Legal & General Group Plc Sells 59,228 Shares of FactSet Research Systems Inc. (NYSE:FDS)

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its holdings in shares of FactSet Research Systems Inc. (NYSE:FDS) by 17.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 285,796 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 59,228 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in FactSet Research Systems were worth $137,262,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in FactSet Research Systems by 9.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,096,592 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $527,411,000 after buying an additional 94,668 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in FactSet Research Systems by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 505,587 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $240,184,000 after acquiring an additional 16,522 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of FactSet Research Systems by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 501,068 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $240,653,000 after purchasing an additional 7,718 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of FactSet Research Systems by 17.2% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 456,149 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $219,079,000 after purchasing an additional 66,861 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in FactSet Research Systems by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 382,434 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $183,675,000 after buying an additional 9,048 shares during the last quarter. 91.24% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on FDS. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of FactSet Research Systems from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $450.00 to $402.00 in a report on Friday, March 21st. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on FactSet Research Systems from $498.00 to $466.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on FactSet Research Systems from $469.00 to $493.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of FactSet Research Systems from $525.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $503.00 price target on shares of FactSet Research Systems in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $436.27.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Gregory T. Moskoff sold 363 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $433.73, for a total transaction of $157,443.99. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 44 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,084.12. This represents a 89.19 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

FactSet Research Systems Stock Down 2.5 %

FDS stock opened at $416.16 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $444.84 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $462.68. FactSet Research Systems Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $391.69 and a fifty-two week high of $499.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.83, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.82.

FactSet Research Systems (NYSE:FDS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The business services provider reported $4.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.17 by $0.11. FactSet Research Systems had a net margin of 24.16% and a return on equity of 33.92%. The firm had revenue of $570.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $570.65 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $4.22 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that FactSet Research Systems Inc. will post 17.21 earnings per share for the current year.

FactSet Research Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 20th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were given a dividend of $1.04 per share. This represents a $4.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. FactSet Research Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.59%.

FactSet Research Systems 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.