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NSP, Insperity Inc.
Insperity's HR Scale solution is our newest service offering that we jointly developed through our strategic partnership with Workday, Inc.
Our long-term strategy is to provide the best small and medium-sized businesses in the United States with our specialized human resources service offerings and to leverage our buying power and expertise to provide additional valuable services to clients.
Insperity's HR 360 solution, our largest source of revenue, is offered to small and medium-sized businesses seeking a comprehensive people strategy.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- What moves the needle
- Operating margin has run about 3.6% through the cycle, a thin margin, where volume, cost discipline and the price it gets all bear on the result. The operating margin has swung widely — from −0.1% to 4.7% over the years — so the through-cycle figure carries more than any single year, and the worst year more than the best. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.
Where the money comes from
read the 10-K →Revenue spreads across 6 regions, the largest Northeast at 27%.
- Northeast27%$1.9B
- West20%$1.4B
- Southwest19%$1.3B
- Central18%$1.2B
- Southeast14%$972M
- Other Revenues1%$70M
From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.
The record
Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.
The record, 2016–2025
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2016’16 | 2017’17 | 2018’18 | 2019’19 | 2020’20 | 2021’21 | 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | TTMTTMMar 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | |||||||||||
| $2.9B | $3.3B | $3.8B | $4.3B | $4.3B | $5.0B | $5.9B | $6.5B | $6.6B | $6.8B | $6.8B | RevenueRevenue |
| 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev |
| $106M | $130M | $179M | $187M | $195M | $173M | $250M | $219M | $117M | ($10M) | ($16M) | Operating incomeOp. inc. |
| 3.6% | 3.9% | 4.7% | 4.3% | 4.5% | 3.5% | 4.2% | 3.4% | 1.8% | −0.1% | −0.2% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| $66M | $84M | $135M | $151M | $138M | $124M | $179M | $171M | $91M | ($7M) | ($25M) | Net incomeNet inc. |
| 37% | 35% | 26% | 20% | 27% | 26% | 27% | 24% | 28% | — | — | Effective tax rateTax rate |
| Cash flow & returns | |||||||||||
| $145M | $213M | $184M | $205M | $346M | $260M | $347M | $198M | $520M | ($278M) | $98M | Operating cash flowOp. cash |
| $17M | $18M | $23M | $29M | $31M | $39M | $41M | $43M | $44M | $45M | $45M | DepreciationDeprec. |
| $46M | $86M | $6M | $1M | $117M | $57M | $77M | ($69M) | $324M | ($377M) | $15M | Working capital & otherWC & other |
| $34M | $33M | $35M | $56M | $98M | $33M | $30M | $40M | $38M | $31M | $31M | CapexCapex |
| 1.2% | 1.0% | 0.9% | 1.3% | 2.3% | 0.7% | 0.5% | 0.6% | 0.6% | 0.5% | 0.5% | Capex / revenueCapex/rev |
| $129M | $195M | $162M | $176M | $315M | $227M | $317M | $158M | $482M | ($309M) | $67M | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| 4.4% | 5.9% | 4.2% | 4.1% | 7.4% | 4.6% | 5.3% | 2.4% | 7.3% | −4.5% | 1.0% | Owner earnings marginOE mgn |
| $111M | $180M | $149M | $149M | $248M | $227M | $317M | $158M | $482M | ($309M) | $67M | Free cash flowFCF |
| 3.8% | 5.5% | 3.9% | 3.4% | 5.8% | 4.6% | 5.3% | 2.4% | 7.3% | −4.5% | 1.0% | Free cash flow marginFCF mgn |
| $21M | $66M | $33M | $49M | $62M | $144M | $77M | $84M | $89M | $90M | $90M | Dividends paidDiv. paid |
| $144M | $0 | $0 | — | — | $70M | $73M | $131M | $63M | $19M | — | BuybacksBuybacks |
| 109% | 127% | 174% | 3704% | 313% | — | 221% | 182% | 94% | -15% | -37% | Return on equityROE |
| 75% | 28% | 131% | n/m | 173% | — | 126% | 93% | 2% | −211% | −172% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | |||||||||||
| $288M | $379M | $404M | $415M | $637M | $697M | $823M | $828M | $1.2B | $682M | $578M | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| $13M | $12M | $10M | $13M | $7M | $11M | $14M | $16M | $9M | $6M | $6M | ReceivablesReceiv. |
| $4M | $6M | $11M | $5M | $6M | $6M | $8M | $11M | $10M | $6M | $6M | Accounts payablePayables |
| $9M | $6M | ($607K) | $8M | $356K | $4M | $6M | $5M | ($1M) | $0 | $0 | Operating working capitalOper. WC |
| $640M | $779M | $867M | $975M | $1.1B | $1.2B | $1.5B | $1.6B | $2.1B | $1.7B | $1.7B | Current assetsCur. assets |
| $601M | $725M | $772M | $869M | $905M | $1.1B | $1.4B | $1.4B | $1.9B | $1.6B | $1.6B | Current liabilitiesCur. liab. |
| 1.1× | 1.1× | 1.1× | 1.1× | 1.2× | 1.1× | 1.1× | 1.1× | 1.1× | 1.1× | 1.1× | Current ratioCurr. ratio |
| $13M | $13M | $13M | $13M | $13M | $13M | — | — | — | — | $13M | GoodwillGoodwill |
| $907M | $1.1B | $1.2B | $1.4B | $1.6B | $1.8B | $2.0B | $2.1B | $2.6B | $2.2B | $2.2B | Total assetsAssets |
| $104M | $104M | $144M | $269M | $369M | $369M | $369M | $369M | $369M | $369M | $369M | Total debtDebt |
| ($183M) | ($274M) | ($260M) | ($146M) | ($268M) | ($327M) | ($454M) | ($459M) | ($803M) | ($313M) | ($209M) | Net debt / (cash)Net debt |
| 44.4× | 40.4× | 38.4× | 24.4× | 24.3× | 23.2× | 17.9× | 8.1× | 4.2× | -0.4× | -0.7× | Interest coverageInt. cov. |
| $61M | $66M | $78M | $4M | $44M | ($2M) | $81M | $94M | $97M | $46M | $67M | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| 0.6% | 0.7% | 0.5% | 0.6% | 1.4% | 0.8% | 0.8% | 0.8% | 0.9% | 0.9% | 0.9% | Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev |
| Per share | |||||||||||
| 41.7M | 41.1M | 41.2M | 40.2M | 38.5M | 38.9M | 39.0M | 38.0M | 38.0M | 38.0M | 38.0M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $70.59 | $80.36 | $92.89 | $107.37 | $111.34 | $127.84 | $152.28 | $170.68 | $173.18 | $179.26 | $180.11 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| $1.58 | $2.06 | $3.29 | $3.76 | $3.59 | $3.19 | $4.59 | $4.50 | $2.39 | $-0.18 | $-0.66 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| $3.09 | $4.75 | $3.92 | $4.39 | $8.19 | $5.84 | $8.13 | $4.16 | $12.68 | $-8.13 | $1.76 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| $2.67 | $4.38 | $3.62 | $3.70 | $6.45 | $5.84 | $8.13 | $4.16 | $12.68 | $-8.13 | $1.76 | Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh |
| $0.49 | $1.60 | $0.81 | $1.21 | $1.61 | $3.71 | $1.97 | $2.21 | $2.34 | $2.37 | $2.37 | Dividends / shareDiv/sh |
| $0.82 | $0.81 | $0.86 | $1.40 | $2.55 | $0.84 | $0.77 | $1.05 | $1.00 | $0.82 | $0.82 | Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh |
| $1.45 | $1.61 | $1.88 | $0.10 | $1.15 | $-0.05 | $2.08 | $2.47 | $2.55 | $1.21 | $1.76 | Book value / shareBVPS |
| 9-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | +10.9%/yr | +10.0%/yr |
| Dividends / share | +19.0%/yr | +8.1%/yr |
| Capital spending / share | −0.0%/yr | −20.4%/yr |
| Book value / share | −2.0%/yr | +1.1%/yr |
The year, in the company's words
the filing →Verbatim from the 10-K's management discussion. Each sentence is shown only because its subject, direction, and stated figures check out against the filed numbers on this page. The words are the company's; the arithmetic is the record's.
- Revenue+3.5%
“Our revenues per WSEE per month increased $46 due to higher average pricing of 3%.”
✓ figure matches the filed record
The record, charted
FY2016–2025Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.
Owner earnings vs. net income
Owner earningsNet incomeThe accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.
Where the cash went
ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedEach year's operating cash, by what management did with it: the mix, and how it drifts.
Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.
In fiscal 2025 the business reported a $7M loss but ($309M) of owner earnings: $302M less than the profit line, taken out by capital spending and the timing of cash.
| FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | FY2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reported net income | ($7M) | $91M | $171M | $179M | $124M |
| Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back | +$45M | +$44M | +$43M | +$41M | +$39M |
| Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost | +$61M | +$61M | +$53M | +$50M | +$41M |
| Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items | −$377M | +$324M | −$69M | +$77M | +$57M |
| Cash from operations | ($278M) | $520M | $198M | $347M | $260M |
| Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow | −$31M | −$38M | −$40M | −$30M | −$33M |
| Owner earnings | ($309M) | $482M | $158M | $317M | $227M |
| Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue | -5% | 7% | 2% | 5% | 5% |
Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position . The cash-flow statement also adds stock comp back as non-cash, but it is a real cost paid in shares; counted as the expense it is (less $61M), owner earnings is nearer ($370M).
Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
Will it survive?
- Can it pay its interest? -0.4×Does not cover its interestOperating income ($10M) ÷ interest expense $24M
What this means
A full year of operating profit didn't cover the interest bill. This is the zombie zone: the business depends on refinancing, asset sales, or forbearance to service its debt.
- Net cashCash $642M + ST investments $40M − debt $369M
What this means
Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $313M, on net the company owes nothing, and can act from strength when others can't. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.
- Not enough data
What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
Is it a good business?
- Not meaningful hereInvested capital ($227M) = debt $369M + equity $46M − cashIndustry peers: median 13%
What this means
Invested capital is near zero or negative, usually years of buybacks pulling equity down. ROIC explodes or flips sign and stops meaning anything. Judge this one on Owner Earnings instead.
- Thin through the cycle10-yr median margin, range -5%–7%; latest ($309M) = operating cash ($278M) − maintenance capex $31MIndustry peers: median 7%
What this means
What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's -5% of revenue this year, a 4% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $61M of SBC) leaves ($370M).
- Are earnings backed by cash? ($278M)Loss, and burning cashNet income ($7M) · cash from operations ($278M)
In the filing’s words And the filing leans heavily on adjusted, non-GAAP earnings — steering you off the GAAP figure just where the cash is not backing it. Read the reconciliation in the notes before taking the adjusted number.
What this means
The company reported a net loss, so a conversion ratio isn't meaningful. What matters then is whether operations still threw off cash, here, they did not.
How is the cash used?
- No surplus to allocate
What this means
The business didn't generate positive Owner Earnings this year, so any distributions came from the balance sheet or borrowing, not from operations.
- Investing or harvesting? 0.69×HarvestingCapex $31M ÷ depreciation $45M
What this means
Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.
Graham’s defensive tests · 2 of 6 met
Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.
- Adequate size PassRevenue ≥ $2B · $6.8B
What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.
- Strong liquidity MissCurrent ratio ≥ 2× · 1.06×
What this means
Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.
- Conservative debt MissDebt ≤ working capital · $369M vs $102M WC
What this means
Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.
- Earnings stability NearA profit every year (10-yr record) · 1 loss year
What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
- Dividend record PassUninterrupted dividends · paid every year (10)
What this means
An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.
- Earnings growth MissEarnings +33% over the record · −11%
What this means
At least a third more earnings than a decade ago, averaging three years at each end. Net income (not per-share), so stock splits don't distort it, buybacks and dilution show up in the share-count line instead.
- Moderate price —P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price
What this means
Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $2.23/share (latest year $-0.18), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $1.21/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.
Durability & moat, 2016–2025
Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.
- Profitable years 9 of 10
What this means
Lost money in 1 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
- Operating margin 4% → 2% (3-yr avg ends)
What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin slipped — about 4% early to 2% lately, median 4% — competition or costs are biting in.
- Owner earnings growth −7%/yr
What this means
Owner earnings shrank about 7% a year over the record.
- Worst year 2025 · −0.1% op. margin
What this means
Operations went underwater in 2025, understand why before trusting the good years.
- Share count −1.0%/yr
What this means
The share count is shrinking, buybacks are quietly growing your slice of the business.
- Dividend record rising
What this means
Paid and raised the dividend across the record, the continuity Graham prized.
Does AI threaten the moat?
Elevated contestabilityThe product is software or information, the very thing capable AI now produces more cheaply, so the moat is more contestable than the record alone implies.
Its FY2025 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat, in language that was not in the prior year's filing.
“Emerging technologies, including AI, may reduce the need for our clients to hire for certain roles or lead to automation of tasks previously performed by clients' employees.”
The product is the kind capable AI most directly contests: when a substitute can be built cheaply, the incumbent's pricing power is the first thing at risk. The record cannot say whether the moat outlasts that; past durability is a starting point, not a promise.
Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.
All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.
Current Position
as of the latest quarter, Mar 31, 2026Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.
- Cash & short-term investments$578M
- Receivables$6M
- Other current assets$1.1B
- Accounts payable$6M
- Other current liabilities$1.6B
From the company's latest filing.
How the cash was used, 2016–2025
Over the record, the business generated $2.1B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a balanced allocator, splitting cash between the business, owners, and the balance sheet.
- Reinvested$429M · 20%
- Dividends$714M · 33%
- Buybacks$500M · 23%
- Retained (debt / cash)$498M · 23%
- Returned to owners$1.2B
66% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $714M as dividends and $500M as buybacks.
- Average price paid for buybacks$143.00
Across the years where the filing reports a share count, 3M shares were bought for $500M, about $143.00 each. Year to year the price paid ranged from $108.72 (2022) to $422.22 (2025); its heaviest year, 2016, paid $185.88 ($144M).
- Net change in share count−8.8%
The diluted count fell from 42M to 38M, so the buybacks outran the stock issued to staff.
- Dividend record$2.37/sh
Paid in 10 of the years on record, the per-share dividend growing about 19% a year. It was cut at least once along the way.
Buybacks are gross of stock issued to staff; the share-count line above is the net of that, the figure that decides whether owners gained. The average price paid blends a year of purchases (and any accelerated repurchase), so it is close, not exact. The record of where the cash went and on what terms.
Management, ownership & pay
read the proxy →From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.
| Fiscal year | Chief executive | Pay, as filed | “Actually paid” | Owner earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Sarvadi | $9.6M | $13.8M | $227M |
| 2022 | Sarvadi | $10.7M | $15.9M | $317M |
| 2023 | Sarvadi | $8.0M | $5.9M | $158M |
| 2024 | Sarvadi | $9.4M | $82k | $482M |
| 2025 | Sarvadi | $16.8M | $3.0M | ($309M) |
Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.
- Insider ownership5.8%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
- Stock-based compensation$61M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 1% of revenue. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.
Inverting the record
Invert: instead of why Insperity Inc. is a good business, the question is what would make owning it a mistake, and whether those marks are in the record. Disconfirming tests across 2016–2025.
2 of the 5 tests turned up something to look into; the other 3 came back clean.
- Look hereIs it less profitable than it was?1.7% vs 4.8%
The owner-earnings margin averaged 4.8% early in the record and 1.7% across the last three years, and the latest year has not recovered. Ask the filing whether that is a structural drift or a cyclical trough — price, mix, cost, or a competitor — and whether it is permanent.
- Look hereDid debt outgrow the business?$104M → $369M
Debt rose from $104M to $369M while owner earnings went from about $162M to $110M — about 0.6 years of owner earnings in debt then, about 3.3 now: measured against what the business earns, the balance sheet carries more debt than it did. Debt raised for buybacks or deals rather than growth is the kind that bites in a downturn.
- Did the share count rise anyway?
- Did reported profit become cash?
- Did receivables and inventory outpace sales?
Each test is read from the filings and is noisy alone; a flag can mark a cyclical trough or a year of heavy investment as easily as a problem. The filing says which.
Peers, Staffing & Employment Services
The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.
| Company | Revenue | Gross margin | Op. margin | ROIC | Owner earn. margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MANManpowerGroup | $18.0B | 17% | 2.9% | 14% | 2% |
| APGAPi Group Corporation | $7.9B | 25% | 3.9% | 4% | 7% |
| BRBroadridge Financial Solutions Inc. | $6.9B | 28% | 14.4% | 18% | 13% |
| NSPInsperity Inc. | $6.8B | — | 3.8% | — | 4% |
| RHIRobert Half Inc. | $5.4B | 41% | 10.0% | 45% | 8% |
| KELYAKelly Services Inc. | $4.3B | 19% | 0.7% | 2% | 1% |
| ASGNEverforth, Inc. | $4.0B | 29% | 8.1% | 9% | 7% |
| AMNAMN Healthcare Services | $2.7B | 33% | 9.2% | 13% | 8% |
| Group median | — | — | 6.0% | — | 7% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFType today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what Insperity Inc. has delivered.
Through the cycle, Insperity Inc. earns about $305M on its 4.5% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s −4.5% margin runs below that; the reported figure may understate a lean year. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year.
—
9.0% = the 4.55% 10-year Treasury (Jul 15, 2026) + 4.45 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.
Enter a price above to run it.
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.
Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.55%, as of Jul 15, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.
Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.
Owner earnings $67M on 38M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-04-23; net cash $209M. The base is the latest year by default; Normalize values it on the through-cycle median owner-earnings margin (to avoid paying on a peak year). Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.
Manual order: ← NSIT its page in the Manual NSPR →
Industry order: ← MAN the Staffing & Employment Services chapter RHI →