Legal & General Group Plc Has $47.99 Million Position in FactSet Research Systems Inc. $FDS

Key Points

• Legal & General Group Plc cut its FactSet Research Systems stake by 42.9% in the fourth quarter, selling 124,434 shares and ending with 165,386 shares worth about $47.99 million.
• Analyst sentiment remains cautious: multiple firms lowered price targets or kept bearish ratings, and MarketBeat shows an overall "Reduce" rating with an average price target of $279.62.
• FactSet recently reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $4.46 and revenue of $611.02 million, and it also raised its quarterly dividend to $1.16 per share.

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its holdings in FactSet Research Systems Inc. (NYSE:FDS - Free Report) by 42.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 165,386 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 124,434 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.45% of FactSet Research Systems worth $47,993,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of FDS. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its position in FactSet Research Systems by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,727 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $785,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in FactSet Research Systems by 27.6% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 972 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $442,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in FactSet Research Systems by 188.2% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 98 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in FactSet Research Systems by 58.6% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 138 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $62,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the period. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC grew its position in FactSet Research Systems by 15.6% in the 2nd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 5,247 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $2,347,000 after purchasing an additional 707 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.24% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on FDS shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a "sell (d+)" rating on shares of FactSet Research Systems in a research report on Friday, March 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of FactSet Research Systems from $253.00 to $217.00 and set a "sell" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price target on shares of FactSet Research Systems from $243.00 to $240.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Barclays dropped their price objective on FactSet Research Systems from $300.00 to $210.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on FactSet Research Systems from $425.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and six have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, FactSet Research Systems has an average rating of "Reduce" and an average price target of $279.62.

FactSet Research Systems Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:FDS opened at $245.90 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $221.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $244.77. FactSet Research Systems Inc. has a 1-year low of $185.00 and a 1-year high of $465.81. The stock has a market cap of $8.96 billion, a PE ratio of 15.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.69.

FactSet Research Systems (NYSE:FDS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 31st. The business services provider reported $4.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.37 by $0.09. FactSet Research Systems had a return on equity of 30.25% and a net margin of 24.48%.The business had revenue of $611.02 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $604.78 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $4.28 EPS. The business's revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that FactSet Research Systems Inc. will post 17.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FactSet Research Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 29th will be paid a dividend of $1.16 per share. This is a boost from FactSet Research Systems's previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 29th. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. FactSet Research Systems's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 28.30%.

FactSet Research Systems Profile

FactSet Research Systems Inc operates as a global provider of integrated financial data and analytics to the investment community. Founded in 1978 and headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, the company offers a unified platform that aggregates content from thousands of sources, delivering real-time and historical market data, company fundamentals, estimates, fixed-income information and proprietary analytics to portfolio managers, research analysts, investment bankers and risk officers.

The company's core products include the FactSet Workstation, an application offering customizable screening, charting, portfolio analysis and news; APIs and data feeds for seamless integration into proprietary systems; and cloud-based solutions for thematic research and quantitative strategies.

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