FactSet Research Systems’ Earnings

FactSet Research Systems (FDS) reported decent earnings today. For its fiscal fourth quarter (ending August 31), the company earned 68 cents a share which was four cents a share better than Street estimates. For last year’s Q4, the company earned 58 cents a share. Sales were up 18.7% to 153.7 million. For Q1, the company sees sales of $154 to $157 million and operating margins between 31.5% and 33%.
The CEO said, “The macro environment has now been challenging for more than a year, yet it is gratifying that again this quarter FactSet grew both its user base and client count. The results point to significant progress in our efforts to increase the engagement level of users and add incremental value to clients. We were also very pleased that our previously announced acquisition of Thomson Fundamentals closed during the fourth quarter. We believe that the estimated market opportunity for fundamental data just among our existing client base is in excess of $100 million, representing a large new source of potential revenue growth for FactSet.”
FDS is often seen as a proxy for the health of the financial sector. I don’t think that’s correct. The company has been holding up very well during the recent unpleasantness. Last quarter, the client count increased by 41 to 2,085, and the number of users climbed by 510 to 40,120.
Year……………..Sales……………….EPS
1998……………$78.91……………..$0.26
1999……………$103.83……………$0.37
2000……………$134.18……………$0.49
2001……………$167.56……………$0.64
2002……………$198.29……………$0.78
2003……………$222.30……………$0.98
2004……………$251.91……………$1.15
2005……………$312.64……………$1.43
2006……………$387.35……………$1.64
2007……………$475.80……………$2.14
2008……………$575.52……………$2.50

Posted by on September 23rd, 2008 at 9:37 pm


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