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Japan's largest staffing and HR services conglomerate, spanning temporary staffing, recruiting and IT services.
Japan's largest staffing and HR services conglomerate, spanning temporary staffing, recruiting and IT services.
Bills clients for each temporary worker it places, keeping the markup over the wages it pays, and charges placement fees for successful hires, notably through its doda job-search service. Its Asia-Pacific arm, built around Australia's Programmed, gives it a large business outside Japan. Earnings follow hiring demand.
In one line: Japan's Randstad / ManpowerGroup.
Moat: narrow (scale, brand, distribution). Largest scale and brand recognition in Japan's staffing industry, though fundamentally a people-based, low-margin business.
Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan · Founded: 1973 · Employees: 74,926
Size Persol (2181.T) is a Japan Industrials company (Personnel Services) with a market value of $4.11B, the 280th largest of 1,379 Japan companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at ¥285 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 22.1%, against +32.5% for the median peer and +1.8% for the Japan market (cap-weighted) — 5th lowest of 12 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 9.7% over the last twelve months (peer median +0.1%); the operating margin is 4.3% (peer median 2.8%).
Valuation It trades at 13.7× forward earnings against a peer median of 14.3× (6th cheapest of 11).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about -10% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +10%, so the hurdle is -21 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 13.4 points above its cost of capital (5.0% WACC).
Next results Next results expected around 11 Nov 2026 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | ¥1.61T | ¥1.56T | ¥1.45T | ¥1.33T | ¥1.24T |
| Revenue growth | — | +7% | +9% | +7% | — |
| Gross profit | ¥364B | ¥331B | ¥310B | ¥281B | ¥259B |
| EBITDA | ¥107B | ¥102B | ¥91.0B | ¥83.4B | ¥86.7B |
| Net income | ¥44.2B | ¥42.7B | ¥35.9B | ¥30.0B | ¥22.8B |
| Free cash flow | ¥79.2B | ¥73.6B | ¥63.7B | ¥74.5B | ¥65.7B |
| Capital expenditure | ¥18.1B | ¥16.9B | ¥18.4B | ¥15.5B | ¥12.7B |
| Total debt | ¥83.4B | ¥84.1B | ¥77.3B | ¥69.0B | ¥78.1B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Persol 2181.T | $4.11B | +22% | +10% | 4% | 13.7× | -10.3% |
| Recruit 6098.T | $149B | +133% | +9% | 20% | 30.3× | 22.0% |
| Pasona 2168.T | $344M | -12% | 0% | 0% | n/a | n/a |
| Adecco ADEN.SW | $4.82B | +24% | 0% | 2% | 10.3× | -3.5% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | 2181.T | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +2.5% | -0.5% | 6th highest of 12 |
| 6-month return | +22.1% | +32.5% | 5th lowest of 12 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -6.2% | -13.9% | 3rd highest of 12 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +9.7% | +0.1% | 3rd highest of 12 |
| Operating margin | 4.3% | 2.8% | 6th highest of 12 |
| Forward P/E | 13.7× | 14.3× | 6th cheapest of 11 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | -10.3% | 0.3% | least demanding of 11 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +10.4% | +6.3% | 5th highest of 11 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -20.6 pp | -2.6 pp | 2nd least demanding of 11 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +13.4 pp | +1.9 pp | 3rd highest of 11 |
| EV / EBITDA | 6.3× | 9.1× | 2nd cheapest of 6 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 0.0× | -0.4× | 5th most indebted of 11 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Persol 2181.T | Japan | $4.11B | +22% | +10% | 4% | 13.7× | -10.3% | +10.4% |
| Korn Ferry KFY | United States | $4.11B | +11% | +7% | 13% | 13.0× | 2.0% | +10.1% |
| Robert Half RHI | United States | $4.28B | +55% | -3% | 1% | 23.5× | 26.7% | +1.0% |
| Adecco ADEN.SW | Switzerland | $4.82B | +24% | 0% | 2% | 10.3× | -3.5% | +0.7% |
| Jinhai Medical Technology 2225.HK | Hong Kong | $3.02B | -6% | +75% | -17% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Randstad RAND.AS | Netherlands | $8.14B | +69% | 0% | 3% | 15.5× | 1.1% | +2.2% |
| ManpowerGroup MAN | United States | $2.07B | +49% | +7% | 2% | 10.3× | -0.4% | 0.0% |
| SMS 2175.T | Japan | $1.31B | +33% | +8% | 11% | 31.1× | 19.2% | +12.5% |
| Upwork UPWK | United States | $1.26B | +14% | -1% | 18% | 8.9× | -7.1% | +16.1% |
| Hays HAS.L | United Kingdom | $1.24B | +75% | -3% | 1% | 33.0× | 18.3% | +2.6% |
| JAC Recruitment 2124.T | Japan | $1.21B | +34% | +12% | 26% | 19.3× | -1.0% | +16.4% |
| Open Up 2154.T | Japan | $1.11B | +12% | -11% | 10% | 13.1× | -6.5% | +11.1% |