FactSet Drops on Lower Guidance

Shares of FactSet (FDS) are down today despite a good earnings report. The problem is lower guidance.

For their fiscal Q4, FactSet said that revenues rose 5.3% to $364.3 million. Annual Subscription Value, or ASV, rose to $1.48 billion. Earnings rose 18.6% to $2.61 per share. Wall Street had been expecting $2.47 per share.

This was FactSet’s 39th year in a row of revenue growth and 23rd year in a row of EPS growth.

“FactSet performed well in full year 2019 delivering solid revenue and strong EPS growth, despite market headwinds,” said Phil Snow, FactSet CEO. “To further our winning proposition in the marketplace, we will be accelerating critical investments over the next three years from a position of strength, capitalizing on industry trends and enhancing our core offerings. We are making investments today so that FactSet can continue to deliver long-term value for all our stakeholders.”

For the whole year, EPS rose to $10.00. Their guidance had been for $9.80 to $9.90 per share. Before that, it was $9.50 to $9.65 per share, so business has been humming along.

Now for guidance, and FactSet is being very conservative. The company sees earnings next year (ending in August 2020) ranging between $9.85 and $10.15 per share. That’s basically no growth. Wall Street had expected $10.52 per share.

Traders punished the stock. Shares of FDS are currently down about 10%.

Posted by on September 26th, 2019 at 12:08 pm


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