Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Reduces Stake in FactSet Research Systems Inc. (NYSE:FDS)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lessened its stake in shares of FactSet Research Systems Inc. (NYSE:FDS) by 54.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,881 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 8,319 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in FactSet Research Systems were worth $3,305,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Everence Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of FactSet Research Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $413,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in FactSet Research Systems by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,001,924 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $460,467,000 after purchasing an additional 8,376 shares during the period. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. grew its position in shares of FactSet Research Systems by 52.5% during the 4th quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 4,171 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,003,000 after purchasing an additional 1,436 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of FactSet Research Systems by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 120,956 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $55,621,000 after purchasing an additional 1,260 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of FactSet Research Systems by 21.0% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 340,494 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $164,653,000 after purchasing an additional 59,173 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on FDS. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on FactSet Research Systems from $503.00 to $500.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. UBS Group lifted their price target on FactSet Research Systems from $485.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of FactSet Research Systems from $521.00 to $518.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $503.00 target price on shares of FactSet Research Systems in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of FactSet Research Systems from $469.00 to $493.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $453.23.

FactSet Research Systems Price Performance

Shares of FactSet Research Systems stock opened at $453.31 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.39. FactSet Research Systems Inc. has a 52-week low of $391.84 and a 52-week high of $499.87. The company has a fifty day moving average of $467.91 and a 200-day moving average of $460.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.77.

FactSet Research Systems (NYSE:FDS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The business services provider reported $4.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.25 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $568.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $565.14 million. FactSet Research Systems had a net margin of 24.16% and a return on equity of 33.92%. The company’s revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $4.12 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that FactSet Research Systems Inc. will post 17.21 EPS for the current year.

FactSet Research Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a $1.04 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $4.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.92%. FactSet Research Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.82%.

FactSet Research Systems Company Profile

FactSet Research Systems Inc, a financial data company, provides integrated financial information and analytical applications to the investment community in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company delivers insight and information through the workflow solutions of research, analytics and trading, content and technology solutions, and wealth.