ASGN Inc. (NYSE: ASGN) reported revenue rose 3.4% to $1.13 billion in the first quarter. Revenue in its federal government division led growth with an increase of 15.0%, though revenue in its commercial division edged down 0.1%.

“Our IT consulting revenues, including both commercial and federal government work, surpassed the 50% mark, totaling 50.4% for the quarter, a significant increase from 42.4% of revenues in the first quarter of 2022,” CEO Ted Hanson said.

That growth, Hanson said, confirms the company’s decision to double down on high-end, higher-value consulting work for Fortune 1000 and federal government clients.

“That said, the areas of our business that are more discretionary and cyclical in nature, namely assignment revenue, declined,” he said. “We programmed for some of this in our guidance; however, the decline towards the end of the quarter was greater than we had initially anticipated in our first quarter guidance, negatively impacting our revenues and margins.”

Still, Hanson added the business remains strong despite the macroeconomic challenges.

ASGN, based in Richmond, Virginia, provides IT staffing, solutions and consulting as well as creative marketing contract professionals. Its federal division provides IT solutions to US government agencies.

Guidance

ASGN forecast second-quarter revenue of between $1.11 billion and $1.15 billion, representing a year-over-year decrease of 2.8% to a year-over-year increase of 0.3%.

Share price and market cap

Shares in ASGN were down 7.63% to $68.86 as of 1:02 p.m. Eastern time; they set a new 52-week low today when they reached $64.94, according to FT.com. The company had a market cap of $3.67 billion.