Cushman & Wakefield plc (NYSE:CWK) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Cushman & Wakefield plc (NYSE:CWK) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript May 7, 2026

Cushman & Wakefield plc beats earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $0.15, expectations were $0.13.

Operator: Good day, and welcome to the Cushman & Wakefield plc First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press 0 on your telephone keypad. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Megan McGrath, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Megan McGrath: Thank you, and welcome to Cushman & Wakefield plc’s First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Earlier today, we issued a press release announcing our financial results for the period. This release, along with today’s presentation, can be found on our Investor Relations website at ir.cushmanwakefield.com. Please turn to the page in our presentation labeled Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements. Today’s presentation contains forward-looking statements based on our current forecast of future events. These statements should be considered estimates only, and actual results may differ materially. During today’s call, we will refer to non-GAAP financial measures as outlined by SEC guidelines. Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures, definitions of non-GAAP financial measures, and other related information are found within the financial tables of our earnings release and the appendix of today’s presentation.

Before I pass the call over to Michelle, a quick reminder that on April 8, 2026, we filed an 8-K with the SEC outlining several changes to our reporting presentation effective January 1. To better align our reporting with industry peers, we will no longer report service line fee revenue, along with the following non-GAAP measures: Adjusted EBITDA margin, segment operating expenses, and fee-based operating expenses. As a result, our discussion of revenue and associated growth rates will now be inclusive of growth contract costs. Further detail on these changes, as well as two years of recast historical financials, can be found in the 8-Ks filed with the SEC, which are also available on our IR website. Lastly, comparisons discussed on today’s call are against the first quarter of the prior year in local currency.

And with that, I’d like to turn the call over to our CEO, Michelle MacKay.

Michelle MacKay: Thank you, Megan. And thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We delivered strong first quarter results demonstrating consistent execution of our strategy and measurable progress toward our long-term financial targets. We delivered 9% revenue growth, exceeding our long-term guidance range. We generated mid-teens adjusted EBITDA growth as operating leverage continued to build. And we delivered 67% adjusted EPS growth, reflecting both strong business performance and the structural improvements that we have steadily made to our balance sheet. These outcomes are deliberate—the product of a strategy designed for durability and growth. Supported by our solid first quarter performance and continued strength in our pipelines, we remain confident in our full-year guidance of 15% to 20% adjusted EPS growth.

I want to focus on the breadth of our growth, which is a key driver of the consistency of our performance. In high-growth asset classes, clients are shifting capital and demand towards specialized sectors, including logistics, life sciences, and AI-related industries. AI is a structural tailwind for the business, supporting leasing activity across geographies and fueling growth in our data center-related services, with 50 technical advisory data center projects underway in APAC now, and expanding global mandates. This is a long-duration opportunity that continues to scale. In Capital Markets, we delivered our sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth, including 22% growth in The Americas, with institutional client revenues up 32%.

This reflects the compounding returns from our talent and platform investments and the increasing connectivity within our institutional franchise. In Leasing, we achieved the highest first quarter revenue in company history, growing 17%. Performance was broad-based across industries, deal sizes, and geographies, with growth in 15 of our top 20 cities in The Americas. That breadth matters. It reinforces both the sustainability of the growth and our ability to consistently capture share. In Services, revenue grew 7%, reflecting steady progress as clients increasingly consolidate toward providers that can deliver integrated, multi-service capabilities at scale. Project Management growth of 15%, driven by international performance, underscores our ability to manage increasingly technical workstreams for a growing global client base.

And taken together, this is what consistency looks like: diversified growth, scalable margins, and disciplined capital allocation. With that, I’ll turn the call over to Neil to discuss the quarter in more detail.

Neil O. Johnston: Thank you, Michelle, and good morning, everyone. As a reminder, all comparisons are against the first quarter of the prior year and in local currency. First quarter revenue was $2.5 billion, up 9%, fueled by broad strength across our service lines and continued positive momentum from our growth initiatives. Adjusted EBITDA grew 15% to $111 million as we drove operating leverage across our platform. Adjusted EPS of 15¢ was up 67% as we benefited from the strength of our core business and the capital structure improvements we have made. Continuing our balance sheet transformation, earlier this week, we announced our decision to redeem $100 million of the $650 million outstanding on our 2028 notes. Once completed, this will mark approximately $100 million in total debt repayments since the start of 2024, and further progress towards our target of reaching 2x net leverage in 2028.

Taking a look at our revenue performance by service line for the quarter, Leasing grew 17% in the quarter, with Americas Leasing up 19%. Our Leasing growth in The Americas was broad-based, with double-digit growth in core, mid-sized, and large leasing deal sizes. By asset class, office demand remained solid, and we saw particular strength in industrial, including data centers. EMEA and APAC Leasing increased 109% respectively, with particular strength in Germany, The Netherlands, and Greater China. Turning to Capital Markets, we reported 14% global growth in the quarter. Our continued strong performance in Capital Markets reflects the work we have done to add top talent and strengthen our platform. Office is up 11% globally, performing especially well in The Americas, with gains across all deal sizes, and particular strength in New York City, Northern California, and Phoenix.

Industrial grew 25%, with double-digit growth in each of our regions. Our Services business expanded 7% globally, with continued strength in Project Management in both EMEA and APAC, while The Americas benefited primarily from new business wins and expanded client mandates in our Facilities Management business. To reiterate what we said at our recent Investor Day, we are focused on driving steady, profitable growth in our Services business as we continue to move up the value chain with our clients. Turning to cash flow, our first quarter use of cash was in line with historical working capital trends, including the annual payments of our U.S. bonuses, and reflects typical seasonal patterns in our business. Our trailing twelve months free cash flow was approximately 70% of adjusted net income, in line with our target range of a 60% to 80% free cash flow conversion rate.

We closed the quarter with approximately $600 million in cash and cash equivalents, and $1.6 billion in total liquidity. Our net leverage ratio at the end of the quarter was 3.1x, a near full-turn improvement from the same time last year. Moving now to our 2026 outlook, which remains unchanged, we continue to anticipate revenue growth of 6% to 8% and adjusted EPS growth of 15% to 20%. Finally, I would like to give an update on our three-year targets we provided at our 2025 Investor Day, given the recent changes in our reporting as disclosed in our April 8 8-Ks. The previous three-year fee revenue growth target of 6% to 8% has been transitioned to a GAAP revenue growth target and remains at 6% to 8% growth. While we will no longer provide specific EBITDA margin targets, we continue to expect to achieve roughly 150 basis points of margin expansion over the three-year period.

Our targets of annual adjusted EPS growth of 15% to 20%, free cash flow conversion of 60% to 80%, and net debt leverage of 2x by 2028 remain unchanged. With that, I will turn the call back to Michelle.

Michelle MacKay: Thanks, Neil. Over the last three years, we have intentionally reshaped this company into one that is more focused, more agile, and better positioned to lead through market transformations, allowing us to compound profitable growth. Quarter after quarter, we are converting strategy into performance, delivering predictable results, resilient growth across our business lines, and durable earnings through changing market conditions. Our consistency of execution is not by chance; it is by design. And it is a defining characteristic and a key differentiator of this company. Importantly, consistency for us is not only reflected in our financial performance, but also in how we lead our clients with clarity and tailored strategies during periods of transformation.

The work that our think tank, including the continued expansion of our AI impact research, reflects that mindset. Today, we are proud to launch part two of our AI series. The first part, which focused on introducing our AI dashboard, engaged over 15,000 clients and stakeholders, cementing our position as a true thought leader in this space. Today’s release goes even deeper, examining how AI is likely to reshape economic growth, employment patterns, and space demand by sectors, roles, and geographies. By translating complex macro and technological shifts such as AI into clear, actionable insights, we continue to support better decision-making for occupiers and investors. I will close today with this: We are confident in our outlook, grounded in the visibility we see across our businesses and the durability of our model.

Thank you to our teams for delivering another strong quarter and to our shareholders for their continued confidence. And with that, I will turn the call over to the operator for questions.

Q&A Session

Operator: Thank you. We will now open the call for questions. We ask that all callers limit themselves to one question and one follow-up. If you have additional questions, you may requeue, and those questions will be addressed time permitting. If you would like to ask a question, please press 1 on your telephone keypad. One moment while we poll for questions. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Julien Blouin with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question.

Julien Blouin: Yes, thank you for taking my question. Just wondering on the Leasing results—were pretty impressive in the quarter. Can you remind us how much of that was driven by some of the recruitment initiatives over the last year? And from a recruitment standpoint more generally, how do you feel you stand today across your different segments?

Michelle MacKay: Thanks, Julien. Good morning. In terms of recruiting in general, we are doing extraordinarily well. We are building out the Capital Markets platform still, but we have had a significant number of hires there. First quarter, we had a significant number of Leasing recruits land as well. In industrial leasing, that has been a consistent bright spot for us over the past two years, so we expect to continue to do some really strong leasing there. We have recently landed some teams in Boston, and our expectation is that fundamentals will continue to be strong in U.S. industrial as minimal supply is out there. Let me give you just a couple of data points around Leasing, and industrial in particular. Demand is accelerating in Q1.

Absorption in the U.S. was up 52% year-over-year, so this is a great place to recruit. New and modern facilities are winning. Larger users are seeking modern logistics facilities to support automation. Higher power requirements are becoming the primary driver of demand, and construction is down 60% from peak levels in 2022, which is going to help vacancy drift lower. But also importantly, the industrial leasing market is now 80% larger by dollar volume than it was pre-pandemic, and so as those leases roll over, transaction values are going to be significantly higher—so net-net, a tightening market there. Very similar dynamics in U.S. office leasing for us as well, where demand on the fourth-quarter rolling net absorption exceeded 5.2 million in Q1, which is the strongest level since the pandemic.

Leasing, obviously, unfortunately gets overlooked sometimes relative to Capital Markets, but it is doing extraordinarily well.

Julien Blouin: Thank you, that is very helpful. And then I think you noted in the slides that the strong Services growth in EMEA was driven by improved Facilities Management in the U.K. and Ireland and then strong Project Management in France. Just wondering how sustainable those improvements are going forward. Should that higher growth carry for the rest of the year? And is this evidence that the restructuring that you did last year—or actually the year before—is really taking hold?

Neil O. Johnston: Yeah, Julien. As we look at Services, certainly very pleased with what we are seeing internationally. Project Management—that was an area of particular strength, both in APAC and in EMEA. We certainly are seeing very nice improvement in margins in EMEA. It is our fifth quarter of margin expansion, and some of that is as a result of the structural work we did around our Services businesses. So in general, we are very good about where Services is going and the growth we are seeing.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Seth Eugene Bergey with Citi. Please proceed with your question.

Seth Eugene Bergey: Hi, thanks for taking my question. One of the topics at Investor Day was the ability to cross-sell and drive that by 200% by 2028. Within the 1Q results, can we start to see evidence of that and how you are tracking that? Can you share any color on that initiative? And then just a quick question on guidance with tracking: 9% kind of ahead of the revenue target. I know 1Q is a bit seasonally weak, but thoughts on leaving the guidance unchanged, tracking ahead with a strong first quarter?

Michelle MacKay: Certainly. Part of this is motivating teams in a cross-sell capacity. We have recently brought together the GOC, which is our next top-50 group of leaders, and aligned them on our compensation structure, which involves KPIs associated with the cross-sell. So we are starting to make good movement there. We are tracking a series of KPIs to ensure that is happening as we hit our targets over the course of the next three years.

Neil O. Johnston: Yes, sure, I can address the guidance. Look, certainly very pleased with the first quarter we had—solid Leasing, certainly Services was right in line with expectations. We do continue to see strong momentum in April, and pipelines look good. But we started the year with fairly ambitious targets, and we remain very confident in achieving those targets. At this point, everything is pointing towards a solid year.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Anthony Paolone with JPMorgan. Please proceed with your question.

Anthony Paolone: Thanks. Good morning. Maybe I will start with the last item you mentioned, Neil—and maybe, Michelle, as you look into April, May, June, whatever visibility looks like right now—can you talk about whether there have been any changes or particular places of strength, property type or business segment-wise, especially since a lot of the first quarter, which was very good, was locked up before the war and some of the geopolitical matters? And then my follow-up: you mentioned 50 data center projects in APAC. Were you calling that out just as you were going around the globe, or is that where the bulk of your data center business is? Any big geographic differences in your capabilities on the data center front—APAC versus the U.S. or EMEA?

Michelle MacKay: We are still seeing significant strength in April, and that really is across every business line and segment type. On data centers, we pulled that out because that is a pretty substantial number. It involves project planning, project development, construction and delivery, cost consulting, and technical due diligence. We recently won a five-year Project Management mandate with a blue-chip tech firm focused on higher-value, more technical services in the form of project controls. We have won several Leasing deals in The Americas since the beginning of the year. In EMEA, we have recently won five mandates in The Nordics for preconstruction advisory services. It is across the globe that we are seeing business and execution in data centers.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Brendan Lynch with Barclays. Please proceed with your question.

Brendan Lynch: Great, thanks for taking my questions. One on office leasing. It has been really strong to start the year, as you suggested. Do you get the sense that companies are still catching up from not leasing sufficient space over the past couple of years? And if so, how far are we through this process? Are you getting the sense that companies are leasing space in anticipation of future growth as well, given the lack of space on the market? Are they getting more assertive in trying to lock up space for a longer term?

Michelle MacKay: There is a bit of that. Sublease space is trending lower and down about 25% from the peak, so businesses are taking their space back. We also have an interesting supply dynamic, similar to industrial, where the U.S. construction pipeline is 85% below its Q1 2020 peak. That dynamic is driving demand into the best-located Class A space, so there is a bit of a scarcity play going on here as well. Lease terms are holding, and this is not a single-quarter event. The fundamentals are aligning to really support sustained activity in the office leasing sector. And yes, companies are getting more confident. If you were not sure whether you were going to take the extra 20,000 square feet and you find an asset that you really like to take space in, you are going to go forward with that.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Stephen Hardy Sheldon with William Blair. Please proceed with your question.

Stephen Hardy Sheldon: Hey, good morning. Great to see the continued acceleration in Services. Commentary has been that pipelines are good. What are you seeing in the pipelines there, and how does that look between the different businesses within Services, especially with the push you are making into more tech areas? And then as we look at APAC profitability trends, it looks like APAC took a step back this quarter and was down quite a bit year-over-year. I am assuming that was a tough comp, especially with Capital Markets being lower year-over-year. Anything to call out there on APAC profitability and how you are thinking about that over the rest of the year?

Neil O. Johnston: Sure, Stephen. Overall, global Services businesses are performing exactly where we want them to perform—overall up 7%. Great to see the tremendous work that our teams are doing in APAC and EMEA, particularly around Project Management, and also Property Management in EMEA. The one area where we have seen slightly slower growth in The Americas over the last couple of quarters is in Facility Services—our janitorial business—where we have seen some contract transitions. But we feel very good about the work we are doing there. We are strengthening the platform, and we like the pipeline that we are seeing. Another key area of strength for us, particularly in the U.S. and globally, is our Global Occupier Services business—that is the outsourcing of large enterprise clients.

We have had some very big notable wins recently. That is a real bright spot for us and lends itself really well to cross-selling and growing the business. So pretty excited about what we are seeing on the Services side. On APAC profitability, fundamentally APAC has not slowed down. We like what we saw there and what we are seeing. There were really two primary drivers for the drop in profitability. First, Capital Markets in Japan—we had a couple of very large upside transactions there a year ago. If you adjust those out, Japan was up almost 100%, so we like the underlying fundamentals, but those tough comps certainly contributed to what we saw in the quarter in that market and in APAC overall. Second, we recognized $3.5 million lower earnings from our OneWow joint venture in China as a result of a one-time provision for credit losses.

China itself actually started to see a bit of a recovery, so China itself is very strong, but we had that one-time impact. Overall, we feel good about APAC, but you saw the impact of those two things in the quarter in our results.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Ronald Kamdem with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question.

Ronald Kamdem: Hey, great. Going back to the margin expansion target that you still expect to achieve—maybe can you talk through what that 150 basis points entails? Is that mix? Services? Other business lines? Where will that margin uplift come from, and could we start seeing some of that this year? And then on AI and data centers, beyond Leasing exposure, can you talk about tailwinds in other segments from that trend and what the company is doing to position itself?

Neil O. Johnston: Sure, Ron. As we look at margins, we are very focused on profitable growth. Growth is clearly the headline, but at the same time, as we grow, we want to make sure we are doing that profitably. Where are we seeing margin improvement? As our transactional businesses grow—Leasing and Capital Markets—that mix will result in higher margins. On the Services side, we have done a lot of work restructuring around contracts and looking at the back office to make it more efficient. It will really be a combination of both that drives the margin. We are very mindful of the investments we are making, ensuring they have a strong IRR and are driving both growth and profitability. You saw the 30 basis points of margin expansion in the first quarter, and we intend to keep that going as we look out over the next three years.

Michelle MacKay: At Cushman & Wakefield plc, we view AI through two lenses: as an efficiency enabler and as a growth tool. We consider efficiency gains table stakes—operating with rigor—and we are continuing to evaluate ways we can optimize workflows and outcomes across the entire platform. On growth, leveraging our proprietary data to capture net new revenue is what excites us most. We have entered into a strategic relationship with one of the leading AI companies. This provides us with external thought leadership and domain expertise to ensure we are considering every opportunity to drive growth across the platform. At the macro level, our view—which you will see in the report released today—is that AI expands the size of the economy, translating long term into more demand for space.

Based on our research, we expect AI to drive a net increase of 330 million square feet of additional demand over the next decade, and we are already seeing early signs across office and industrial. A few points of information: U.S. office demand in Q1 had its highest post-pandemic reading. In the Bay Area, we are currently tracking an AI footprint of 7 million square feet, up from 4.5 million square feet in 2025. Manhattan and San Francisco, with strong tech ecosystems, were among the leaders in office absorption in Q1. Industrial demand, as mentioned earlier, was up 52% year-over-year in Q1 according to our internal research, with a focus on modern facilities designed for AI and automation accounting for most of that net absorption. AI will be a net positive for demand, with nuances: office will continue to shift toward high-quality Class A space—flexible and tech-centric; industrial toward modern, more power-intensive facilities; multifamily performance increasingly concentrated in high-growth, talent-dense markets; and in retail, we expect a K-shaped economy to persist, driving outperformance at the high and low ends with pressure on mid-tier retail.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Mitchell Bradley Germain with Citizens J.M. Please proceed with your question.

Mitchell Bradley Germain: Michelle, I think you mentioned clients shifting capital to specialized sectors. How are you positioning to capture some of that activity? And then on the hiring environment—this trend seems consistent across most of your peers—are you seeing shifts in the ask or economics around that, particularly for advisory or brokerage talent?

Michelle MacKay: Thanks for the question, Mitch. For several years now, we have been allocating dollars into those specialties—both in terms of bringing valuable talent to the platform, increasing our cross-sell, and building out those platforms globally. So whether it is data centers, specialized logistics, or life sciences, it is not just that we have the talent for transactions; we also have it in servicing, and we support some of the biggest names in the world with respect to the assets that they either own or occupy in those spaces. On hiring economics for advisory or brokerage talent, we are not really seeing a shift from our perspective in the way that we are structuring our contracts. We have a very specific way of analyzing and structuring those contracts, and we have not seen a material shift in those structures.

Operator: We have reached the end of the question and answer session. Ms. MacKay, I would like to turn the floor back over to you for closing comments.

Michelle MacKay: Thank you, everyone, for your time today, and we look forward to speaking to you again on our second quarter earnings call.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today’s teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation, and have a wonderful day.