Q1 '26 Earnings Preview

DHI Group (DHX) reports Q1 ’26 results on Tuesday, May 5, after the market closes. In our view, labor market conditions for technologists were incrementally better in Q1 than in Q4. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ JOLTS data, the number of job openings declined slightly in January and February with the rate of decline improving relative to the end of last year. CompTIA’s analysis of the jobs data points to an even brighter picture for technology professionals, indicating that growth in new job postings and active postings stabilized in January, turned positive in February and inflected higher in March. This trajectory jives with recent earnings results from several large IT staffing providers, which highlighted ongoing stabilization within their own businesses in Q1 along with an uptick in demand exiting the quarter and into Q2. We therefore remain comfortable with our estimates for Q1, and we expect DHI Group to meet or beat Street expectations. Recall that in March, DHI Group also acquired Point Solutions Group, a staffing services provider targeting the aerospace and defense, cybersecurity and other government verticals. While we do not think the acquisition had much of an impact on Q1 results, we note that both management’s FY ’26 guidance and our model have yet to incorporate any contribution from Point Solutions Group. As such, we expect management to raise its prior FY ’26 targets, and we plan to adjust our estimates accordingly. In the meantime, our price target remains $4.50 based on a FY ’26 EV/Sales multiple of 2x. 

Exhibit I: Our Estimates Versus Consensus

Sources: K. Liu & Company LLC; FactSet Estimates

We project Q1 revenue and adjusted EBITDA of $29.2 million and $6.4 million, respectively, both of which are approximately in line with consensus. For Dice, we project revenue of $15.5 million along with a bookings decline of 18% Y/Y. For ClearanceJobs, we estimate revenue of $13.7 million along with bookings growth of 2% Y/Y. All else equal, we surmise management would simply reaffirm its initial FY ’26 guidance, which was provided just a couple months ago. Given the acquisition of Point Solutions Group, however, we expect an upward revision to the outlook. Considering the earnout targets set forth in the purchase agreement, we believe a quarterly revenue run rate of $1.8-$2.0 million and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 10%-15% reflect reasonable assumptions for accretion from the acquisition.

Our report with model and disclosures is available here.

Disclosure(s):

K. Liu & Company LLC (“the firm”) receives or intends to seek compensation from the companies covered in its research reports. The firm has received compensation from DHI Group, Inc. (DHX) in the past 12 months for “Sponsored Research.”

Sponsored Research produced by the firm is paid for by the subject company in the form of an initial retainer and a recurring monthly fee. The analysis and recommendations in our Sponsored Research reports are derived from the same process and methodologies utilized in all of our research reports whether sponsored or not. The subject company does not review any aspect of our Sponsored Research reports prior to publication.