Stock of the day 15/06/2015 – FactSet Research Systems Inc

It may not be glamorous, but FactSet Research Systems is hovering near its all-time highs ahead of its Q3 2015 earnings release on Tuesday.

The ‘financial information and analytic software for investment professionals’ company, that aims to rival Bloomberg and Reuters, has had a fairly blockbuster 18 months. After opening 2014 at $108.60 the company rang in 2015 at $140.77, and this upward trend that has continued throughout the New Year. A low of $136.82 in the first week of January was quickly pushed aside, and since then FactSet has seen few sustained dips in fortune. This culminated in an all-time closing high of 167.85, marginally below the intraday high of $168.71, both occurring on May 19th. It has got near, if not quite actually at, these highs in the subsequent 4 weeks, and is currently trading at $165.72 (15/06/2015, IT-Finance.com).


(Source: IT-Finance.com 15/06/2015)

A string of smart acquisitions across the past few years (StreetAccount, Revere Data, Code Red Inc) has bolstered the services FactSet provides, and has contributed to company’s incredibly consistent market performance in the last couple of years.

The other key factor, of course, is the strength of FactSet’s results. Investors were impressed with the company’s second quarter figures, leading the stock 3% higher when they were released on March 17th. Despite a 2 cent miss in EPS of $1.39 against $1.41 expected, this still bested the $1.22 posted the year before; similarly, whilst revenue was slightly better than expected at $247.8 million against the forecast $246.7 million, the fact that this figure was a 9.2% year-on-year increase the real draw for investors.

With analysts expecting $1.41 earnings per share for this third quarter release alongside $253.56 million in revenue (another 9% year-on-year increase), FactSet appears to be on track for a 35th consecutive year of revenue growth, after seeing gains every single year in the past 3 and a half decades. In fact, the project annual revenue growth of 9% should take the company’s total revenue to $1 billion for its fiscal 2015.

Currently FactSet Research Systems has a consensus rating of ‘hold’ with an average target price of $150.00.

Monday’s stock news:

A flurry of ratings changes inspired some big movements this Monday. A ‘hold’ rating from Jefferies alongside the noting of a potential 5.7% upside from its £1.90 target price for Soco International pushed the oil and gas explorer nearly 7.5% higher to £1.91. Tullett Prebon, on the other hand, had an 8.7% downside noted from a £3.60 target price from Barclays Capital, sending the inter-dealer money broker 7.5% lower to £3.73.