MeritValue

ROBERT HALF INC.

RHIdata completeness 88%18 fiscal years on file
The thesis, from the filings

ROBERT HALF INC. earns about 50% on invested capital, far above its ~9% cost of capital, and has bought back 10% of its shares over 5 years — the marks of a durable business run for its owners. The estimate methods put fair value between $42.47 and $55.07 a share.Whether it’s worth owning at today’s price is the last question — and yours to answer, below.

i. The business — what you’d actually own
FigureFY 2021FY 2022FY 2023FY 2024FY 2025
Revenue$6.46B1$7.24B2$6.39B3$5.8B3$5.38B3
Net income$598.6M4$657.9M5$411.1M6$251.6M6$133M6
Operating cash flow$603.1M7$683.8M8$636.9M9$410.5M9$320M9
Capital expenditure$36.6M10$61.1M11$45.9M12$56.3M12$53.2M12
Free cash flow (derived)$566.5M7$622.6M8$591M9$354.2M9$266.8M9
Total debt$013————
Cash & equivalents$619M14$658.6M15$731.7M16$537.6M17$464.4M17
Diluted shares111.7M109.2M106.1M103.0M100.3M

Superscripts are receipts. Each links to the SEC filing the number came from (full list at the bottom).

ii. Your slice — ownership made literal
If you owned
shares
Net assets behind them
$127.19
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$13.26
Free cash flow it threw off
$26.6
Debt you’d be carrying
—

10 shares is a claim on $127.19 of net worth that earned you $13.26 and generated $26.6 of cash last year.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
50% avg · 5y
FY21 79%FY22 73%FY23 50%FY24 30%FY25 16%

It earned about 50% on invested capital, year after year, against a ~9% cost of capital — the footprint of real pricing power. Competition usually drags returns like this back down; here it hasn't.

seeing a moat in the numbers →
Management signal · capital allocation
−10% shares · 5y

Share count is down 10% over 5 years — management has been buying back stock, quietly handing owners a bigger slice.

reading capital allocation →

Signals, not verdicts — read from the filings above. Numbers don’t prove a moat; they show its footprint. You decide.

iv. What it’s worth — engine v0.1.0

The 3 estimate methods that apply put fair value between $42.47 and $55.07 a share. They rest on different assumptions, so where they diverge is the story; the Graham Number is a stricter floor, not a target.

DCF · Growth Exit 10Y
$51.27
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$354.2M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$55.07
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$354.2M
Earnings Power Value
$42.47
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$411.1M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$19.51
assumptions (1)
  • grahamMultiplier2250.0%

Different models answer different questions — which to trust when →

v. The price question — last, on purpose
Is today’s price fair?
See live price ↗
Type a price. The ledger answers.
Or set your own belief
FCF growth, next 5 years0.0%
Discount rate (WACC)8.93%
Terminal growth2.5%
At your growth, a share is worth $55.07
The three cases
Bear0.0%$55.07
Base0.0%$55.07
Bull5.0%$67.28

Bear/base/bull growth = 0% / filed history / history + 5pp. Type a price to see the return each case implies.

Default growth 0.0%= this company’s own filed history (median-to-median FCF CAGR, clamped 0–20%). Your adjustments are recorded anonymously. They become the “what do owners actually believe” dataset.

Sources — the receipts
  1. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000315213-24-000011 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000315213-25-000007 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000315213-26-000006 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000315213-24-000011 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000315213-25-000007 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000315213-26-000006 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000315213-24-000011 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000315213-25-000007 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000315213-26-000006 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000315213-24-000011 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000315213-25-000007 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000315213-26-000006 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000315213-22-000018 (LongTermDebtCurrent)
  14. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000315213-23-000016 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  15. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000315213-24-000011 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  16. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000315213-25-000007 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  17. 10-K · period ending 2024-12-31 · accession 0000315213-26-000006 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)