Financial services provider CBIZ (NYSE: CBZ) missed Wall Street’s revenue expectations in Q1 CY2026 as sales only rose 1.3% year on year to $848.6 million. On the other hand, the company’s outlook for the full year was close to analysts’ estimates with revenue guided to $2.85 billion at the midpoint. Its non-GAAP profit of $2.50 per share was 10.1% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

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Company Overview

With over 120 offices across 33 states and a team of more than 6,700 professionals, CBIZ (NYSE: CBZ) provides accounting, tax, benefits, insurance brokerage, and advisory services to help small and mid-sized businesses manage their finances and operations.

Revenue Growth

Reviewing a company’s long-term sales performance reveals insights into its quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but the best consistently grow over the long haul.

With $2.77 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, CBIZ is a mid-sized business services company, which sometimes brings disadvantages compared to larger competitors benefiting from better economies of scale. On the bright side, it can still flex high growth rates because it’s working from a smaller revenue base.

As you can see below, CBIZ grew its sales at an incredible 22.9% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. This is a great starting point for our analysis because it shows CBIZ’s demand was higher than many business services companies.

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. CBIZ’s annualized revenue growth of 30.3% over the last two years is above its five-year trend, suggesting its demand was strong and recently accelerated.

This quarter, CBIZ’s revenue grew by 1.3% year on year to $848.6 million, falling short of Wall Street’s estimates.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 3.8% over the next 12 months, a deceleration versus the last two years. This projection is underwhelming and indicates its products and services will see some demand headwinds. At least the company is tracking well in other measures of financial health.

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Adjusted Operating Margin

CBIZ’s adjusted operating margin has more or less stayed the same over the last 12 months , averaging 12.3% over the last five years. This profitability was solid for a business services business and shows it’s an efficient company that manages its expenses well.

Looking at the trend in its profitability, CBIZ’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, CBIZ generated an adjusted operating margin profit margin of 24.9%, down 1.2 percentage points year on year. This reduction is quite minuscule and 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.

CBIZ’s EPS grew at an astounding 17.6% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. Despite its adjusted operating margin improvement during that time, this performance was lower than its 22.9% annualized revenue growth, telling us that non-fundamental factors such as interest and taxes affected its ultimate earnings.

Like with revenue, we analyze EPS over a more recent period because it can provide insight into an emerging theme or development for the business.

For CBIZ, its two-year annual EPS growth of 22.9% was higher than its five-year trend. We love it when earnings growth accelerates, especially when it accelerates off an already high base.

In Q1, CBIZ reported adjusted EPS of $2.50, up from $2.29 in the same quarter last year. This print easily cleared analysts’ estimates, and shareholders should be content with the results. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects CBIZ’s full-year EPS of $3.76 to grow 8.4%.

Key Takeaways from CBIZ’s Q1 Results

We were impressed by how significantly CBIZ blew past analysts’ full-year EPS guidance expectations this quarter. We were also glad its EPS outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. On the other hand, its revenue slightly missed. Overall, we think this was still a solid quarter with some key areas of upside. The stock traded up 4.1% to $34.50 immediately following the results.

Indeed, CBIZ had a rock-solid quarterly earnings result, but is this stock a good investment here? 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).