Hays Share Price (HAS)

I don't normally post but I can see no explanation for the large total holding for the new CEO. 80,978,577. I can find two purchases totalling 867,000 which means (I guess), Mark Dearnley was a substantial shareholder before joining the company. That's a whopping commitment.

Am I missing something?

20-30 office closures incoming.

That will kill staffing numbers and experience in those regions.

Highly likely they are missing the re forecast to the city. This will be going towards sub 25p. Obviously good opportunity to buy in super low and hope for the bounce but could be another Cineworld and you get burnt.

Takeover could be decent for a bump as well.

Will keep dropping though. They are losing senior leaders across the UK&I. They 💯 need to slim down and reforecast on key markets but stripping to this level is just to balance the books and hit the reforecast number on paper. The knock on effect is they don’t have relationships and capability to service any kind of demand.

Very dark days.

.wealthoracle.co.uk/companies/HAS

Hays plc posted soft HY numbers this morning confirming that the recruitment sector continues to struggle. In H1 FY26, Group net fees declined 9% to £453.3m, reflecting continued economic and political uncertainty and weaker permanent hiring markets. However, the business has been actively mitigating profit impact through productivity gains and structural cost control. Pre-exceptional operating profit declined 21% to £20.1m, a more limited reduction relative to net fees, highlighting improved operational leverage. Consultant net fee productivity actually increased 7% year-on-year — marking nine consecutive quarters of improvement — driven by sharper business line prioritisation and resource reallocation. So management are on the case and have been taking decisive structural action for a couple of years now. Since FY24, c.£80m per annum of structural cost savings have been secured

10% in a couple of days is ok by me

This is shambles !