FactSet Research Systems Inc. (NYSE:FDS) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Philip Snow: Yes. Thanks for the follow-up question. There are no gaps related to the product that we intended to take to market, so we’re doing very well with the advisor workstation. And, you know, some of the reasons we’re winning really are just the ease of use of the interface, the speed of it, the flexibility FactSet’s, you know, superior analytics capabilities, integrating portfolios. The advisor dashboard that we’ve layered on top of — of this for some clients really suggest the next best action for the advisors. That’s been a big hit and just I think our open and flexible technology in addition to the interface itself, allows the firm to bring in feeds and other components that they may want into other parts of that business.

So it continues to grow in double-digits. It was a double-digit growth for I think seven or eight quarters in a row now. So a very consistent performer and we still see a lot of room here to grow. The tailwinds in the space and as you pointed out, there are some obvious adjacencies that could — fax it could get into — could get into. So we’re looking at those, you know, and if there’s an opportunity to do something, either buy or build, we’ll take advantage of that. Helen, do you want to add on?

Helen Shan: Yeah, no, I was going to say that a lot of the — our wealth clients are really investing into their own technology platforms. So exactly what Phil said, once we land with our workstation, quite frankly, there’s a lot of room for growth with the advisor dashboard and other digital solutions. And since they’re investing in their platform and because we have an open strategy, we are actually seeing tons of opportunity. So I think there’s a lot there for us to — to continue to grow on.

Andrew Nicholas: Great. Thank you.

Operator: And thank you. And one moment for our next question. And our next question comes from Faiza Alwy from Deutsche Bank. Your line is now open.

Faiza Alwy: Yes. Hi. Good morning. Thanks. Phil, I wanted to ask about investments because it looks like the pace of investments is going to accelerate, which is — which is typically the case seasonally. But I’m curious if, you know, given the recent volatility, if you’re thinking around the types of areas that you’re investing in has evolved at all?

Philip Snow: Sure. Thanks, Faiza. I mean, it’s a little bit early to comment on exactly what we’ll be doing. This is the time of year that we look at our strategy and consider, you know, what we might want to think about for next year in terms of any changes. Many of the initiatives that we set out to execute on a few years ago, these are long initiatives. So we continue to execute well on our deep sector and private markets offerings. We’re doing well in real time. I mentioned a very nice deal that we captured in Q2 as a result of that investment and we’ve actually tilted more investment towards that this year. We just see so much opportunity in that space. You know, one thing, I can sort of highlight or I’d like to highlight is, you know, FactSet has great content analytics and we’re also a technology company and we’ve done so much work to invest in our platform with our hybrid cloud strategy partnerships.

We’ve developed our API program. All of that is really beginning to bear fruit. And we do believe that the technology piece of what we do is going to help us more in the future. And you actually see that in CTS. So CTS had a very good quarter, grew in double-digits accelerated. And if you look at what CTS is providing to the market is Content & Technology solutions, but this quarter it really tilted towards the technology part, which is exciting, you know, sitting down with our clients, helping them manage data, helping them in other ways. So that’s a bit of the evolution there, if that’s helpful to you and maybe gives you a bit of a hint of sort of where we’re headed into next year.

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