FactSet Research Q1 Earnings Meet View, But Revenues Top

(RTTNews) - Financial data provider FactSet Research Systems, Inc. (FDS) reported Tuesday a profit for the first quarter that increased from last year, reflecting revenue growth amid continued net addition in subscribers.

Earnings per share matched analysts' expectations, while quarterly revenues topped their estimates. The company also provided first-quarter earnings guidance, just above Street view, and revenue forecast in line with estimates.

"Our first quarter performance was a strong start to the fiscal year. The underlying growth rate of our business continues to expand and translated into double digit EPS growth for the 18th consecutive quarter," Chairman and CEO Philip Hadley said in a statement.

The Norwalk, Connecticut-based company reported net income of $55.86 million or $1.32 per share for the first quarter, higher than $52.18 million or $1.19 per share in the prior-year quarter, which included $0.01 per share of U.S. Federal R&D income tax benefit.

On average, 14 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $1.32 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Revenue for the quarter increased 8.8 percent to $242.68 million from $222.98 million in the same quarter last year, and topped thirteen Wall Street analysts' consensus estimate of $241.44 million by a whisker.

U.S. revenues for the quarter grew 7.0 percent to $163.7 million, and international revenues was $79.0 million, up about 10 percent from the prior-year quarter.

Annual Subscription Value or ASV for the first quarter increased 8.5 percent organically to $965.5 million from last year. ASV from FactSet's U.S. operations was $654 million, and $316 million were related to international operations.

ASV represents the forward-looking revenues for the next 12 months from all annual subscription services currently being supplied to clients.

Client count at the end of the first quarter totaled 2,762, a net increase of 19 clients during the quarter. Annual client retention rate was greater than 95 percent of ASV and 93 percent of clients, up from 92 percent a year ago.

"I was pleased that our growth was broad based across our products and derived from each geographic region. We also added 997 net new users, our best first quarter user addition in 7 years. This healthy performance pushed our user growth rate to 9.0% over the last 12 months," Hadley added.

Looking ahead to the second quarter of fiscal 2015, FactSet expects earnings in a range of $1.35 to $1.37 per share, on projected revenues between $244 million and $248 million.

Analysts expect the company to report earnings of $1.34 per share on revenues of $245.01 million for the quarter.

FDS closed Monday's regular trading session at $135.10, up $0.04 on a volume of 0.34 million shares.