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

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Craig Huber: And then how would you characterize the — the revised ASV outlook here in terms of conservativeness given — given the environment, I don’t blame you for being conservative there and but just how did you put that together in terms of as the question came up earlier, I just want to hear a little bit further about what you’re hearing from clients versus what you layered on top of that, trying to anticipate about tougher economic and stock market backdrop?

Philip Snow: Hey, Craig, maybe I’ll say a few things and then I’m sure Helen will have some — some stuff to add on. So, you know, for the second half, what I do want to highlight is the strength that we’re seeing in Analytics and CTS. So when — they’ve had both — both had very good quarters and the pipeline for both of those lines of business look very good. So you think of these more as our enterprise solutions. So we see a very healthy appetite from our clients for these across a number of firm types. The conservatism is coming around our research area, which really has to do with the seats and, you know, primarily in banking. So that’s a bit of the thinking. And then as I mentioned in my opening comments, you know, we see about two thirds of the correction that we made to banking and the other third to fund types. So, Helen, I don’t know if you wanted to add on and sort of help with any.

Helen Shan: Yeah, I think it’s also important to keep in mind the shape and mix of our banking book. So, so first of all, we have seen acceleration in a lot of the cross-selling we’re doing. So as banks are, we’ve had growth in data feeds, API integration, digital solutions in there. So it’s not only around the workstation itself. And then the other piece is to really think about both the large banks, sort of the majors, as we call them, and then the middle market banking clients where a number of advisory boutiques actually are making opportunistic hiring decisions. And so that’s helped keep the book in decent shape. So we do expect this sector to be slower than last year. But I think the diversification and what we’re offering them and the mix of the client portfolio and of course the multiyear contracts that have minimums, two thirds of our book have minimums in there in the banking.

So that gives us some downside protection. So I feel pretty good about our ability to manage through that — that downturn.

Craig Huber: Great. Thank you.

Operator: And thank you. And one moment for our next question. And our next question comes from Ashish Sabadra from RBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Ashish Sabadra: Thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to drill down further on the — on the two areas which have been really strong Content and Analytics and that’s mostly focused on the buy side, which is more than like 87% of your business. And in this environment, the buy side has been relatively resilient, at least as far as we can see. So question there was — and I get the sorry the comments around elongation of sales cycle, but I was just wondering if you can talk about the pipeline itself. How is the pipeline comparing even compared to three months before? Are you seeing more deals come into the pipeline? And is it just a matter of maybe they get pushed out from fourth quarter to fiscal year ’24 versus the ability to close the deal? Thanks.

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