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Huron Consulting Group Inc. (HURN)

Q2 2012 Earnings Call· Wed, Jul 25, 2012

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Huron Consulting Group’s webcast to discuss the financial results for the second quarter 2012. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. Before we begin, I would like to point all of you to the disclosure at the end of the company’s news release for information about any forward-looking statements that may be made or discussed on this call. The news release is posted on Huron’s web site. Please review that information along with our filings with the SEC for disclosure of factors that may impact subjects discussed in this afternoon's webcast. The company will be discussing one or more non-GAAP financial measures. Please look at the earnings release and on Huron’s web site for all disclosures required by the SEC including reconciliation to the most comparable GAAP numbers. And now, I would like to turn the call over to Jim Roth, Chief Executive Officer and President of Huron Consulting Group. Mr. Roth, please go ahead.

James Roth

Analyst · William Blair & Company

Good afternoon, and welcome to Huron Consulting Group’s Second Quarter 2012 Earnings Call. With me today are Mark Hussey, our Chief Financial Officer and Patty Olsen, our Corporate Vice President of Human Resources. Jim Rojas, our Chief Operating Officer will not be joining us today due to a prior commitment. I will spend a few minutes talking about our Q2 performance and our outlook for the rest of the year and will then turn it over to Mark for a more detailed discussion of the financials. As anticipated, our second quarter performance was impacted by several large engagements in our healthcare practice for which performance based fees will not be recognized until later in the year. All of our segments, with the exception of Financial Consulting are performing at a pace consistent with our expectations. I recognize the challenges for our investors stemming from the ebb and flow of healthcare revenue, so I am going to go straight into a discussion of our segment performance in order to provide more color on our results. Revenue in the Health and Education consulting segment was $9.6 million lower in the second quarter of this year as compared to the second quarter of last 2011. The primary factor driving the lower revenue was the fact that we had $34 million in performance based fees in the second quarter last year compared to only $14 million in the second quarter this year, a decline of $20 million. Let me pause here briefly to talk about performance based revenue in the health care practice. Every month, we perform a detailed review of every project that’s expected to generate performance based fees. During that review, we evaluate the extent to which our efforts remain on target to generate performance based fees along with the timing and…

C. Hussey

Analyst · William Blair & Company

Thank you, Jim. Good afternoon, everyone. Let me begin by discussing a few housekeeping items. Consistent with our past practice, I will be discussing our financial results primarily in the context of continuing operations. I will also be discussing non-GAAP financial measures such as EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income and adjusted EPS. Our press release, web site and 10-Q, each have reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures as well as a discussion of why management uses these non-GAAP measures. I will now walk you through some key financial results for the quarter. Revenues for the second quarter of 2012 were $144.7 million, compared to $153.1 million in the same quarter of last year. Sequentially, second quarter revenues increased about 4% from $138.6 million in the first quarter. Last year’s second quarter included a record $33.9 million in performance based fees and in this year’s quarter, performance based fees were $13.8 million. Second quarter 2012 EBITDA was $19.9 million or 13.8% of revenues compared to $28.0 million or 18.3% of revenues in the comparable quarter last year. The decline in margin reflects the lower level of performance based fees coupled with 13.3% increase in our average full times billable head count. These resources were relatively productive as measured by our utilization levels. For Q2 2012, utilization was 74.5% compared with 71.9% a year ago. However, due to the lower level of performance based fees in Q2 2012, our average billing rate declined to $210 per hour from $270 per hour in the same quarter last year. I will provide some additional color when I discuss the operating segments in a few moments. Adjusted EBITDA came in at $21.5 million in Q2 2012 or 14.9% of revenues compared to $30.8 million in Q2 2011 for 20.1%…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] You first question comes from the line of Tim McHugh with William Blair & Company.

Timothy McHugh

Analyst · William Blair & Company

I guess first I want to ask just, either Mark or Jim, can you give us, given the new guidance, what type of growth rates for the different segments are you assuming now in that updated guidance?

C. Hussey

Analyst · William Blair & Company

I will take that one, Tim. So if you look at the overall guidance, the color that we had given you when we originally gave the guidance was for Health and Education Consulting up between 5% and 10%. And if you back into what the new guidance implies within that segment, obviously we just told you that education had a record quarter and is doing particularly well. So a portion of that decline is going to be related to the healthcare business. The Legal Consulting segment, of course, we just added the $10 million, of AdamsGrayson which we called it out for you. And originally we had expected this to be flat to up 5%, roughly. At this point, we continue to be confident in that guidance and maybe a little bit of more optimistic just based on what we have seen year-to-date. Financial Consulting is clearly struggling and where they are right now, although we are very optimistic in the second half that the run rate will improve, it will be attributable for a portion of that decline.

Timothy McHugh

Analyst · William Blair & Company

Okay, so just on the healthcare, or the Health and Education segment overall, would you be expecting a lower growth right now or is it relatively unchanged?

C. Hussey

Analyst · William Blair & Company

It will be a little bit lower than we had in original guidance because we have gone to the lower half of the range.

Timothy McHugh

Analyst · William Blair & Company

Oaky, I just didn’t know how much of that was financials. Okay, given that, what are you seeing out there and as you look at the complexity of the case, Jim, you gave us some color about the process you go through. And looking at the contingent fees -- but are you seeing anything in the complexity of the cases or the length of time to earn the fees that makes you think they could slip, are more likely to possibly slip into 2012. Or 2013 or is that just trying to be conservative given what’s happened so far in the year.

James Roth

Analyst · William Blair & Company

Tim, this is Jim. Some of the projects that we are working on right now, certainly, are complex and particularly in some of the academic medical centers, the complexity of getting to where you need to go is complex and we kind of anticipated that. We do know -- the point we were trying to make in the comments was that when we look back at what it is we need to achieve, we are very comfortable that we are going to be hitting our metrics. For us the question is going to be, when? We understand that’s an important question to ask. But one of the reasons we put the guidance towards the lower end was to reflect the fact that it is possible that some of the revenues that we originally thought would fall in 2012 may in fact fall into first quarter 2013. Our current guidance reflects those possibilities.

Timothy McHugh

Analyst · William Blair & Company

Okay, and have you seen any signs that as you move from Q2 to Q3 that the fees are starting to come in and any commentary, Mark, you might give between Q3 and Q4? Are they particularly Q4 weighted?

James Roth

Analyst · William Blair & Company

It is going to be hard for us -- it's Jim again, for us to gauge whether it is going to be Q3 or Q4. When we go out and we have the monthly or sometimes quarterly discussions with the clients, it really is about making sure. When we go out to a particular client, it’s not as though there is just one contingent or task that’s going to be the focus of contingent revenues. It is actually multiple tasks that comes through. You may have one for labor, you may have one for non-labor, you may have one for revenue cycle. So there is independent pathways towards the contingent revenues of the performance fees on any given project. And each one of them has its own set of complexities and timings and opportunities. So when we have these reviews with the clients, we are going back on a task by task basis and trying to figure out where do we stand. Is the client satisfied with the pace at which things are going? Are we on pace to get the results that we are looking for? That collectively gives us some comfort as to where we are going. So even though some of the projects are a little bit more complex and some of them may in fact be taking a little bit more time than we thought, our sense of our ability to get to where we need to go when we committed the client hasn’t changed. That’s the part that I said, I really want to reinforce because it is an important part of us providing the guidance that we have right now and the comfort around it.

C. Hussey

Analyst · William Blair & Company

Tim, in terms of the timing, again, while we are not specific in terms of which quarter because we don’t give quarterly guidance, we certainly expect Q3 will be much better than Q2. And we think that Q4 will be better than Q3. So I would not characterize this as completely weighted in a very last quarter of the year waiting for everything to happen. There is expectation that Q3 will be better than Q2.

James Roth

Analyst · William Blair & Company

Just to be fair on this, every one of those work streams that we speak -- that we see for every one of our clients there is opportunities for things to be missed. We don’t do it often, but it occurs. There are also opportunities for us to receive more performance fees than we had anticipated. It happens as well. So we have got all these complexities of timing and amount that you have factor into this. That’s why we go through such a detailed assessment on a month-by-month basis.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Dan Leben with Robert W. Baird.

Daniel Leben

Analyst · Dan Leben with Robert W. Baird

Just looking at the bill rate in health and ed outside of contingencies, those numbers are still down a little bit year-over-year. Can you just talk about any mix issues in terms of more contingent engagements of mix towards education? Anything that’s impacting that or is it just a competitive market?

C. Hussey

Analyst · Dan Leben with Robert W. Baird

Dan, this is Mark. There are a lot of things that affect the bill rate. One of the things is assessments which we normally do at close to a break even level. And so while it’s not a material impact in terms of the bill rate, but certainly we have indicated a stronger level of assessments, year-on-year. But also, and probably the more important factor, is just the mix of the engagements and what percentage of that comes in the form of fixed fee at the beginning versus contingent at the end. So as you look at that, there we have had some larger engagements that we talked about earlier in the year that were a little bit more toward the higher end of that range. And so that has more impact even if you strip out the contingent fees.

Daniel Leben

Analyst · Dan Leben with Robert W. Baird

Okay, great, and any changes to activity in the pipeline following the Supreme Court decision? Have you seen any flow through, positive or negative, to the business?

James Roth

Analyst · Dan Leben with Robert W. Baird

Dan, this is Jim. I think it’s too early to really sense that. We said upfront that we didn’t think we would be impacted that much because the marketplace issues are having such a big impact on our clients right now, on their performance and the challenges that they are up against. I think even if there was a change, I think it is frankly too early for us to tell. The nature of the work that we are seeing right now -- and then frankly I think this is true in healthcare, but it is also true in higher education. The stresses on those industries are really significant right now. I think what happens is the nature of the projects that were being asked to look at or consider or actually do are probably more invasive than they have been before. There is certainly going to be more challenging and more complex. So to some extent, it takes a little bit more time for the projects to ramp up. But when they ramp up, I think, for the large part, we are seeing projects that are going to continue to be large and complex and probably last for a period of time. So maybe that’s a long way of saying, I am not sure that we have seen anything yet that we can directly attribute to the Supreme Court ruling but at the same token, the marketplace is very vibrant throughout the entire segment right now.

Daniel Leben

Analyst · Dan Leben with Robert W. Baird

Great, and then on the legal segment, the average revenue per FTE ticked up nicely back to levels you were at in 2010. Can you talk about the drivers behind that? Is that simply a good set of big cases where you got a lot of leverage? I just want to understand the dynamic.

C. Hussey

Analyst · Dan Leben with Robert W. Baird

I think you described it well. I think we have some larger cases that we mentioned in Jim’s remarks relative to some of our Financial Services clients, and that -- as those revenues have grown in the quarter is reflected in the average that you are seeing.

Daniel Leben

Analyst · Dan Leben with Robert W. Baird

Okay, and then last one from me. Just on AdamsGrayson, you mentioned the impact to revenue. What about adjusted EBITDA and EPS?

C. Hussey

Analyst · Dan Leben with Robert W. Baird

We didn’t break that out separately, but at this point we are going to integrate that into the practice. And so we don’t intend to mange and track this business separately because it is inherently an e-discovery part of the business. What I can tell you is that we have actually had a couple of early wins already on a couple of larger clients and we are very excited about it. We think that in terms of the service offering, they were primarily review. They didn’t do a lot on the processing side. So that’s clearly an incremental opportunity for us in terms of additional services within their existing base. Then finally, as we talked a little about it before, the model that they use includes the ability to have on-site customer review, customer managed review and as a result of that, it gives us a new opportunity to get into cases and situations that we might not otherwise have gotten into with the former model that we were using.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Jim Janesky with Avondale.

James Janesky

Analyst · Jim Janesky with Avondale

When you look at the operating margin within Health and Education, it was up pretty dramatically sequentially despite revenues only up a couple of million sequentially, and therefore so was the absolute dollars of operating income. Can you share with us why?

C. Hussey

Analyst · Jim Janesky with Avondale

Yes, Jim, it’s Mark, and again, I think the key driver was each quarter as we adjust our bonus expectations, which is done toward the midpoint of guidance, and with a narrowed range would have reversed some of the bonus expense and contributed to margin.

James Janesky

Analyst · Jim Janesky with Avondale

Okay, did you reverse, and that’s because of the slippage into 2013, I should say, the potential slippage into 2013 of success fees?

C. Hussey

Analyst · Jim Janesky with Avondale

Yes, as it relates to the overall new guidance range, that’s yes.

James Janesky

Analyst · Jim Janesky with Avondale

But the core, there is no change in the core businesses operating income metrics, right. This was just bonus related.

C. Hussey

Analyst · Jim Janesky with Avondale

Yes. Principally, bonus related and again, we have said this in the past, our process is very well laid out and non-discretionary in nature because we don’t have the ability to vary our bonus expense to achieve a margin within the quarter. We are looking to with a full year number expected to be. And so really in a context to that, really, as you look at our guidance as well, based on first half numbers, our bonus expense now again will be at a run rate on a fixed basis here in Q3 and Q4 given that if we are on pace to achieve those numbers. And as a result we should see an improvement in margin as a result of the fixed bonus expense on higher revenue to the extent we hit the guidance numbers.

James Janesky

Analyst · Jim Janesky with Avondale

Okay. Jim, can you help us understand what the difference is year-over-year in the sequential realization of success fees. So last year they started off at about the same level as they were at this year and then jumped up significantly in the June quarter and then backed off in the September and December quarter of 2011 but only by a little bit. What changed the pace of recognition so significantly year-over-year, in your mind?

James Roth

Analyst · Jim Janesky with Avondale

Jim, this is Jim. I wish that there was some pattern that we can point to in the activities that are going to be generating revenue for us. This is the challenge for us in the sense that our first half is to go out and try to generate the projects that are going to be doing the work and so once we do that, we then do our best to try to begin to project. But we certainly have a higher complement of projects today that are performance based than we have had in the recent past. It so happens to be that, that tends to dominated by probably 3, maybe 4, pretty good size jobs, all of which, for reasons that are not systemic or just happen to be the way they are. They have performance fees that are going to be paying out more towards the end of these cycles. It’s not always the case that way. Each client has a different design and different metric in terms of how and when performance fees are measured or performances are measured and therefore performance fees are paid out. So we end up really doing our best to try to gauge the progress through which we are going to be generating the work and hitting the performance targets. We try to judge the complexity of the opportunities. As we have said before, there is going to times, there could be times where, if we spend additional effort on the project and therefore more time, we actually may end up getting more revenue. So we make those decisions as well. So every task on every job has this whole unique set of patterns. We are in a pattern right now where the biggest projects tend to be pushing revenues out towards the second half of the year. I think, it could be, next year has a very different pattern. We just don’t know, but I think that’s as best we can tell. This is just the cards that we have got right and as far as I said, as challenging as it is, but I realize for everyone to try to make sense as to where it is going and what’s going to happen. We take a lot of comfort in the fact that the work that we are doing today, is in fact going very going well and that we seem to be on target to hit the performance metrics that we set.

C. Hussey

Analyst · Jim Janesky with Avondale

Let me just add to what Jim said, which is really that’s driven by the mix of engagements. All of that said, at any point in time, our healthcare practice is incented to hit an annual plan number in terms of really, EBITDA, and so to the extent that they have to deal with the marketplace mix, they are trying to navigate through all of those challenges to achieve the annual targets that they have out in front of them. So even though the mix has changed over time, what they are trying to do is still achieve the overall plan for the year.

James Janesky

Analyst · Jim Janesky with Avondale

So when you talked about the guidance range of 5% to 10% growth and Health and Education, possibly being slanted towards the lower end, is that because purely of success fee timing or is there a fundamental change in the market?

James Roth

Analyst · Jim Janesky with Avondale

I think there is no fundamental change in the market that we have seen. It’s as strong as it was through last year. It is even stronger this year. So there is no change in the market from our perspective. This is really a question of the timing about some of our biggest jobs.

C. Hussey

Analyst · Jim Janesky with Avondale

We feel very good about where the market is at and we feel equally good about our ability to competitively serve the market today.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Paul Ginocchio with Deutsche Bank.

Paul Ginocchio

Analyst · Paul Ginocchio with Deutsche Bank

Sorry if I missed this, but you had said earlier, I think on a previous call, you thought performance fees would grow in line with revenue in the healthcare and higher ed division. Is that still true? Then second, can you talk about margins in the HEC division? Head count is up 18% year-on-year, but revenues are sort of down in the first half of the year. So just what is the outlook for margins? Then finally, in e-discovery, you talked about mainly financial services projects. Can you talk about if you are working on any LIBOR projects? Or what’s driving within financial services? What’s driving e-discovery?

C. Hussey

Analyst · Paul Ginocchio with Deutsche Bank

Sure. Paul, with respect to the margins, I am going to take this from the standpoint of pricing in the healthcare environment. As Jim mentioned, we haven’t really seen a change in the market. That’s been true really of our expectations from a profitability standpoint as we look at the opportunities. In other words, we have not really changed our margin expectations over time and that incorporates the assumed staffing levels to achieve the number. So over time we believe that we have stable margins within that side of the practice and really, I would say, on the higher ed side, that particular practice is well. It is fairly stable. It can have a different mix depending on what’s going on at any point of time but we believe that if you look historically, our expectation would be the margin performance is going to be generally in line. I don’t know, Jim, if you have anything to add.

James Roth

Analyst · Paul Ginocchio with Deutsche Bank

No, I think that’s exactly right. I would agree to that. Maybe I will answer that piece about e-discovery, Paul. I think our preference is typically not to talk about clients. Certainly we don’t about clients unless they have already been made public. And I think that sometimes it gets a little bit misleading if we talk about particular events because we could say that we are doing work for LIBOR and the LIBOR matter with one of the banks. And what you don’t really get out of that is how big it is and I think our preference is just to say that. It is the last group I need to talk about all the complexities that are challenging financial services industry right now, and I think we have a pretty good array of clients across the various issues that are affecting them right now. I would rather leave it at that. It is probably our largest industry that we are serving right now but we do a lot in energy, we do a lot in pharmaceutical as well, we are doing a lot in telecom and tech. So all the current stuff, for the most part, we are doing some of it. But I think I would rather leave it at that.

Paul Ginocchio

Analyst · Paul Ginocchio with Deutsche Bank

Understood. Is it still your outlook that performance fees grow in line HEC revenue or have you toned that down a little bit?

C. Hussey

Analyst · Paul Ginocchio with Deutsche Bank

No, so back to what Jim said originally about the mix of engagements going out at any point in time. So we have seen an increase in several clients that have taken this a little bit towards the higher end of the range. If you look historically, we are really not outside the range of what we have seen. If you look at how much revenue is going to come from performance based fees versus fixed fee, and so that has a variance in terms of what the future effect on revenue would be. So to the extent that we have new engagements that are going to be a little bit higher in that mix. That may end up, depending on what period of time you are looking, push it into future period of time. Over time, if you look at it, it would be higher just because of the mix. But in any given quarter, based on the recognition it can vary a little bit.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Tobey Sommer with SunTrust.

Frank Pinkerton

Analyst · Tobey Sommer with SunTrust

This is Frank, in for Tobey. Wanted to ask a little bit about the life sciences business, how is demand and pricing been the pharma and medical device side?

C. Hussey

Analyst · Tobey Sommer with SunTrust

Life science has actually been doing very well. It continues to grow. It has had a nice growth rate for us, and I think they are broadening the level of services they are providing. And we are pretty pleased with the growth rate within that group as well. I think it is indicative really of the collective across the board, all the various practices within the higher education, life sciences business have been doing very well. As we indicated, we had a record quarter in the second quarter for that group. So life science certainly was part of that.

Frank Pinkerton

Analyst · Tobey Sommer with SunTrust

Okay, if I can dig into legal a little bit more. Can you talk a little bit about the pricing environment there and any areas that have either strength or weakness by either practice or geography you have seen?

C. Hussey

Analyst · Tobey Sommer with SunTrust

I don’t know that we are seeing. There has always discussion of pricing pressures. It still is a very competitive market, make no question about it, but for us, right now, even though pricing is always going to be an issue, I think what’s really driving the collective business in the segment is that fact that the needs across the board are pretty acute. So even if there is some pricing pressure, I think some of the improved margins that we have seen are really the result of the fact that we are getting high volume in the various services that contribute to that volume. We are learning to manage the business a little bit better. We have been making progress over the last several quarters and we hope to continue to do that.

Frank Pinkerton

Analyst · Tobey Sommer with SunTrust

Okay, great, and what was consultant turnover in the quarter?

C. Hussey

Analyst · Tobey Sommer with SunTrust

Actually, on a year-to-date basis, it’s running about, let’s see, I am not going to talk to the quarter but on an annualized basis, its running probably about 15% to 16%.

Frank Pinkerton

Analyst · Tobey Sommer with SunTrust

Okay, great, and finally, you talked about potential pickup in financial segment in the second half of the year. Maybe if you could talk about some things that would drive that or what gives you some comfort that things could turn out there?

C. Hussey

Analyst · Tobey Sommer with SunTrust

Well, it obviously has been a challenging, at least, last couple of quarters and we had hoped to see more improvement in the second quarter and we didn’t. It went the other direction. There is a couple of things that give us some comfort. Probably the most important one would be, we have got some really good people on the practice and that they are in the market quite a bit. I think we need to just have a few things fall our way, either through as transaction. We are broadening some of the services there, but again I think we have got some really competent people that are in the market. We are not losing tons of work. I think we just have to have more times at bat and that will hopefully come in the third quarter. So that’s what we are pushing for right now. But we have broadened the services we provide and we are just extremely, extremely focused on trying to generate revenue by getting out and talking to people. And then I think hopefully events will fall our way in the third quarter and beyond.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Joseph Foresi with Janney Montgomery Scott.

Joseph Foresi

Analyst · Joseph Foresi with Janney Montgomery Scott

My first question is just, as we think and talk a lot about the success fees, has the visibility on the timing of these fees improved at all as we have gone through the year. Is there any color or metric you can give us around backlog or assessments that would give us a little more comfort numerically about the direction of the business?

C. Hussey

Analyst · Joseph Foresi with Janney Montgomery Scott

I would say, the fundamental visibility is better only because we have a shorter runway ahead of us and so as you have more visibility shorter range, we get a little bit more comfortable in terms of where our number is. And that’s one of the reasons why we just narrowed our range, because we do have more comfort. With respect to quantifying the numbers, we have looked at this actually, have contemplated whether or not we publish a number. But as we report our numbers, we have a Health and Education segment and so really the fundamental pipelines are very different for education versus how it works within healthcare. What I can tell you is that we certainly have seen improvement in the pipeline and we feel that based on the level of hard backlog as well as the assessment activity within that, that we are at a level that gives us confidence behind our statement that we have very solid prospects looking ahead.

James Roth

Analyst · Joseph Foresi with Janney Montgomery Scott

I would agree with that. I mean, as Mark indicated, we have thought about whether there is other thing as we can give more color and we would like to if we could, but it just gets to be a little bit more complicated because of the varying patterns within higher ed and then higher life sciences and health care. The backlog has been growing, assessments are very strong right now. So all the things that we look at internally to figure out how things are going are just fine. To a large extent, we already have much of the activity that we are doing today particularly on assessments are all really going to generate 2013 revenues. So if we are doing an assessment today, it’s likely going to be impacting 2013 and so our job is certainly to close out the year as strong as we can. But our job is also to make sure that we hit the road running on January 1, 2013 because we know with that growth expectations there as well. And I think collectively when we look at all the different factors that we talked about, the kinds of work that we are getting, the kinds of opportunities that are being serviced to us, the growth of the backlog, the number of assessments, all those factors give us comfort that we are going in the right direction.

Joseph Foresi

Analyst · Joseph Foresi with Janney Montgomery Scott

Okay. Well, maybe instead of, maybe, quantitative, I know you have given some qualitative numbers -- but how does the backlog and assessments look compared to historical levels? Are they at all time highs? Are they trending upwards? Maybe you can just provide color on that in that format.

James Roth

Analyst · Joseph Foresi with Janney Montgomery Scott

The backlog -- so maybe I will let Mark talk about the backlog in a second. The assessments, as we have said in the past, is a little bit hard to judge because I could tell you that we have got the highest level of assessments, but they could be relatively small opportunities or I can say that they are lower than they did in the past but they could be higher. So unfortunately the actual number of assessments doesn’t say much. We are doing a very healthy number of assessments right now that give us comfort that we are in the right spot and that they are likely to generate very decent future revenue.

C. Hussey

Analyst · Joseph Foresi with Janney Montgomery Scott

Yes, in terms of the backlog, there is also complexities looking at it. So if we sell a multi year engagement with one large client and over time that’s going to inflate a prior period comparison to look at. So you really have to break it down and you can’t just generalize without really having an understanding. But what I can tell you is that, from a quantitative and qualitative perspective, as Jim indicated, it has been growing and it is a robust profile right now relative to the remaining fees of contracts that we have actually signed and have the expectations in place with respect to both fixed fee and contingent.

James Roth

Analyst · Joseph Foresi with Janney Montgomery Scott

And the other thing, Joe, that I think I would talk about a little bit is that we certainly are very pleased the continued growth of our performance improvement and the type of work in our revenue cycle work that was historically done. We have mentioned before, and I want to mention right now because it is really an important part of where we expect the future growth to be in our clinical solutions, it is really the kind of work that we are being asked to do and the kinds of opportunities that are being presented to us are exactly reflective of the kind of work that we think is going to be a very high demand in the future. I mean there are areas that remains a tremendous amount of change as we have said before in the fundamental business models of these hospitals. And we are positioning ourselves in the clinical solutions area to be really well positioned to help our clients with that. I wish you can see the kind of work that we are being asked to look at or do right now. It is very exciting and it is exactly the kind of work that I know is going to be the foundation for us for solid growth in the future over and above the kind of the core bread and butter things that we have historically done so well in this practice.

Joseph Foresi

Analyst · Joseph Foresi with Janney Montgomery Scott

Okay, just on the topic of assessments and backlog being characterized as healthy. Maybe you can remind us what you think the long term growth rate of the health and education practice is? Based on what you are seeing this year and the fact that it back-end loaded, would you expect a acceleration in that growth rate heading into 2013 or at the end of 2013 just based on what you guys are seeing in the pipeline?

C. Hussey

Analyst · Joseph Foresi with Janney Montgomery Scott

Joe, this is Mark. I think, fundamentally we have always talked about the long term and by long term, I am saying the next 5 years. We think health care -- if you look at the broader economics and the percentage of GDP that’s going continue to be actually a higher percentage. There is going to be continued spending and demand in this marketplace As you can see from our hiring over time, we continue to hire at north of 10%. Over time, as clinical develops into a larger solution, we are going to have plenty of opportunities, we think to be at a minimum of 10% growth within the health and education segment. Frankly, the whole, all of my statements about healthcare hold equally true on the education side of the house as well.

James Roth

Analyst · Joseph Foresi with Janney Montgomery Scott

I would agree with that. What you will see as we begin to put together our plans for future years, but I would be disappointed if we drop below 10%. I think there is just so much activity that’s taking place and we happen to be very well positioned to do that. And so I would consider 10% to be a very attainable growth rate and I would certainly do everything we can and try to get above that.

Joseph Foresi

Analyst · Joseph Foresi with Janney Montgomery Scott

Okay, just one last one from me. Is there any way to quantify the impact on margins from the success fees? In other words, does $1 million in success fees equals, maybe, 1 basis point impact on margin? Because I imagine most of it is going to start to trickle down the EPS, the current guidance implies that. So is there any metric that you can give us on that front?

C. Hussey

Analyst · Joseph Foresi with Janney Montgomery Scott

Joe, the success fees largely dropped to the bottom line because there is such a discrepancy in terms of the current efforts versus when the revenue recognition happens. So if you think about fees that we recognize in the current quarter, these efforts happen last year or perhaps in Q1 but, to a very large degree, the efforts would not have come in the current period. So it’s generally been true that these fees just generally drop to the bottom line in the period that they are recognized. Not to say that you don’t have other things going on in the base where you have hours being spent that may not have these recognized. But if you look specifically at the ones that are recognized against the efforts in the current period, largely drops the bottom line.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Brandon Matthews [ph] with Northland Securities.

Unknown Analyst

Analyst

I am just filling in for Bill today. Couple of quick questions for you guys. Do you have, especially, large engagements that you are expecting to end during the third quarter?

James Roth

Analyst · William Blair & Company

I am sorry. I think you cut out right when you asked the question. Could you repeat that please?

Unknown Analyst

Analyst

Yes, I am sorry about that. Do you have, especially, large engagements you are expecting to end during the third quarter?

James Roth

Analyst · William Blair & Company

Not that I am aware of. Just for anything off the top of my head. Not really. Just thinking off the top of my head, I don’t think anything in the Health and Education segment that I am aware of. We have got some that will be rolling off but that’s not going to be so big. In the legal consulting business, you always have an option that something can end very quickly, but you also have the same possibility that one could start up very quickly. There is nothing that we are doing today of a very sizeable magnitude that I think will have different patterns in the third quarter.

Unknown Analyst

Analyst

Okay, and then just a last question from me. I know you touched on this earlier, but should we be still looking for flat to 5% revenue growth in the financial consulting segment for the full year of 2012?

James Roth

Analyst · William Blair & Company

No, I don’t think that is. At this point, just based on where we are seeing the run rate right now, we are not expecting to be flat to up 5%. It will likely have some decline although the run rate in the second half of the year, we are looking to improve substantially based on some of the initiatives and activities that we have going on.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Dan Mazur Harvest Capital.

Daniel Mazur

Analyst · Dan Mazur Harvest Capital

Just have a quick one on adjusted EBITDA. Kind of a follow up to Joe’s question. You have had in the past, some individual quarters where you have had some large outsized performance fees and its driven margins higher in the quarter, but kind of more in that 20% to 21% adjusted EBITDA margin range. I think your guidance for second half implies a lot higher margin range. What’s different in the second half than maybe some of those individual quarters where you did high 20s or mid 30s performance fees?

C. Hussey

Analyst · Dan Mazur Harvest Capital

It’s Mark. So it really is driven largely by the success fees in the second half and really the underlying business otherwise these have headcount, headcount growth. So really on a second half basis compared with the first half, assuming that our guidance to you in the second half does some substantial increase will have disproportionate profitability and bring the adjusted EBITDA margin really out of line on long term basis. Plus, at the same time, you get the advantage of having the bonus being at a fix level against higher revenue.

Daniel Mazur

Analyst · Dan Mazur Harvest Capital

Okay, so you have just had on just doing the last 3 quarter’s substantial levels, you just have the comps spread out more? It still just looks like it’s a really big jump on what’s just flowing through in the second. It just comes down to help comp flows through.

C. Hussey

Analyst · Dan Mazur Harvest Capital

Yes, I think that’s exactly what it is.

Daniel Mazur

Analyst · Dan Mazur Harvest Capital

Okay, that’s helpful and then acquisitions to remain the top priorities for capital at this point or could you digest in the second half and then maybe just talk about capital allocation.

C. Hussey

Analyst · Dan Mazur Harvest Capital

Jim, with respect to acquisitions, maybe you want to talk about.

James Roth

Analyst · Dan Mazur Harvest Capital

I think in all of our practice as we have got, as we have always done we have always looked at a variety of things, and so I do think that I would expect there to be some potential acquisitions over the next year this time. We certainly are looking at things in each of our segments, probably more so in the 2 largest segments.

C. Hussey

Analyst · Dan Mazur Harvest Capital

Really, from a return perspective, we think in the interest of shareholders, if we can go out in the marketplace and find investments that are going to generate those attractive returns on a risk adjustment basis. It’s our highest and best use of capital. So that’s going to continue to be prioritized.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is a follow up. It comes from the line of Tim McHugh with William Blair.

Timothy McHugh

Analyst · William Blair

Just one more I can sneak in there. Can you talk about the head count growth plan for the Health and Education business and then probably, I guess, I know you didn’t want to give backlog number but can we take that as a rough proxy for the case of the backlog growth that you are seeing? I am assuming you are hiring are commensurate with the pace of growth rate and the demand you are seeing.

C. Hussey

Analyst · William Blair

Yes, I think, Tim, that’s probably pretty good surrogate. The one thing that we still, as we have mentioned before, in the higher ed part of the healthcare, we still have a little bit of that anomaly where we are hiring into people that historically have been contractors. And we are hiring people in there now. So that puts the growth rate and FTE slightly higher than the growth rate, but I think that’s a reasonable surrogate. That is really both across the health and the education side of the practice. We have seen really strong head count growth and hiring needs on both sides and that’s probably not surprising consistent with the comments that we made earlier about not only demand on the healthcare backlog but also with respect to just the demand within the education side of the business.

Timothy McHugh

Analyst · William Blair

Is there any plan to slow that down? What’s the expectation for the second half of the year?

C. Hussey

Analyst · William Blair

We will slow it down a little bit, partially because our attrition rate is less than we anticipated. So we have got a little bit more flexibility in terms of how we recruit and staff and into the engagements. The other thing, in some of service lines, really across the legal consulting and the health and education segment, we got some new services as well that we are beginning to ramp up and some times those services require different skills that we actually don’t have right now. So that too accounts for some of the hiring we are doing right now in anticipation of further growth for those businesses. But in general I think, Tim, to answer your question it’s a decent surrogate, although it will slow down a little bit.

James Roth

Analyst · William Blair

Really, Tim, one last color comment, it is just that really sometimes it is tied to some of the campus recruiting that we do for analyst will affect a little bit of the timing of when they come in, when they are available. So you tend to see a little bit more hiring between May and September and then towards Q4 it just naturally starts to go down anyway.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, since there are no further questions in queue, I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Roth for closing remarks.

James Roth

Analyst · William Blair & Company

I want to thank everybody for spending time with us this afternoon on the call. I look forward to speaking with you again in October when we announce our third quarter results. Have a good evening.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today’s conference thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.