Recruit Revenue Jumps 19.3% to ¥2,139.9 Billion in First Half
Key Facts
Recruit Holdings reported first-half results for fiscal 2026 on November 11, with revenue of ¥2,139.9 billion for the period from April 1 to September 30, up 19.3% year over year. Operating income rose 63.9% to ¥513.7 billion, while profit attributable to owners of the parent increased 65.7% to ¥411.6 billion. Basic earnings per share for the half came to ¥296.01, up 71.0% from the year-earlier period. Basic earnings per share for the second quarter alone were ¥150.54. The results reflected revenue growth across all three of the company’s segments, alongside a strong increase in profit for the period.
Growth in total revenue came from differing contributions across the businesses. Revenue in HR Technology, which includes recruitment and related technology operations, rose 35.6% to ¥945.5 billion in the first half. Staffing revenue was ¥917.5 billion, up 10.6% year over year. Marketing Matching Technologies revenue reached ¥291.4 billion, up 3.6%. The figures show that HR Technology recorded the fastest growth among the segments cited, while Staffing and Marketing Matching Technologies also contributed to the overall increase. Revenue expanded across all three businesses, with the strongest acceleration in HR Technology.
The company attributed Indeed’s U.S. revenue performance to improved monetization of job advertisements, despite stagnant hiring demand. Recruit said average revenue per job advertisement in the U.S. market rose 37% year over year in the first half. This indicates that revenue growth in the U.S. business did not rely on an increase in hiring demand, but on higher returns per advertisement. The company raised its HR Technology revenue forecast for fiscal 2026 to $11,922 million, equivalent to annual growth of 23.2%. Its previous estimate, announced in August, was $11,485 million, with expected growth of 18.7%. The company said better-than-expected first-half results, assuming the trend continues in the second half, made the segment’s full-year performance likely to exceed the forecast announced on August 7.
Recruit, by contrast, left its consolidated financial guidance for fiscal 2026 unchanged from its August 7 estimates. The company expects full-year revenue of ¥4,230.0 billion, up 14.4% year over year. This means the forecast increase was limited to HR Technology, while the group-level revenue estimate was unchanged. On its earnings call, the company forecast that segment revenue would rise 0.9% in the second half compared with the first half, and increase 22.3% year over year. It said the estimate takes into account a seasonal decline in the third quarter during the holiday season in the U.S. and Europe. The forecast therefore assumes continued growth, alongside an expected seasonal slowdown during part of the second half.
The company forecast that the HR Technology segment’s EBITDA+S margin would decline from 47.5% in the first half to 45.5% in the second half. It attributed the decline to higher computing and infrastructure expenses related to AI. The expected margin decline coincides with forecast revenue growth in the second half, putting higher operating spending on technology infrastructure among the factors shaping the outlook. The company’s forecasts point to two simultaneous trends: continued revenue growth and margin pressure from computing and infrastructure costs. Recruit did not change its consolidated guidance for the fiscal year despite raising its segment forecast. The fiscal year ends on March 31, 2027.
Recruit is continuing its ¥350 billion share buyback program, having used ¥177.6 billion of it through September 30 to purchase about 16.3 million shares. The company extended the program’s implementation period from the end of November 2026 to the end of March 2027. The program provides additional context for capital allocation decisions during the period covered by the company’s half-year results. In trading, the company’s U.S.-traded shares under the ticker RCRUY closed at $21.16 on November 12, 2026. Investing.com coverage also reported that the stock fell 1.42% after the results, despite second-quarter revenue rising 19.7% year over year to ¥1,094.6 billion. The company reported its results on November 11, while its full-year group guidance remained unchanged.