Crawford & Company Reports 2024 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Results

Achieved Record Revenues for Year

Crawford & Company® (NYSE:CRD) today announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2024.

Revenues before reimbursements increased 17% to $347.3 million in the 2024 fourth quarter from $296.1 million in the 2023 fourth quarter. Fourth quarter net income was $5.7 million, or $0.11 per diluted share for CRD-A and $0.12 for CRD-B, compared to a loss of $(0.8) million, or $(0.02) per diluted share for CRD-A and CRD-B in the prior year quarter.

Revenues before reimbursements increased 2% to a new annual record of $1.293 billion in 2024 from $1.267 billion in 2023. Full year 2024 net income was $26.6 million, or $0.53 per diluted share for CRD-A and $0.54 for CRD-B, compared to $30.6 million, or $0.61 per diluted share for CRD-A and $0.62 for CRD-B in 2023.

Mr. Rohit Verma, president and chief executive officer of Crawford & Company, commented, "Our fourth quarter performance delivered a strong close to 2024, reflecting revenue growth across all business lines and margin expansion in our North America Loss Adjusting, International Operations and Platform Solutions segments. As we expected, after a relatively quiet year, we saw increased claims activity during the fourth quarter in the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which represented the first meaningful increase in outsourced claims activity since the third quarter of 2023. Broadspire continued the momentum it has driven all year, resulting in revenue growth in the quarter and its second consecutive year of record annual revenue. International made solid progress, with several key markets contributing to the segment's revenue growth and margin improvement."

Mr. Verma continued, "As we move through 2025, we remain committed to delivering operational excellence, investing in our people, improving our technology, and embracing innovation to enhance the customer experience across all our offerings. Our ability to develop and maintain longstanding client relationships drives our success and positions us as a key partner in periods of both benign and extreme weather. We appreciate the dedication of our employees and the confidence of our clients, which enable us to maintain our market leadership."

Segment Results for the Fourth Quarter and Full Year

North America Loss Adjusting

North America Loss Adjusting revenues before reimbursements were $79.4 million in the 2024 fourth quarter, increasing 14.0% from $69.7 million in the 2023 fourth quarter.

The segment had operating earnings of $3.4 million in the 2024 fourth quarter, increasing from $0.8 million in the 2023 fourth quarter. The operating margin was 4.2% in the 2024 quarter increasing from 1.1% in the 2023 quarter driven by increased revenues in U.S. Global Technical Services and Field Operations compared to the prior year quarter due to increased weather-related activity from Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

North America Loss Adjusting revenues before reimbursements were $312.2 million in 2024, increasing 2.8% from $303.6 million in 2023.

The segment had operating earnings of $18.2 million in 2024, decreasing from $23.2 million in 2023. The operating margin was 5.8% in 2024 and 7.6% in 2023. The decrease in operating earnings was primarily due to the decrease in revenues in Canada and U.S. Field Operations and reduced staff utilization related to the higher weather-related activity in the prior year.

International Operations

International Operations revenues before reimbursements were $112.5 million in the 2024 fourth quarter, up 15.8% from $97.2 million in the 2023 fourth quarter. Absent foreign exchange rate increases of $2.9 million, revenues would have been $109.6 million for the 2024 fourth quarter.

Operating earnings were $8.5 million in the 2024 fourth quarter, increasing from $2.2 million in the 2023 period. The segment's operating margin for the 2024 quarter increased to 7.5% compared with 2.3% in the 2023 quarter driven by revenue growth in the U.K and Europe.

International Operations revenues before reimbursements were $418.6 million in 2024, up 9.5% from $382.4 million in 2023. Absent foreign exchange rate increases of $0.5 million, revenues would have been $418.1 million for 2024.

Operating earnings were $21.0 million in 2024, improving from $11.2 million in 2023. The segment's operating margin for 2024 increased to 5.0% compared with 2.9% in 2023 driven by revenue growth in the U.K., Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

Broadspire

Broadspire segment revenues before reimbursements were $97.7 million in the 2024 fourth quarter, increasing 6.0% from $92.1 million in the 2023 quarter.

Broadspire operating earnings were $10.1 million in the 2024 fourth quarter, representing an operating margin of 10.4%, decreasing from $12.3 million, or 13.3% of revenues, in the 2023 fourth quarter. The decrease was primarily driven by higher self-insurance costs and increased staffing levels.

Broadspire segment revenues before reimbursements were a new annual record of $388.1 million in 2024, increasing 9.1% from $355.7 million in 2023.

Broadspire operating earnings were $52.4 million in 2024, representing an operating margin of 13.5%, increasing from $41.9 million, or 11.8% of revenues in 2023 driven by an increase in revenues resulting from new client programs, increased medical management usage, and pricing improvements.

Platform Solutions

Platform Solutions revenues before reimbursements were $57.6 million in the 2024 fourth quarter, up 55.1% from $37.2 million in the 2023 quarter.

Operating earnings were $4.8 million in the 2024 fourth quarter, increasing from $1.9 million in the 2023 period. The segment's operating margin for the 2024 quarter was 8.2% as compared with 5.2% in the 2023 quarter resulting from increased weather-related activity from Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

Platform Solutions revenues before reimbursements were $173.7 million in 2024, down (23.0)% from $225.5 million in 2023.

Operating earnings were $11.2 million in 2024, decreasing from $28.5 million in the 2023 period. The segment's operating margin for 2024 was 6.4% as compared with 12.7% in 2023 due to a reduction in revenues in our Networks service line due to higher weather-related activity in the prior year resulting in a decreased need for staff augmentation services in 2024 and lower Contractor Connection revenues.

Unallocated Corporate and Shared Costs and Credits, Net

Unallocated corporate costs were $8.0 million in the 2024 fourth quarter, compared with $9.4 million in the 2023 period. The decrease in the fourth quarter was primarily due to a $1.2 million decrease in self-insurance costs and a $0.9 million decrease in professional fees, partially offset by a $0.7 million increase in unallocated compensation.

Unallocated corporate costs were $28.1 million in 2024, compared with $19.4 million in 2023. The increase in 2024 was due to a $3.3 million increase in professional fees, $3.0 million increase in unallocated compensation, and a $2.4 million increase in self-insurance costs.

Selling, General, and Administrative Expenses

Selling, general, and administrative expenses ("SG&A") increased $3.7 million, or 4.9%, in the three months ended December 31, 2024 as compared with the 2023 period. The increase was primarily due to increased self-insurance costs and compensation.

SG&A increased $13.2 million, or 4.6%, in 2024 as compared with 2023. The increase was primarily due to higher professional fees and IT costs, partially offset by the benefit from contingent earnout adjustments.

Other Matters

The Company recognized pretax contingent earnout adjustments totaling expenses of $0.4 million and $0.9 million in the 2024 fourth quarter and comparable 2023 period, respectively, related to the fair value adjustment of earnout liabilities arising from recent acquisitions. The Company recognized a contingent earnout benefit of $(1.1) million in 2024, compared with an expense of $4.0 million in 2023. These adjustments, which are not a component of operating earnings, are based on changes to projections of acquired entities over the respective earnout periods, which span multiple years.

The Company recognized non-service pension costs of $2.5 million in the 2024 fourth quarter compared with $2.2 million in the 2023 period. Non-service pension costs totaled $9.8 million in 2024 compared to $8.6 million in 2023. Non-service pension costs represent the U.S. and U.K. non-service defined benefit pension costs, which are non-operating in nature as the U.S. plan is frozen and the U.K. plans are closed to new participants.

Balance Sheet and Cash Flow

The Company's consolidated cash and cash equivalents position as of December 31, 2024, totaled $55.4 million, compared with $58.4 million at December 31, 2023. The Company's total debt outstanding as of December 31, 2024, totaled $218.1 million, compared with $209.1 million at December 31, 2023.

The Company's operations provided $51.6 million of cash during 2024, compared with $103.8 million provided in 2023. The decrease in cash provided by operating activities was primarily due to a $48.0 million decrease in the change in billed and unbilled accounts receivable and lower earnings.

The Company made no contributions to its U.S. defined benefit pension plan and $2.9 million in contributions to its U.K. plans for 2024, compared with no contributions to the U.S. plan and $2.4 million to the U.K. plans in 2023.

During 2024 and 2023, the Company did not repurchase any shares of CRD-A. In 2024, the Company repurchased 409,610 shares of CRD-B at an average per share cost of $9.44, compared to 293,952 shares of CRD-B repurchased at an average per share cost of $9.30 in 2023. The total cost of share repurchases during 2024 was $3.9 million.

Conference Call

As previously announced, Crawford & Company will host a conference call on March 4, 2025 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss its fourth quarter and full year 2024 results. The conference call can be accessed live by dialing 1-800-549-8228 and using Conference ID 03099. A presentation for tomorrow's call can also be found on the investor relations portion of the Company's website, https://ir.crawco.com. The call will be recorded and available for replay through April 4, 2025. You may dial 1-888-660-6264 and use passcode 03099# to listen to the replay.

Non-GAAP Presentation

In the normal course of business, our operating segments incur certain out-of-pocket expenses that are thereafter reimbursed by our clients. Under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"), these out-of-pocket expenses and associated reimbursements are required to be included when reporting expenses and revenues, respectively, in our consolidated results of operations. In the foregoing discussion and analysis of segment results of operations, we do not include a gross up of segment expenses and revenues for these pass-through reimbursed expenses. The amounts of reimbursed expenses and related revenues offset each other in our results of operations with no impact to our net income or operating earnings. A reconciliation of revenues before reimbursements to consolidated revenues determined in accordance with GAAP is self-evident from the face of the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations.

Operating earnings is the primary financial performance measure used by our senior management and chief operating decision maker ("CODM") to evaluate the financial performance of our Company and operating segments, and make resource allocation and certain compensation decisions. Unlike net income, segment operating earnings is not a standard performance measure found in GAAP. We believe this measure is useful to others in that it allows them to evaluate segment and consolidated operating performance using the same criteria used by our senior management and CODM. Consolidated operating earnings represent segment earnings including certain unallocated corporate and shared costs, but before net corporate interest expense, stock option expense, amortization of customer-relationship intangible assets, contingent earnout adjustments, non-service pension costs and credits, income taxes and net income or loss attributable to noncontrolling interests.

Adjusted EBITDA is not a term defined by GAAP and as a result our measure of adjusted EBITDA might not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. However, adjusted EBITDA is used by management to evaluate, assess and benchmark our operational results. The Company believes that adjusted EBITDA is relevant and useful information widely used by analysts, investors and other interested parties. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income attributable to shareholders of the Company with adjustments for depreciation and amortization, net corporate interest expense, contingent earnout adjustments, non-service pension costs and credits, income taxes and stock-based compensation expense.

Unallocated corporate and shared costs and credits include expenses and credits related to our chief executive officer and Board of Directors, certain provisions for bad debt allowances or subsequent recoveries such as those related to bankrupt clients, certain unallocated professional fees and certain self-insurance costs and recoveries that are not allocated to our individual operating segments.

Income taxes, net corporate interest expense, stock option expense, amortization of customer-relationship intangible assets, contingent earnout adjustments, and non-service pension costs and credits are recurring components of our net income, but they are not considered part of our segment operating earnings because they are managed on a corporate-wide basis. Income taxes are calculated for the Company on a consolidated basis based on statutory rates in effect in the various jurisdictions in which we provide services and vary significantly by jurisdiction. Net corporate interest expense results from capital structure decisions made by senior management and the Board of Directors, affecting the Company as a whole. Stock option expense represents the non-cash costs generally related to stock options and employee stock purchase plan expenses which are not allocated to our operating segments. Amortization expense is a non-cash expense for finite-lived customer-relationship and trade name intangible assets acquired in business combinations. Contingent earnout adjustments relate to changes in the fair value of earnouts associated with our recent acquisitions. Non-service pension costs and credits represent the U.S. and U.K. non-service defined benefit pension costs, which are non-operating in nature as the U.S. plan was frozen in 2002 and the U.K. plans are closed to new participants. None of these costs relate directly to the performance of our services or operating activities and, therefore, are excluded from segment operating earnings to better assess the results of each segment's operating activities on a consistent basis.

A significant portion of our operations are international. These international operations subject us to foreign exchange fluctuations. The following table illustrates revenue as a percentage of total revenue for the major currencies of the geographic areas that Crawford does business:

Following is a reconciliation of consolidated operating earnings to net income (loss) attributable to shareholders of Crawford & Company on a GAAP basis:

Following is a reconciliation of net income (loss) attributable to shareholders of Crawford & Company on a GAAP basis to non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA:

Following is a reconciliation of operating cash flow to free cash flow for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024 and 2023:

Non-GAAP consolidated results for 2024 and 2023 exclude the non-cash, after-tax adjustments for amortization of intangible assets, non-service-related pension costs, and contingent earnout adjustment.

Following are the reconciliations of GAAP Pretax Earnings (Loss), Net Income (Loss) and Earnings (Loss) Per Share to related non-GAAP Adjusted figures, which reflect each of 2024 and 2023 before amortization of intangible assets, non-service related pension costs and contingent earnout adjustments:

⁽¹⁾ Sum of reconciling items may differ from total due to rounding of individual components.

Following is information regarding the weighted average shares used in the computation of basic and diluted earnings per share:

⁽¹⁾ The Company had a net loss for GAAP reporting during the three months ended December 31, 2023, resulting in no additional dilutive securities added to the basic weighted average shares in calculating diluted weighted average shares for GAAP reporting as their impact would be anti-dilutive. As the Company has Non-GAAP positive net income for the twelve months ended December 31, 2023, these dilutive securities were added back to calculate Non-GAAP earnings per share.

Further information regarding the Company's operating results for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2024, financial position as of December 31, 2024, and cash flows for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024 is shown on the attached unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.

About Crawford & Company

Based in Atlanta, Crawford & Company (NYSE:CRD) is a leading provider of claims management and outsourcing solutions to insurance companies and self-insured entities with an expansive network serving clients in more than 70 countries. The Company's two classes of stock are substantially identical, except with respect to voting rights for the Class B Common Stock (CRD-B) and protections for the non-voting Class A Common Stock (CRD-A). More information is available at www.crawco.com

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