Cross Country Healthcare Inc.’s (NASDAQ: CCRN) first-quarter revenue fell 21.0% to $622.7 million, but the company noted it still exceeded guidance.

The decline was in the company’s nurse and allied staffing segment, where revenue fell 23.9% year over year. Cross Country reported nurse and allied staffing annual bill rates were down year over year in the low double digits, and there were 12,518 full-time equivalents compared to 13,454 in the prior year’s quarter. Revenue per FTE per day was $513 compared to $628 in the year-ago quarter.

In the company’s physician staffing segment, first-quarter revenue rose 74.5% year over year, or 19% on an organic basis.

“I am pleased that we once again exceeded our expectations for revenue and profitability, reflecting continued strong execution across our business,” President and CEO John Martins said.

Martins also noted the deployment of the company’s Intellify VMS is underway, and it has signed its first vendor-neutral client.

The first quarter also includes $1.1 million in legal settlement charges. In a regulatory filing, the company said the charges were to settle a wage-and-hour class action lawsuit.

Guidance

Cross Country forecast second-quarter revenue of between $530 million and $540 million, a year-over-year decrease of between 28% and 30%.

Share price and market cap

Shares in Cross Country were up 4.10% to $22.32 as of 12:20 p.m. Eastern time; they were 46.26% above their 52-week low, according to FT.com. The company had a market cap of $772.8 million.