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

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On the technology costs more specifically, we still see that we’ll be within the 8% to 9% of revenue for tech costs. But this is a growing business and we are increasing our tech spend to support it. We talked about real estate, another charge of $15 million to $20 million that we have planned. This has been an area where I think we’ve done a great job of rationalizing our costs and it’s been very helpful to us with absolutely no impact on anything else that we’re doing. Third party data similarly has had a slight growth 3%, but given the rate of inflation, that looks pretty good. So we’re pretty happy about that. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to continue our focus on our downturn playbook. Right now we are looking at essential hires only.

Travel is prioritized for essential trips, primarily around Helen’s Sales team. And we’ve talked about real estate and we are negotiating hard on third party content. So all of that together we think is manageable. The last piece that we would note on people costs, our bonus pool, we’re thinking is going to be sort of $100 million to $105 million. Last year we had a bonus pool, which was more like $115 million. So we’re looking for about call it $10ish million savings on that if we perform at a 100% of our targets. So again last year was a very strong bonus year. This year we’ll probably be a bit more moderate and we’ll continue to update you on this as we move through the year. So hope that’s helpful to you, George, and I hope I covered everything you wanted.

George Tong: Very helpful. Thank you.

Linda Huber: Sure.

Operator: And thank you. And one moment for our next question. And our next question comes from Andrew Nicholas from William Blair. Your line is now open.

Andrew Nicholas: Hi. Good morning and thanks for taking my questions. I think, Phil, you mentioned CGS ASV growth of 8% here since acquiring it. And I think that’s on the higher end of what that business had historically grown at least in terms of revenue. So I’m just wondering if you could speak to the sustainability of being kind of in that high single-digit range and maybe a little bit more on the progress of some of the new opportunities there on — on private company data in particular?

Philip Snow: Yeah. Thanks for the question. Yeah, we feel confident. You know, we’ve had this asset for a year now, so we’re still getting to know it. It’s a very steady, consistent business. We’re executing exceptionally well. We’ve got a great sales team. Almost all of the employees that came over during the acquisition are still with us and very happy. And I think some of, you know, the growth can just be attributed to good execution, frankly, in terms of the contracts. And as new issuance comes out, you know, it is getting — into issuing CUSIPS for new asset classes isn’t a very quick process, right? There’s a lot of parties you have to bring to the table and get on board to do that. So we’re making good progress there on the two areas that I mentioned, particularly the loan entity IDs. So it’s a consistent business.

You know, I think you should see steady performance from it. But again, we’re just getting to know this asset really well now that we’ve had it for a year.

Andrew Nicholas: Perfect. Thank you. And then switching gears a bit for my follow-up. I wanted to ask you a question on wealth. Obviously another nice win there with the BMO add in the quarter. We’re just hoping you could spend maybe a bit more time walking through the major reasons you’re winning in that space. And maybe more importantly, from my perspective, when you’re not winning deals, are there — are there major gaps in your offering that — that consistently come up? And as you think about those gaps, are those generally opportunities to — to address those organically or would we eventually expect to see you acquire into those gaps? Thank you.

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