within healthcare. As we turn the corner into April, a lot of the inquiries that we're seeing now are more weighted back towards the commercial segment. I think that we'll see increased demand there from a financial advisory in the commercial segment during the second quarter. A little bit of a watch item on the strategic part of the business, which even there for that team, I'd note they were also very busy in the healthcare part of the business during the quarter. It was just on the commercial side that was a little bit softer.

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

We feel really good about the way things are shaping up from a digital perspective.

[Mark Hussey, President and CEO at Huron Consulting Group]

Andrew, the only additional comment I'll make is just that I think with the balance between pro and countercyclical offerings in that segment, it gives us a higher degree of confidence that the outlook for the year is intact and we'll be in fine shape. We certainly have a lot of quarters ahead of us to get through, but we feel good about the year.

[Andrew Nicholas, Analyst at William Blair]

Great. That's helpful and encouraging. I guess for my follow-up, I just wanted to ask specifically on headcount growth. I think sequentially it was relatively flat if I take out some of the inorganic ads. I'm looking just at the revenue-generating professionals, not the managed services employees.

[Andrew Nicholas, Analyst at William Blair]

Could you just maybe speak to that and how you're thinking about headcount growth in this current market environment? Where are you prioritizing new headcount growth? Is the expectation for that to resemble headcount, or excuse me, revenue growth still? Thank you.

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

Yep. Andrew, it's John. I can start. When we look out at the full year, we still expect headcount growth to largely—and again, similar to you, I'm answering, excluding managed services headcount. Excluding that population, we expect headcount to largely flux with revenue as the year goes on. I think what you saw during the first quarter was just some really good execution by our teams in terms of utilization.

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

You probably noticed that utilization for both our consulting capability as well as our digital capability was up roughly 400 basis points in each of those areas in the first quarter of this year versus last year. I think the teams did a really good job of using the talent that we have to execute on the revenue that we had during the first quarter. As we continue to grow throughout the year, we're certainly going to need to be hiring and adding more talent. I'd say, in particular, within our healthcare business, that's an area where we just continue to see strong demand from a pipeline perspective, strong sales conversion, and that's an area where I think you'll see us continue to add headcount to support the growth we're expecting as the year goes on.

[Andrew Nicholas, Analyst at William Blair]

Very helpful. Thanks again.

[Operator]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Tobey Sommer of Truist Securities. Please go ahead, Toby.

[Tobey Sommer, Analyst at Truist Securities]

Thank you. Good afternoon. How would you characterize the new business in billings in education and healthcare broadly during April? Any kind of change versus the first quarter trend?

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

No, nothing notable that I would point to there really. In fact, if you look at our—I know you were asking about even as we progressed into the second quarter here, but if you look at our first quarter sales conversion, it was up meaningfully from where it was a year ago. That was a good indicator. A lot of that pipeline conversion came through in February and March, and there was significant growth in terms of conversions during those couple of months as well. No change that I would point to in April.

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

It's just we're not even all the way through that month yet. Getting there, but not quite there.

[Mark Hussey, President and CEO at Huron Consulting Group]

Right. Maybe the one thing I'd add is we—I was just going to say, on the flip side, we haven't seen cancellations either. Things that we've already sold, they continue to progress. I think it's pretty much a fairly normal environment for us from what we would typically see, absent all the disruptions going on.

[Tobey Sommer, Analyst at Truist Securities]

Great. That kind of goes to where my follow-up was going to be in terms of zooming in a bit. In that select group of private universities that are most impacted by policy changes, anything you've seen in your business there with them in projects? I understand you may have preemptively answered part of that already.

[Mark Hussey, President and CEO at Huron Consulting Group]

No, really. We continue to work with them.

[Mark Hussey, President and CEO at Huron Consulting Group]

Many of these go back from the founding of the company in terms of just the length of time of the relationships. We have been a trusted advisor for them in various situations that have come along. The nature of the work might shift a little bit, but again, it really has not had, from our perspective, any kind of dramatic effect as a result of the headlines that have been out there.

[Tobey Sommer, Analyst at Truist Securities]

Thank you. How has assessment activity trended in for performance improvement projects? Is there any shift that you could share with us in terms of customers' propensity to include performance fees?

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

I would say, Toby, it continues to be a robust environment in terms of assessment activity.

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

I think that's characterized by some of the trend lines that we saw coming into the year, where many of our clients are going through financial strain related to constrained revenue at the same time that costs have continued to escalate. I think that's still been a theme. I think some of the recent regulatory changes or the evolving environment there has caused some clients to continue to be concerned about revenue constraints and funding sources, which then is oftentimes something that causes clients to look at performance improvement type projects as a way to address potential budgetary gaps in that sort of environment. The pipeline and the assessments we see have continued to be busy in that area. In terms of contingent-based fees versus normal fees, I would say no. I don't think we've seen any real shift in terms of mix in that regard.

[Tobey Sommer, Analyst at Truist Securities]

Okay. I just wanted to ask one more question on project size and duration. If you zoom out here and you think about what you're seeing in the business, what you have in your backlog already, do you think the size and duration of your projects is changing at all? If so, in which direction?

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

Over time, Toby, and when I say that through last year into the early part of this year, I think we are seeing the average job size increase. I think that's reflective of some of the challenges that our clients have been facing. I think that's really across industries too in terms of just scope and complexity.

[John Kelly, CFO at Huron Consulting Group]

The other big thing there too is with the change in our operating model, the number of projects where we're bringing in different capabilities, whether that's bringing in our digital capability, our strategy capability, our financial advisory capability. I think that adds to project size as well. That's been a trend that's been increasing for us.

[Tobey Sommer, Analyst at Truist Securities]

Thank you very much. We'll get back to the queue.

[Operator]

Thank you. Once again, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone. That's star one one on your telephone to ask a question. Seeing no more questions in the queue, I'd like to turn the call back to Mr. Hussey. Sir?

[Mark Hussey, President and CEO at Huron Consulting Group]

Thank you very much for spending time with us this afternoon. We look forward to speaking with you again in July when we announce our second quarter results. Have a good evening.

[Operator]

That concludes today's conference call. Thank you, everyone, for your participation.

Participants

Executives

• Mark Hussey, President and CEO
• John Kelly, CFO

Analysts

• Andrew Nicholas, Analyst at William Blair
• Tobey Sommer, Analyst at Truist Securities