Business advisory firm FTI Consulting (NYSE: FCN) reported revenue ahead of Wall Street’s expectations in Q1 CY2026, with sales up 9.5% year on year to $983.3 million. The company expects the full year’s revenue to be around $4.02 billion, close to analysts’ estimates. Its non-GAAP profit of $1.90 per share was 8.1% below analysts’ consensus estimates.

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Company Overview

With a team of experts deployed across 30+ countries to tackle complex business challenges, FTI Consulting (NYSE: FCN) is a global business advisory firm that helps organizations manage change, mitigate risk, and resolve disputes across financial, legal, operational, and regulatory matters.

Revenue Growth

A company’s long-term sales performance can indicate its overall quality. Even a bad business can shine for one or two quarters, but a top-tier one grows for years.

With $3.87 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, FTI Consulting is one of the larger companies in the business services industry and benefits from a well-known brand that influences purchasing decisions.

As you can see below, FTI Consulting grew its sales at a solid 8.8% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. This shows it had high demand, a useful starting point for our analysis.

We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within business services, a half-decade historical view may miss recent innovations or disruptive industry trends. FTI Consulting’s recent performance shows its demand has slowed as its annualized revenue growth of 3.6% over the last two years was below its five-year trend. We’re wary when companies in the sector see decelerations in revenue growth, as it could signal changing consumer tastes aided by low switching costs.

This quarter, FTI Consulting reported year-on-year revenue growth of 9.5%, and its $983.3 million of revenue exceeded Wall Street’s estimates by 1.2%.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 5.9% over the next 12 months, an improvement versus the last two years. This projection is above the sector average and implies its newer products and services will spur better top-line performance.

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Adjusted Operating Margin

Adjusted operating margin is an important measure of profitability as it shows the portion of revenue left after accounting for all core expenses – everything from the cost of goods sold to advertising and wages. It’s also useful for comparing profitability across companies because it excludes non-recurring expenses, interest on debt, and taxes.

FTI Consulting’s adjusted operating margin has been trending up over the last 12 months and averaged 10.2% over the last five years. Its profitability was higher than the broader business services sector, showing it did a decent job managing its expenses.

Analyzing the trend in its profitability, FTI Consulting’s adjusted operating margin might fluctuated slightly but has generally stayed the same over the last five years. This raises questions about the company’s expense base because its revenue growth should have given it leverage on its fixed costs, resulting in better economies of scale and profitability.

In Q1, FTI Consulting generated an adjusted operating margin profit margin of 9.6%, in line with the same quarter last year. This indicates the company’s overall cost structure has been relatively stable.

Earnings Per Share

We track the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) for the same reason as long-term revenue growth. Compared to revenue, however, EPS highlights whether a company’s growth is profitable.

FTI Consulting’s EPS grew at an unimpressive 5.7% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years, lower than its 8.8% annualized revenue growth. However, its adjusted operating margin didn’t change during this time, telling us that non-fundamental factors such as interest and taxes affected its ultimate earnings.

Like with revenue, we analyze EPS over a shorter period to see if we are missing a change in the business.

For FTI Consulting, its two-year annual EPS declines of 1.1% show it’s continued to underperform. These results were bad no matter how you slice the data.

In Q1, FTI Consulting reported adjusted EPS of $1.90, down from $2.29 in the same quarter last year. This print missed analysts’ estimates. We also like to analyze expected EPS growth based on Wall Street analysts’ consensus projections, but there is insufficient data.

Key Takeaways from FTI Consulting’s Q1 Results

It was good to see FTI Consulting narrowly top analysts’ revenue expectations this quarter. On the other hand, its EPS missed and its full-year EPS guidance was in line with Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, this was a softer quarter. The stock traded up 2.4% to $183.57 immediately following the results.

So do we think FTI Consulting is an attractive buy at the current price? If you’re making that decision, you should consider the bigger picture of valuation, business qualities, as well as the latest earnings. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).