Revenue at Resources Connection Inc. (NASD: RECN) stayed flat year over year in its fiscal third quarter ended Feb. 27. The Irvine Calif.-based company also announced the retirement of Executive VP and CFO Nathan W. Franke. 

Third-quarter revenue remained at $146.8 million, slightly below the company’s internal expectations. However, revenue rose 1.1% in constant currency.

Gross margin came in better than anticipated due to improved bill/pay spread.

The company attributed the flat revenue growth partially to revenue declines with certain clients in the energy and financial services industries, primarily in the US.

Sequentially, quarterly revenue declines with energy clients stabilized from its first quarter to its second quarter; however, during the third quarter, sequential revenue from energy clients decreased by approximately $1.1 million, CEO Tony Cherbak said in a conference call with investors. The revenue decrease from energy clients was approximately $2.6 million in the third quarter from the same quarter year prior.

US revenue in the quarter edged down 0.2% year over year to $121.0 million.

Revenue fell in North America by 0.8%, down 0.4% in constant currency. International revenue rose 1.2% to $25.8 million, up 7.5% in constant currency. Asia Pacific revenue rose 9.8% and European revenue rose 8.9% in constant currency.

Resources Connection’s net income was essentially flat, down only 0.5% to $6.0 million.

Resources Connection ranks as the fifth-largest US provider of finance/accounting staffing. Its operating subsidiary is Resources Global Professionals.

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“We continue to make progress internationally, especially in Europe where we had constant currency quarter-over-quarter growth in revenue of 8.9%,” said President and CEO Tony Cherbak. “Our results in the US were unfavorably impacted by weakness in demand from our energy clients. In spite of this, our strong operating metrics allowed us to return $12.2 million of capital to shareholders in the form of our dividend and stock repurchase programs.”

CFO retires

Nathan W. Franke on April 7 notified the company of his intention to retire from the company following the close of the company’s fiscal year. He will remain in his current position until the end of July and participate in the recruitment of his replacement. The company retained executive search firm Spencer Stuart to assist in the search for a new CFO.

Franke joined RGP in 2007 after 22 years at Deloitte & Touche LLP, where he served for 12 years as an audit partner, primarily working with publicly traded companies in the consumer and technology industries.

“Nate and I have worked together for more than 30 years, first at Deloitte and then RGP,” said Cherbak. “He is an outstanding financial professional who we will all miss in the day-to-day business. Nate has been a valuable member of the management team at RGP for the past nine years, and on behalf of all of the employees of RGP and the board of directors, we want to thank Nate for his contribution and wish him well as he embraces retirement.”

Share price and market cap

Shares in Resources Connection fell by 11.02% in early afternoon trading today to $13.00 and the company had a market cap of $482.74 million, according to Yahoo!