CRA INTERNATIONAL INC

NOTES TO CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

1. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Description of Business

CRA International, Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiaries (collectively, "CRA" or the "Company") is a worldwide leading consulting services firm that applies advanced analytic techniques and in-depth industry knowledge to complex engagements for a broad range of clients. CRA offers services intwo broad areas: litigation, regulatory, and financial consulting and management consulting. CRA operates inone business segment. CRA operates its business under its registered trade name, Charles River Associates.

Basis of Presentation

The unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of CRA which require consolidation after the elimination of intercompany accounts and transactions. These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the rules and regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) for Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Accordingly, these financial statements do not include all the information and note disclosures required by accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”) for annual financial statements. Certain prior period amounts have been reclassified to conform to the current period presentation. These reclassifications had no effect on previously reported results of operations, financial position, or cash flows. In the opinion of management, these financial statements reflect all adjustments of a normal, recurring nature necessary for the fair presentation of CRA’s results of operations, financial position, cash flows, and shareholders’ equity for the interim periods presented in conformity with U.S. GAAP. Results of operations for the interim periods presented herein are not necessarily indicative of results of operations for a full year. These financial statements should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto for the fiscal year ended December 30, 2023 included in CRA’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 29, 2024 (the “2023 Form 10-K”).

Note 1 to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8, on the 2023 Form 10-K describes the significant accounting policies and methods used in preparation of the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

Recent Accounting Standards Not Yet Adopted

Segment Reporting (Topic 280): Improvements to Reportable Segment Disclosures

In November 2023, the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") issued Accounting Standards Update ("ASU") No. 2023-07, Segment Reporting (Topic 280): Improvements to Reportable Segment Disclosures (ASU 2023-07). The ASU improves reportable segment disclosure requirements, primarily through enhanced disclosures about significant segment expenses. ASU 2023-07 also requires that a public entity that has a single reportable segment provide all disclosures required by these amendments and all existing segment disclosures in Topic 280.

ASU 2023-07 is effective for CRA for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2023, and interim periods within fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2024. CRA plans to adopt the amendment during the fourth fiscal quarter of 2024. CRA expects the adoption of this ASU will impact its disclosures, but will not have a material effect on its consolidated financial statements.

Income Taxes (Topic 740): Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures

In December 2023, the FASB issued ASU No. 2023-09, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures (ASU 2023-09). The ASU requires disclosure of specific categories in the rate reconciliation, provides additional information for reconciling items that meet a quantitative threshold, and discloses the amount of income taxes paid disaggregated by federal, state, foreign taxes, and individual jurisdiction. ASU 2023-09 also requires income (or loss) from continuing operations before income tax expense (or benefit) disaggregated between domestic and foreign, and income tax expense (or benefit) from continuing operations disaggregated by federal (national), state, and foreign.

ASU 2023-09 is effective for CRA for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2024. CRA plans to adopt the amendment during the annual reporting for fiscal year 2025. CRA has begun to assess the impact of the amendment and has modeled out the changes to its income tax disclosures. As the amendment relates solely to disclosures, the adoption is not expected to have an effect on CRA's financial results.

2. Revenues and Allowances

The contracts CRA enters into and operates under specify whether the projects are billed on a time-and-materials or a fixed-price basis. Time-and-materials contracts are typically used for litigation, regulatory, and financial consulting projects while fixed-price contracts are principally used for management consulting projects. In general, project costs are classified in costs of services (exclusive of depreciation and amortization) and are based on the direct salary of CRA’s employee consultants on the engagement, plus all direct expenses incurred to complete the project, including any amounts billed to CRA by its non-employee experts.

Disaggregation of Revenue

The following tables disaggregate CRA’s revenue by type of contract and geographic location (in thousands):

Revenues have been attributed to locations based on the location of the legal entity generating the revenues.

Reserves for Variable Consideration and Credit Risk

Revenues from CRA's consulting services are recorded at the net transaction price, which includes estimates of variable consideration for which reserves are established. Variable consideration reserves are based on specific price concessions and those expected to be extended to CRA customers estimated by CRA's historical realization rates. Reserves for variable consideration are recorded as a component of the allowances for accounts receivable and unbilled services on the condensed consolidated balance sheets. Adjustments to the reserves for variable consideration are included in revenues on the condensed consolidated statements of operations.

The following table presents CRA's bad debt expense, net of recoveries of previously written off allowances (in thousands):

Reimbursable Expenses

Revenues also include reimbursements for costs incurred by CRA in fulfilling its performance obligations, including travel and other out-of-pocket expenses, fees for outside consultants, and other reimbursable expenses. CRA recovers substantially all of these costs. The following expenses are subject to reimbursement (in thousands):

Contract Balances from Contracts with Customers

The timing of revenue recognition, billings, and cash collections results in accounts receivables, unbilled services, and contract liabilities on the consolidated balance sheets. Revenues recognized for services performed, but not yet billed to clients, are recorded as unbilled services. The following table presents the open and closing balances of CRA's accounts receivable, net and unbilled services, net (in thousands):

CRA defines contract assets as assets for which it has recorded revenue because it determines that it is probable that it will earn a performance-based or contingent fee, but is not yet entitled to receive a fee because certain events, such as completion of the measurement period or client approval, must occur. The contract assets balance was immaterial as of September 28, 2024, December 30, 2023, and December 31, 2022.

When consideration is received, or such consideration is unconditionally due from a customer prior to transferring consulting services to the customer under the terms of a contract, a contract liability is recorded. Contract liabilities are recognized as revenue after performance obligations have been satisfied and all revenue recognition criteria have been met. The following table presents the closing balances of CRA's contract liabilities (in thousands):

CRA recognized the following revenue that was included in the contract liabilities balance as of the opening of the respective period or for performance obligations satisfied in previous periods (in thousands):

3. Forgivable Loans

In order to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, CRA may issue forgivable loans to employees and non-employee experts, certain of which may be denominated in local currencies. A portion of these loans is collateralized. The forgivable loans have terms that are generally betweentwo andsix years with interest rates currently ranging up to 5.12%. The principal amount of forgivable loans and accrued interest is forgiven by CRA over the term of the loans, so long as the employee or non-employee expert continues employment or affiliation with CRA and complies with certain contractual requirements. The forgiveness of the principal amount of the loans is recorded as compensation over the service period, which is consistent with the term of the loans.

The following table presents forgivable loan activity for the respective periods (in thousands):

(1)Relates to the reclassification of performance awards previously recorded as accrued expenses or forgivable loans that have been reclassified to other receivables.

(2)During the quarter ended June 29, 2024, approximately $5.7 million of amortization was accelerated due to involuntary terminations.

4. Goodwill and Intangible Assets

The changes in the carrying amount of goodwill for the fiscal year-to-date period ended September 28, 2024 are summarized as follows (in thousands):

Goodwill, net at September 28, 2024 of $94.6 million, is comprised of goodwill of $166.5 million and accumulated impairment of $71.9 million. There wereno impairment losses related to goodwill during the fiscal-year-to-date period ended September 28, 2024 or during the fiscal year ended December 30, 2023.

Intangible assets that are separable from goodwill and have determinable useful lives are valued separately and amortized using the straight-line method over their expected useful lives. The components of acquired identifiable intangible assets are as follows (in thousands):

There wereno impairment losses related to intangible assets during the fiscal year-to-date period ended September 28, 2024 or during the fiscal year ended December 30, 2023. Amortization expense related to intangible assets was $0.4 million and $1.1 million for the fiscal quarter and fiscal year-to-date period ended September 28, 2024, respectively, and $0.3 million and $1.0 million for the fiscal quarter and fiscal year-to-date period ended September 30, 2023, respectively.

5. Accrued Expenses

Accrued expenses consist of the following (in thousands):

As of September 28, 2024 and December 30, 2023, approximately $109.5 million and $121.2 million, respectively, of accrued bonuses were included above in “Compensation and related expenses.”

6. Income Taxes

For the fiscal quarters ended September 28, 2024 and September 30, 2023, CRA’s effective income tax rate (“ETR”) was 28.7% and 18.3%, respectively. The ETR for the third quarter of fiscal 2024 was higher than the third quarter of fiscal 2023 primarily due to the release of a valuation allowance in the third quarter of fiscal 2023, partially offset by an increase in the tax benefit related to share-based compensation.

For the fiscal year-to-date periods ended September 28, 2024 and September 30, 2023, CRA's ETR was 29.1% and 26.4%. respectively. The ETR for the fiscal year-to-date period ended September 28, 2024 was higher than the fiscal year-to-date period ended September 30, 2023, primarily due to the same items noted above.

7. Net Income Per Share

CRA calculates basic earnings per share using the two-class method. CRA calculates diluted earnings per share using the more dilutive of either the two-class method or treasury stock method. The two-class method was more dilutive for the fiscal quarters and fiscal year-to-date periods ended September 28, 2024 and September 30, 2023.

Under the two-class method, net earnings are allocated to each class of common stock and participating security as if all the net earnings for the period had been distributed. CRA's participating securities consist of unvested share-based payment awards that contain a nonforfeitable right to receive dividends and therefore are considered to participate in undistributed earnings with common shareholders. Net earnings allocable to these participating securities were not material for the fiscal quarters and fiscal year-to-date periods ended September 28, 2024 and September 30, 2023.

The following table presents the calculation of basic and diluted net income per share (in thousands, except per share data):

For the fiscal quarter and fiscal year-to-date period ended September 28, 2024, the anti-dilutive share-based awards that were excluded from the calculation of common stock equivalents for purposes of computing diluted weighted average outstanding shares amounted to 4,900 and 1,225 shares, respectively. For the fiscal quarter and fiscal-year-to-date period ended September 30, 2023, the anti-dilutive share-based awards that were excluded from the calculation of common stock equivalents for purposes of computing diluted weighted average shares outstanding amounted to 6,185 and 5,875 shares, respectively.

8. Fair Value of Financial Instruments

The following tables show CRA's financial instruments recorded in the condensed consolidated financial statements which are measured at fair value on a recurring basis by level within the fair value hierarchy (in thousands):

The contingent consideration liability pertains to estimated future contingent consideration payments related to the acquisition of bioStrategies Group, Inc. during fiscal 2022. The following table summarizes the changes in the contingent consideration liability (in thousands):

9. Credit Agreement

CRA is party to a Credit Agreement, dated as of August 19, 2022 (as amended, the "Credit Agreement") with Bank of America, N.A., as swingline lender, a letter of credit issuing bank and administrative agent, and with Citizens Bank, N.A., as a letter of credit issuing bank. The Credit Agreement provides CRA with a $250.0 million revolving credit facility, which may be decreased at CRA's option to $200.0 million during the period from July 16 in a year through January 15 in the next year. Additionally, for the period from January 16 to July 15 of each calendar year, CRA may elect to not increase the revolving credit facility to $250.0 million. The revolving credit facility includes a $25.0 million sublimit for the issuance of letters of credit.

Under the Credit Agreement, CRA must comply with various financial and non-financial covenants. The primary financial covenants consist of a maximum consolidated net leverage ratio of 3.0 to 1 and a minimum consolidated interest coverage ratio of 2.5 to 1. The primary non-financial covenants include, but are not limited to, restrictions on CRA's ability to incur future indebtedness, engage in acquisitions or dispositions, pay dividends or repurchase capital stock, and enter into business combinations. Any indebtedness outstanding under the revolving credit facility may become immediately due upon the occurrence of stated events of default, including CRA's failure to pay principal, interest or fees, or upon the breach of any covenant. As of September 28, 2024, CRA was in compliance with the covenants of the Credit Agreement.

There were $60.0 million in borrowings outstanding under the revolving credit facility as of September 28, 2024 andno borrowings outstanding as of December 30, 2023. As of September 28, 2024, the amount available under the revolving credit facility was reduced by certain letters of credit outstanding, which amounted to $4.1 million.

10. Commitments and Contingencies

As described in the previous note, CRA is party to standby letters of credit with its lenders in support of minimum future lease payments under certain operating leases for office space.

CRA is subject to legal actions arising in the ordinary course of business. In management’s opinion, based on current knowledge, CRA believes it has adequate legal defenses or insurance coverage, or both, with respect to the eventuality of such actions. CRA does not believe any settlement or judgment relating to any pending legal action would materially affect its financial position or results of operations. However, the outcome of such legal actions is inherently unpredictable and subject to inherent uncertainties.

11. Subsequent Events

On October 31, 2024, CRA announced that its Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.49 per common share, payable on December 13, 2024 to shareholders of record as of November 26, 2024.