Cushman & Wakefield Below Analyst Q4 Estimates, Stock Dips

Financial Highlights:

* Revenue: $2.63 billion (3% YoY growth, 0.9% miss vs. $2.65 billion estimate)
* Adjusted EPS: $0.48 (in line with $0.48 estimate)
* Adjusted EBITDA: $222.3 million (8.5% margin, 1.1% beat vs. $219.9 million estimate)
* Operating margin: 6.6% (up from 4.3% in Q4 2023)
* Free cash flow margin: 4% (down from 7.8% in Q4 2023)

Company Overview:

Cushman & Wakefield (NYSE: CWK) specializes in commercial real estate, providing a range of services from property management to capital markets advisory.

Sales Growth:

* 1.5% compounded annual growth rate over the past five years (below industry standards)
* 3.3% annual decline in revenue over the last two years

Revenue Breakdown:

* Management: 33.5%
* Leasing: 23.7%
* Capital Markets: 9.4%
* Leasing and Capital Markets revenues have declined by 3.1% and 18.5% YoY over the past two years

Analyst Outlook:

* 6.2% revenue growth expected over the next 12 months (below average for the sector)

Cash Flow:

* Limited capital return opportunities due to poor cash profitability
* Free cash flow margin: 1.5% over the past two years
* Free cash flow margin of 4% in Q4 (3.8 percentage points lower than Q4 2023)

Key Takeaways:

* Revenue and Capital Markets revenue below expectations
* Weak quarter overall
* Stock price declined 7.1% following the results

Recommendation:

For in-depth analysis and a recommendation on whether to buy or sell CWK, refer to our full research report.