CBIZ (CBZ) The 44th Annual William Blair Growth Stock Conference summary

Business overview and strategy

• Provides accounting, insurance, and professional services to over 100,000 clients, focusing on middle-market businesses with a broad geographic reach and diverse service offerings.

• Revenue is split between accounting/tax (73-74%) and benefits/insurance (24%), with 75% recurring and essential in nature.

• Maintains high client retention (about 90%) and a diversified client base, minimizing risk from economic or sector-specific downturns.

• Competitive advantage comes from combining national scale with local expertise, offering deeper subject matter knowledge and broader services than local or national competitors.

• Growth is driven by organic expansion, cross-selling, and regular acquisitions, targeting 8%-10% annual top-line growth.

Financial performance and guidance

• Achieved nearly 14% compound annual top-line growth over the past five years, with adjusted EPS growing at 17.5%.

• Q1 organic revenue grew 5.9%, total revenue up 8.7%; full-year guidance is 7%-9% revenue growth, excluding yet-to-close acquisitions.

• Adjusted EPS guidance for the year is 12%-14%, with ongoing margin improvement expected.

• Strong free cash flow and low CapEx enable strategic acquisitions and share repurchases; 15%-20% of shares repurchased since 2019.

• Debt levels fluctuate seasonally but typically remain between 1 and 2 times EBITDA.

Growth drivers and market trends

• Organic growth in financial services is driven by improved pricing systems, profitability tracking, and client engagement training.

• Benefits and insurance growth accelerated by proactive hiring, onboarding, and training of producers, addressing prior stagnation.

• Growth is balanced between pricing and volume, with recent years seeing outsized pricing gains due to inflation.

• Market consolidation is increasing, especially in accounting, due to private equity entry and client demand for broader advisory services.

• Smaller firms join larger platforms for investment capacity, talent attraction, and expanded service offerings.