FactSet Earned $2.72 per Share

FactSet (FDS) reported fiscal Q2 earnings this morning. This is for the quarter that ended on February 28.

For Q2, FactSet earned $2.72 per share. That’s a 6.7% increase over last year’s Q2. That’s pretty good but it was two cents below Wall Street’s consensus. I’m hardly worried by a two-cent miss but the stock is down about 5% in today’s trading.

Let’s look at some details. Quarterly revenue increased by 6% to $391.8 million. The key stat for FactSet is Annual Subscription Value (or ASV) plus professional services. For the quarter, that came in at $1.598 billion. I was pleased to see FactSet’s adjusted operating margin increase from 31.8% to 32.6%.

The company added $206 million to its share buyback program which brings the total to $350 million.

The most important news is that FactSet didn’t change its full-year earnings outlook. One positive change is that the company raised the low end of its ASV professional services forecast.

“I am proud of how we executed this quarter, resulting in a solid first half of our fiscal 2021,” said Phil Snow, CEO, FactSet. “In our second quarter we saw a number of key wins validating our strategy for long term growth. Our focus on digital transformation, content expansion, and being an open platform continues to resonate with our clients as they navigate a rapidly evolving landscape.”

At the end of the quarter, client count stood at 6,103. User count increased by 6,659 to 153,355. Annual ASV retention was greater than 95%. When expressed as a percentage of clients, annual retention improved to 90%, year over year. Employee count was 10,660. That’s an increase of 7.8% over the last 12 months.

CFO Helen Shan said, “We enter our fiscal second half with good momentum and remain focused on delivering significant value to our clients and shareholders.”

During the quarter, FactSet bought back 221,959 shares for $71.5 million. That’s an average price of $322.11.

FactSet didn’t alter its full-year guidance. The company expects earnings to range between $10.75 and $11.15 per share. (Their fiscal year ends on August 31.) I suspect that’s probably too low. For the first half of this year, FactSet has made $5.12 per share. The company also sees revenue coming in between $1.57 billion and $1.585 billion. FactSet expects operating margin between 32% and 33%. These are good numbers.

Posted by on March 30th, 2021 at 11:17 am


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