Factset Research Systems Inc (FDS) 2021 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the FactSet Fourth Fiscal Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference may be recorded. (Operator Instructions)

女士們、先生們，感謝你們的耐心等待，歡迎參加 FactSet 2021 年第四財季收益電話會議。 （操作員指示）請注意，今天的會議可能會被錄音。 （操作員說明）

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker host today, Rima Hyder. Please go ahead.

現在我想將會議交給今天的演講主持人 Rima Hyder。請繼續。

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to FactSet's Fourth Fiscal Quarter 2021 Earnings Call. We continue to be in various remote locations today. We may have some audio quality issues, and we appreciate your patience should we experience a disruption.

謝謝大家，大家早上好。歡迎參加 FactSet 2021 年第四財季收益電話會議。今天我們仍然在各個偏遠地區。我們可能會遇到一些音頻質量問題，如果我們遇到中斷，我們感謝您的耐心等待。

Before we begin, I would like to point out that the slides we will reference during this presentation can be accessed via the webcast on the Investor Relations section of our website at factset.com. The slides will be posted on our website at the conclusion of this call. A replay of today's call will be available via phone and on our website. After our prepared remarks, we will open the call to questions from investors. (Operator Instructions)

在開始之前，我想指出，我們將在本次演示中引用的幻燈片可以通過我們網站factset.com 投資者關係部分的網絡廣播進行訪問。幻燈片將在本次電話會議結束時發佈在我們的網站上。您可以通過電話和我們的網站重播今天的電話會議。在我們準備好的發言之後，我們將開始接受投資者提問。 （操作員說明）

Before we discuss our results, I encourage all listeners to review the legal notice on Slide 2, which explains the risks of forward-looking statements and the use of non-GAAP financial measures. Additionally, please refer to our Forms 10-K and 10-Q for a discussion of risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Our slide presentation and discussions on this call will include certain non-GAAP financial measures. For such measures, reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are in the appendix to the presentation and in our earnings release issued earlier today.

在我們討論我們的結果之前，我鼓勵所有聽眾查看幻燈片 2 上的法律聲明，其中解釋了前瞻性陳述和使用非公認會計準則財務指標的風險。此外，請參閱我們的表格 10-K 和 10-Q，了解可能導致實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述存在重大差異的風險因素的討論。我們在本次電話會議上的幻燈片演示和討論將包括某些非公認會計準則財務指標。對於此類衡量標準，與最直接可比的公認會計準則衡量標準的對賬位於演示文稿的附錄和我們今天早些時候發布的收益報告中。

Joining me today are Phil Snow, Chief Executive Officer; and Helen Shan, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Revenue Officer. And now I'd like to turn the discussion over to Phil Snow.

今天加入我的是首席執行官菲爾·斯諾 (Phil Snow)；首席財務官兼首席營收官單海倫 (Helen Shan)。現在我想把討論交給菲爾·斯諾。

Thank you, Rima, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. I'm pleased to share that we delivered strong fourth quarter and full year results.

謝謝你，里瑪，大家早上好。感謝您今天加入我們。我很高興與大家分享，我們取得了強勁的第四季度和全年業績。

We ended the year with record organic ASV plus professional services growth of $68 million for the quarter, crossing the $100 million annual ASV threshold for the first time and soundly beating the top end of our guidance. Our year-on-year organic ASV growth rate accelerated 200 basis points to over 7%, and we delivered annual revenue of $1.6 billion and adjusted EPS of $11.20.

我們以創紀錄的本季度有機 ASV 加上專業服務增長 6800 萬美元結束了這一年，首次突破了 1 億美元的年度 ASV 門檻，並且大大超過了我們指導的上限。我們的有機 ASV 同比增長率加快了 200 個基點，達到 7% 以上，我們實現了 16 億美元的年收入和 11.20 美元的調整後每股收益。

Our outperformance was driven by 2 years of planned accelerated investments in content and technology, which is paying dividends. FactSet's goal to be the leading open content and analytics platform is resonating in the marketplace and increasing our wallet share with clients. Our targeted investment in new content sets was a significant ASV driver in fiscal '21 and fueled our workstation growth. The continued development of our deep sector coverage improved sell-side retention and expansion with our largest banking clients and helped secure our new business.

我們的優異表現得益於兩年來計劃的內容和技術加速投資，這些投資正在帶來紅利。 FactSet 的目標是成為領先的開放內容和分析平台，這一目標在市場中引起共鳴，並增加了我們在客戶中的錢包份額。我們對新內容集的有針對性的投資是 21 財年 ASV 的重要驅動力，並推動了我們工作站的增長。我們深入的行業覆蓋範圍的持續發展提高了賣方對我們最大的銀行客戶的保留和擴張，並有助於確保我們的新業務。

Content and technology were both key to our expansion with wealth management firms, where we landed important wins, including with the Royal Bank of Canada and Raymond James Canada. These wins were due to our market-leading data and the launch of FactSet's Advisor Dashboard. We are also expanding our addressable market by increasing our content and delivery capabilities across the front, middle and back office.

內容和技術都是我們向財富管理公司擴張的關鍵，我們在這些領域取得了重要勝利，包括與加拿大皇家銀行和雷蒙德·詹姆斯加拿大公司的合作。這些勝利歸功於我們市場領先的數據和 FactSet 顧問儀表板的推出。我們還通過提高前台、中台和後台的內容和交付能力來擴大我們的潛在市場。

We added meaningful ASV from our cloud and API solutions this year, including delivering more data through the cloud and cloud-based platforms; entity mapping and linking client data through our data management services or DMS; and unlocking opportunity in new workflows by unbundling our components to plug and play into other third-party systems such as CRMs.

今年，我們從雲和 API 解決方案中添加了有意義的 ASV，包括通過雲和基於雲的平台提供更多數據；通過我們的數據管理服務或 DMS 進行實體映射和鏈接客戶數據；通過將我們的組件拆分為即插即用到其他第三方系統（例如 CRM）中，釋放新工作流程中的機會。

Cloud delivery, coupled with the strength of our DMS and Concordance as a service solutions, enable our clients to centralize, integrate and analyze disparate data sources for faster and more cost-effective decision-making. This has been a major driver for our CTS business.

雲交付，加上我們的 DMS 和 Concordance 即服務解決方案的優勢，使我們的客戶能夠集中、集成和分析不同的數據源，從而更快、更經濟高效地做出決策。這是我們 CTS 業務的主要驅動力。

As we look ahead to 2022 and beyond, we remain focused on three things: scaling up our content refinery to provide the most comprehensive and connected set of industry, proprietary and third-party data for the financial market; two, enhancing the client experience by delivering hyper-personalized solutions, so clients can discover meaningful insights faster; and third, driving next-generation workflow-specific solutions for asset managers, asset owners, sell-side, wealth management and corporate clients.

展望 2022 年及以後，我們仍然專注於三件事：擴大我們的內容提煉規模，為金融市場提供最全面、最互聯的行業、專有和第三方數據；第二，通過提供超個性化的解決方案來增強客戶體驗，以便客戶能夠更快地發現有意義的見解；第三，為資產管理者、資產所有者、賣方、財富管理和企業客戶推動下一代特定工作流程的解決方案。

We added new data and capabilities to further these goals by acquiring differentiated assets over the past year. The addition of Truvalue Labs has grown our ESG offering; BTU Analytics advanced our deep sector content for the energy markets; and Cabot technologies will better support the portfolio analytics workflows of asset managers and asset owners. The progress we have made on our investment plan, along with these acquisitions and our award-winning products, give us a distinct competitive advantage.

去年，我們通過收購差異化資產增加了新的數據和功能，以進一步實現這些目標。 Truvalue Labs 的加入豐富了我們的 ESG 產品； BTU Analytics 推進了我們針對能源市場的深度行業內容；卡博特技術將更好地支持資產管理者和資產所有者的投資組合分析工作流程。我們在投資計劃上取得的進展，以及這些收購和我們屢獲殊榮的產品，給我們帶來了獨特的競爭優勢。

Turning now to our financial results. We accelerated our organic ASV plus professional services growth to 7.2%. Our strong performance was driven by stellar execution from our sales and client-facing teams throughout the entire year and especially in the fourth quarter. Our buy-side and sell-side growth rates increased 100 and 400 basis points, respectively, since the third quarter, reflecting higher sales across our key clients.

現在轉向我們的財務業績。我們將有機 ASV 加上專業服務的增長加快至 7.2%。我們的強勁業績得益於我們的銷售和麵向客戶的團隊全年（尤其是第四季度）的出色執行力。自第三季度以來，我們的買方和賣方增長率分別增加了 100 和 400 個基點，反映出我們主要客戶的銷售額增加。

On a year-over-year basis, we saw an increase in ASV growth rates from high single digit to double digits across banks, asset owners, hedge funds, data providers, wealth managers and corporates, including private equity and venture capital funds. We capitalized on the strength of our end markets, particularly in banking, and landed several large deals in our wealth and CTS businesses.

與去年同期相比，我們看到銀行、資產所有者、對沖基金、數據提供商、財富管理機構和企業（包括私募股權和風險投資基金）的ASV 增長率從高個位數上升到兩位數。我們利用終端市場（尤其是銀行業）的優勢，在財富和 CTS 業務領域達成了幾筆大型交易。

Turning now to our geographic segments. We saw acceleration in every region. ASV growth in the Americas rose to 7% in the fourth quarter, driven primarily by increased sales to our banking, corporate and wealth clients. We also had a large data partner win this quarter in CTS. Asia Pac had a record ASV quarter and delivered a growth rate of 12%. We saw wins across many countries with global and regional banks as well as our research management products. CTS and analytics also contributed to growth with wins across asset managers and data providers. EMEA accelerated to a 6% growth rate, driven by strong performance with data providers, asset managers and banking clients. And CTS had the highest contribution to this region, followed by research.

現在轉向我們的地理區域。我們看到每個地區都在加速發展。第四季度美洲的 ASV 增長率升至 7%，這主要是由於我們對銀行、企業和財富客戶的銷售增加所致。本季度我們還贏得了 CTS 的大數據合作夥伴。亞太地區的 ASV 季度創歷史新高，增長率為 12%。我們看到全球和區域銀行以及我們的研究管理產品在許多國家取得了勝利。 CTS 和分析還為資產管理公司和數據提供商贏得勝利，促進了增長。在數據提供商、資產管理公司和銀行客戶強勁表現的推動下，歐洲、中東和非洲地區的增長率加速至 6%。其中CTS對該地區的貢獻最高，其次是研究。

Now turning to our businesses. Research was the largest contributor to our ASV growth this year with a growth rate of 6%, driven by very strong growth on the sell side at 12%. We increased research workstation users by 86% this quarter versus a year ago with growth across both sell-side and buy-side clients. Increasing our workstation presence and footprint with our largest clients positions us very well for cross-selling opportunities in the future.

現在轉向我們的業務。研究是我們今年 ASV 增長的最大貢獻者，增長率為 6%，這得益於賣方 12% 的強勁增長。本季度我們的研究工作站用戶數量比一年前增加了 86%，賣方和買方客戶均有所增長。增加我們在最大客戶中的工作站佔有率和覆蓋範圍，使我們能夠在未來獲得交叉銷售機會。

Analytics and trading accelerated in the second half in fiscal 2021 versus the first half, ending the year at a 6% growth rate. We saw wins across performance and reporting, front office and core analytics solutions. Within front office solutions, we are really pleased to see larger wins with our trading platform and believe this will be a contributor to analytics going into next year.

與上半年相比，2021 財年下半年分析和交易加速，年終增長率為 6%。我們看到了績效和報告、前台和核心分析解決方案方面的勝利。在前台解決方案中，我們非常高興看到我們的交易平台取得更大的勝利，並相信這將為明年的分析做出貢獻。

CTS grew 16%, driven by core company data and data management solutions sold through an increasing number of channels. CTS had robust sales to data providers this year and expanded their footprint across multiple workflows within middle and back office functions at asset management and banking clients. Additionally, while all Truvalue Labs' ESG sales are excluded from our organic numbers, I'm pleased to report that ESG data sales were a contributor to CTS's overall growth this quarter.

在通過越來越多的渠道銷售的核心公司數據和數據管理解決方案的推動下，CTS 增長了 16%。 CTS 今年對數據提供商的銷售強勁，並在資產管理和銀行客戶的中後台職能中的多個工作流程中擴大了業務範圍。此外，雖然 Truvalue Labs 的所有 ESG 銷售均不包含在我們的有機數據中，但我很高興地報告，ESG 數據銷售為本季度 CTS 的整體增長做出了貢獻。

Wealth ended the year with a 6% growth rate. Wealth workstations grew 24% year-over-year, and they, alongside FactSet's Advisor Dashboard, have been the biggest contributors to winning new clients. We've seen a combination of large- and medium-sized wins as existing clients continue to expand their advisory businesses, and we are equally pleased with our new business wins. We are also seeing cross-selling opportunities with analytics products as wealth managers increasingly look to advance the sophistication of their offerings.

年底財富增長率為 6%。財富工作站同比增長 24%，它們與 FactSet 的 Advisor Dashboard 一起成為贏得新客戶的最大貢獻者。隨著現有客戶繼續擴大其諮詢業務，我們看到了大中型的勝利，我們對新業務的勝利同樣感到高興。隨著財富管理機構越來越希望提高其產品的複雜性，我們還看到了分析產品的交叉銷售機會。

Moving forward with fiscal '22, we will report three workflow solutions. We are combining the desktop portion of the wealth business with research into one business to be known as research and advisory. We believe this is the right strategy to further our goals to holistically manage our desktop solutions, accelerate the build-out of differentiated front office solutions and facilitate the global expansion and adoption of StreetAccount news and FactSet web. We have also taken the wealth digital business and combined it with CTS to better align our digital solutions.

展望 22 財年，我們將報告三種工作流程解決方案。我們正在將財富業務的桌面部分與研究結合起來，形成一項稱為研究和諮詢的業務。我們相信，這是正確的戰略，可以進一步推進我們全面管理桌面解決方案的目標，加速構建差異化的前台解決方案，並促進 StreetAccount 新聞和 FactSet 網絡的全球擴展和採用。我們還把財富數字業務與CTS結合起來，以更好地調整我們的數字解決方案。

In summary, we are entering fiscal '22 with strong momentum and a solid pipeline as reflected in our annual ASV guidance. The need for more differentiated content and analytics is at an unprecedented high. And we are perfectly positioned to capture this demand and poised to deliver best-in-class workflows and a hyper-personalized experience for our clients. I'm proud of our company's strong performance in fiscal '21. We have advanced our digital platform, executed at a high level and strengthened our relationship with clients.

總之，正如我們的年度 ASV 指導所反映的那樣，我們正以強勁的勢頭和堅實的渠道進入 22 財年。對更具差異化的內容和分析的需求達到了前所未有的高度。我們完全有能力抓住這一需求，並準備為我們的客戶提供一流的工作流程和超個性化的體驗。我對我們公司在 21 財年的強勁業績感到自豪。我們先進了我們的數字平台，執行高水平，並加強了我們與客戶的關係。

I'll now turn it over to Helen, who for the last time as CFO, will discuss our fourth quarter and full year performance in more detail and take you through our fiscal 2022 guidance. I want to thank Helen for leading our global finance organization in the past 3 years. And I'm confident that as our Chief Revenue Officer, she will bring a disciplined, growth-oriented mindset in the same rigor to the sales organization as she did leading finance, enabling us to continue our success going forward.

現在我將把它交給海倫，她最後一次擔任首席財務官，將更詳細地討論我們第四季度和全年的業績，並帶您了解我們的 2022 財年指導。我要感謝海倫在過去三年中領導我們的全球金融組織。我相信，作為我們的首席營收官，她將像領導財務部門一樣，為銷售組織帶來紀律嚴明、以成長為導向的思維方式，使我們能夠繼續取得成功。

Thank you, Phil, and hello, everyone. I'm happy to be here with you today, and I hope that we will continue to engage even after I fully transition to my sales role.

謝謝你，菲爾，大家好。我很高興今天能和你們在一起，我希望即使在我完全過渡到銷售角色後我們也能繼續參與。

Like Phil, I want to congratulate FactSetters around the world for achieving outstanding results in fiscal 2021. While we have continued primarily to operate remotely, I am so impressed with the resilience with which our FactSet teams are able to serve our global clients. Our 7% top line growth this year is a testament to the hard work of our teams and validates our strategy to invest in content and technology, capitalize on market trends and address client needs.

和 Phil 一樣，我要祝賀世界各地的 FactSetters 在 2021 財年取得了出色的業績。雖然我們主要繼續進行遠程操作，但我們的 FactSet 團隊為全球客戶提供服務的能力給我留下了深刻的印象。今年 7% 的收入增長證明了我們團隊的辛勤工作，也驗證了我們投資內容和技術、利用市場趨勢和滿足客戶需求的戰略。

Throughout this fiscal year, we accelerated our growth rate in ASV plus professional services through consistent conversion of our pipeline, delivering over $100 million in ASV growth and surpassing our most recent guidance for the year. Full year revenue also exceeded our target as we realized more revenue from ASV booked early in the fourth quarter.

在整個本財年中，我們通過持續轉換管道，加快了 ASV 和專業服務的增長率，實現了超過 1 億美元的 ASV 增長，超過了我們今年的最新指導。全年收入也超出了我們的目標，因為我們從第四季度初預訂的 ASV 獲得了更多收入。

We generated solid earnings through disciplined expense management and operating leverage. Driving sustainable long-term growth requires continued investment back into the business as reflected by our increased spend on differentiated content and cloud-enabled technology. We executed our plan well. And our operating results are in line with expectations due to higher revenue and productivity gains with higher adjusted operating income and growth in adjusted EPS.

我們通過嚴格的費用管理和運營槓桿創造了穩定的收益。推動可持續的長期增長需要持續對業務進行投資，我們在差異化內容和雲支持技術上的支出增加就反映了這一點。我們很好地執行了我們的計劃。由於收入和生產率的提高以及調整後營業收入和調整後每股收益的增長，我們的經營業績符合預期。

Let me now walk you through the specifics of our fourth quarter. Before I explain the quarterly results, I want to remind everyone that our prior year fourth quarter GAAP results were impacted by a one-time noncash charge of approximately $17 million related to an impairment of an investment in a third party. Thus, any year-over-year comparison of GAAP operating results for the fourth quarter of 2021 should take that into consideration.

現在讓我向您介紹第四季度的具體情況。在解釋季度業績之前，我想提醒大家，我們去年第四季度的 GAAP 業績受到與第三方投資減值相關的約 1700 萬美元一次性非現金費用的影響。因此，對 2021 年第四季度 GAAP 運營業績進行的任何同比比較都應考慮到這一點。

As you saw on the previous slide, our organic ASV plus professional services growth rate was 7.2%. This increase reflects the higher demand for our solutions as clients execute on their own digital transformation. Our success in solving their workflow challenges has resulted in higher levels of both client retention and cross-selling activity.

正如您在上一張幻燈片中看到的，我們的有機 ASV 加上專業服務的增長率為 7.2%。這一增長反映出，隨著客戶執行自己的數字化轉型，對我們的解決方案提出了更高的需求。我們成功解決了他們的工作流程挑戰，從而提高了客戶保留率和交叉銷售活動的水平。

For the quarter, GAAP revenue increased by 7% to $412 million. Organic revenue, which excludes any impact from foreign exchange, acquisitions and deferred revenue amortization, also increased 7% to $410 million. Growth was driven by our analytics, CTS and research solutions. For our geographic segments, organic revenue for the Americas grew to 6%; EMEA grew to 7%; and Asia Pacific to 12%. All regions primarily benefited from increases in our analytics and CTS solutions.

本季度 GAAP 收入增長 7%，達到 4.12 億美元。有機收入（不包括外匯、收購和遞延收入攤銷的影響）也增長了 7%，達到 4.1 億美元。我們的分析、CTS 和研究解決方案推動了增長。對於我們的地理細分市場，美洲的有機收入增長至 6%；歐洲、中東和非洲 (EMEA) 增長至 7%；亞太地區增至 12%。所有地區都主要受益於我們分析和 CTS 解決方案的增加。

GAAP operating expenses grew 3% in the fourth quarter to $293 million, impacted by a higher cost of services. Compared to the previous year, our GAAP operating margin increased by 320 basis points to 28.9% and our adjusted operating margin decreased by 150 basis points to 31.6%.

受服務成本上升的影響，第四季度 GAAP 運營支出增長 3%，達到 2.93 億美元。與上一年相比，我們的 GAAP 營業利潤率增長了 320 個基點，達到 28.9%，調整後的營業利潤率下降了 150 個基點，達到 31.6%。

As a percentage of revenue, our cost of services was 10 basis points higher than last year on a GAAP basis and flat to last year on an adjusted basis. The increase is primarily driven by growth in compensation comprised of: higher salary expenses for existing employees; new hires to support a multiyear investment plan; and higher bonus accrual in line with stronger-than-anticipated ASV performance.

按 GAAP 計算，我們的服務成本佔收入的百分比比去年高出 10 個基點，而按調整後的計算，與去年持平。這一增長主要是由薪酬增長推動的，其中包括：現有員工的工資支出增加；新員工支持多年投資計劃；以及與強於預期的 ASV 表現相一致的更高的應計獎金。

SG&A expenses, when expressed as a percentage of revenue, improved year-over-year by 330 basis points on a GAAP basis but increased 170 basis points on an adjusted basis. The primary drivers include higher compensation costs, reflecting the same factors as noted in the cost of services.

SG&A 費用以佔收入的百分比表示，按 GAAP 基準計算，同比提高了 330 個基點，但按調整後的基準計算，則增加了 170 個基點。主要驅動因素包括更高的補償成本，反映了與服務成本中提到的相同因素。

Moving on, our tax rate for the quarter was 15% higher than the prior year's tax rate of 7%, primarily due to lower tax benefits associated with stock-based compensation in the current quarter as well as a tax benefit related to finalizing the prior year's tax returns.

接下來，我們本季度的稅率比上年 7% 的稅率高出 15%，這主要是由於本季度與股票薪酬相關的稅收優惠較低，以及與完成上一年度相關的稅收優惠。年的納稅申報表。

GAAP EPS increased 15% to $2.63 this quarter versus $2.29 in the prior year. Again, this improvement is primarily a result of the impairment charge we recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020. Adjusted diluted EPS remained flat year-over-year at $2.88. Adjusted EPS was driven by higher revenues, offset by higher operating expenses and an increase in the tax rate. A reconciliation of our adjustments to GAAP EPS is included at the end of our press release.

本季度 GAAP 每股收益增長 15%，達到 2.63 美元，而上年同期為 2.29 美元。同樣，這一改善主要是我們在 2020 年第四季度記錄的減值費用的結果。調整後的攤薄每股收益與去年同期持平，為 2.88 美元。調整後每股收益是由收入增加推動的，但被運營費用增加和稅率提高所抵消。我們對 GAAP 每股收益的調整調整包含在我們的新聞稿末尾。

Free cash flow, which we define as cash generated from operations less capital spending, was $171 million for the quarter, an increase of 18% over the same period last year. This increase is primarily due to higher net income, improved collections and the timing of certain tax payments. For the fourth quarter, our ASV retention remained above 95% and our client retention improved to 91%, which again speaks to the demand for our solutions and excellent execution by our sales teams.

自由現金流（我們將其定義為運營產生的現金減去資本支出）本季度為 1.71 億美元，比去年同期增長 18%。這一增長主要是由於淨利潤增加、徵收情況改善以及某些稅款繳納的時間安排。第四季度，我們的 ASV 保留率保持在 95% 以上，客戶保留率提高到 91%，這再次說明了對我們的解決方案和銷售團隊出色執行力的需求。

Compared to the prior year, we grew our total number of clients by 10% to over 6,400, largely due to the addition of more wealth and corporate clients. And our user count grew 14% year-over-year and crossed the total of 160,000 primarily driven by sales in our wealth and research solutions, and in particular, in the number of banking users.

與上一年相比，我們的客戶總數增長了 10%，達到 6,400 多家，這主要是由於財富和企業客戶的增加。我們的用戶數量同比增長 14%，總數突破 16 萬，這主要是由於我們的財富和研究解決方案的銷售，特別是銀行用戶數量的推動。

For the quarter, we repurchased over 265,000 shares of our common stock at a total cost of $93 million with an average share price of $348. For the year, we repurchased 265 million of our shares and increased our dividend for the 22nd consecutive year. With share repurchases and dividends, on an annual basis, we have returned to shareholders almost 70% as a percentage of free cash flow and proceeds from employee stock options. We remain disciplined in our buyback program and committed to returning long-term value to our shareholders.

本季度，我們回購了超過 265,000 股普通股，總成本為 9300 萬美元，平均股價為 348 美元。今年，我們回購了2.65億股股票，並連續第22年增加股息。通過股票回購和股息，我們每年向股東返還近 70% 的自由現金流和員工股票期權收益。我們在回購計劃中保持紀律，並致力於為股東回報長期價值。

Turning now to our outlook for fiscal year 2022. We delivered outstanding results in the back half of 2021 and believe this pace will carry into our next fiscal year. For organic ASV plus professional services, we are guiding to an incremental $105 million to $135 million. The midpoint of this range represents a 7% increase, which is equal to this year's organic growth rate, reflecting continued momentum in our business.

現在轉向我們對 2022 財年的展望。我們在 2021 年下半年取得了出色的業績，並相信這一步伐將延續到我們的下一個財年。對於有機 ASV 加上專業服務，我們預計增量為 1.05 億至 1.35 億美元。該範圍的中點代表增長 7%，相當於今年的有機增長率，反映出我們業務的持續增長勢頭。

We are confident in our ability to perform at the high standard we demonstrated in fiscal '21 with underlying drivers to include disciplined execution and continued benefits from our investments. We expect growth to be driven largely with existing clients through high retention and cross-selling. In addition, we expect our ability to successfully sell new business in this virtual environment to continue.

我們對我們在 21 財年所展示的高標準的執行能力充滿信心，其潛在驅動因素包括嚴格的執行和我們投資的持續收益。我們預計增長將主要由現有客戶通過高保留率和交叉銷售來推動。此外，我們預計我們能夠繼續在這個虛擬環境中成功銷售新業務。

Our recent investments in digital and content are providing us with more opportunities to sell direct solutions tailored for specific workflows. Drivers of future growth would include: first, the retention and expansion of our sell-side client base through our deep sector strategy as we launch new targeted industries in addition to new private markets offerings; second, new wins with wealth managers, who have been responding well to our web-based workstation and personalized Advisor Dashboard; and third, growth with institutional asset management clients, who benefit from our data management solutions and enhanced capabilities in front office and ESG workflows.

我們最近在數字和內容方面的投資為我們提供了更多機會來銷售針對特定工作流程量身定制的直接解決方案。未來增長的驅動因素包括：首先，除了新的私募市場產品外，我們還推出新的目標行業，通過我們的深度行業戰略保留和擴大我們的賣方客戶群；其次，財富管理機構取得了新的勝利，他們對我們基於網絡的工作站和個性化顧問儀表板反應良好；第三，與機構資產管理客戶一起成長，他們受益於我們的數據管理解決方案以及前台和 ESG 工作流程的增強功能。

We are mindful about the global environment and potential future market disruptions. But we believe we have the right offerings and strategy to maintain our high performance and growth rate into fiscal 2022. From an operational perspective, we plan for continued labor productivity and operating leverage. In addition to our multiyear investment plan, new investments will be made in content and front office solutions, funded in part by ongoing cost discipline, including permanent savings related to the pandemic and additional efficiency actions.

我們關注全球環境和未來潛在的市場干擾。但我們相信，我們擁有正確的產品和戰略，可以在 2022 財年保持高績效和增長率。從運營角度來看，我們計劃持續提高勞動生產率和運營槓桿。除了我們的多年投資計劃外，還將對內容和前台解決方案進行新的投資，部分資金來自持續的成本控制，包括與疫情相關的永久節省和額外的效率行動。

As a result of higher growth in revenues and continued cost discipline, we are guiding to an expansion in our operating margins. Combined with our consistent use of capital for share repurchases, we expect to accelerate growth in our diluted EPS, both on a GAAP and adjusted basis. We are seeing the results of our investments take hold in both technology and content. As we look to fiscal 2022, we are focused on delivering more value to clients, prioritizing our resources and ensuring execution excellence.

由於收入的更高增長和持續的成本控制，我們正在引導營業利潤率的擴大。結合我們持續使用資本進行股票回購，我們預計稀釋後每股收益將加速增長，無論是按公認會計原則還是調整後的基礎上。我們看到我們的投資成果在技術和內容上都得到了體現。展望 2022 財年，我們致力於為客戶提供更多價值、優先考慮我們的資源並確保卓越執行。

As I transition to my new role, I am seeing firsthand the experience and skills of our sales team in adapting to meet the needs of the market. Our client-centric mentality, combined with our expanding data universe and digital advances, provide me with the confidence that we have the people, strategy and products to build a leading open content and analytics platform in our industry, all while generating long-term value for our shareholders.

當我過渡到新角色時，我親眼目睹了我們的銷售團隊在適應市場需求方面的經驗和技能。我們以客戶為中心的心態，加上不斷擴大的數據世界和數字化進步，讓我充滿信心，我們擁有人才、戰略和產品來構建行業領先的開放內容和分析平台，同時創造長期價值為了我們的股東。

With that, we are now ready for your questions, and I'll turn it over to the operator.

至此，我們已經準備好回答您的問題了，我會將其轉交給接線員。

(Operator Instructions) And our first question, coming from the line of Ashish Sabadra with RBC Capital Markets.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 RBC 資本市場的 Ashish Sabadra。

Congrats on such a solid quarter and an impressive guidance. My question, more on the research side, and this is the first year where we've seen such a massive acceleration to 6%, as you mentioned, your deep content as well as technology transformation bearing fruit. I was wondering if you could provide more color. It looks like it's been driven by new wins, client retention. But if you can just talk about how do we think about this research and advisory growth going forward, is that kind of growth sustainable given your deep sector strategy?

祝賀如此穩健的季度和令人印象深刻的指導。我的問題更多是在研究方面，正如您提到的，今年是我們看到如此巨大的加速達到 6% 的第一年，您的深度內容以及技術轉型取得了成果。我想知道你是否可以提供更多顏色。看起來它是由新的勝利和客戶保留推動的。但如果您能談談我們如何看待未來的研究和諮詢增長，考慮到您的深層行業戰略，這種增長是否可持續？

Ashish, thank you for the question. Yes, we're very pleased with how our research business performed this year. Clearly, we had very good performance on the sell side and the investment that we made in new content really helped drive new logos, expansion at existing clients and helped with retention. So that was a big driver on the sell side. However, the research business grew at a healthy clip in lots of different firm types. So we did very well on a relative basis to last year within institutional asset management. We did well with corporates, hedge funds, a number of different firm types.

阿什什，謝謝你的提問。是的，我們對今年研究業務的表現非常滿意。顯然，我們在賣方方面有非常好的表現，我們對新內容的投資確實有助於推動新徽標、現有客戶的擴展並有助於保留客戶。所以這是賣方的一個重要推動因素。然而，許多不同類型公司的研究業務都在健康增長。因此，與去年相比，我們在機構資產管理方面做得非常好。我們與企業、對沖基金和許多不同類型的公司合作得很好。

So it was pretty broad-based. You can see that we grew our workstations by, I think, 14% over the last year. So just getting that footprint is really important for us moving forward to cross-sell. And we closed lots of new logos. So my hats off to the research team. They've done an amazing job and just really a monster quarter from the sales team in terms of going out and executing on all the opportunities we had in front of us.

所以它的基礎相當廣泛。您可以看到我們的工作站數量比去年增加了 14%。因此，獲得這一足跡對於我們推進交叉銷售非常重要。我們關閉了許多新徽標。我向研究團隊致敬。他們的工作非常出色，銷售團隊在執行我們面前的所有機會方面表現出色。

That's very helpful color. And maybe just a question on margins. Again, great to see margin expansion despite the investments. And my question was more over the midterm as you retire your data center. First, the question is are you still on track to retire the data centers by end of fiscal '22? And how should we think about the cost savings as you get rid of some of the redundant cost and get back to a more normalized investment cycle?

這是非常有用的顏色。也許只是一個關於利潤的問題。再次，儘管進行了投資，但很高興看到利潤率擴大。我的問題更多的是在數據中心退役時的中期。首先，問題是您是否仍有望在 22 財年末淘汰數據中心？當你擺脫一些多餘的成本並回到更正常化的投資週期時，我們應該如何考慮成本節約？

It's Helen. Thanks for that question. Yes, as it relates to the status of our investment plan, we remain on track. We're obviously being able to, as we've talked about in the past, to be doing our transformation and transition to the cloud, and that remains on track as well. And so we do expect to complete most of what we expected to get out of the data centers by year-end. But obviously, we'll see how the year progresses, but there's nothing right now that changes our view.

是海倫。謝謝你提出這個問題。是的，因為這與我們的投資計劃的狀態有關，所以我們仍處於正軌。正如我們過去所談論的那樣，我們顯然能夠進行向雲的轉型和過渡，而且這也仍然在正軌上。因此，我們確實希望在年底前完成數據中心的大部分工作。但顯然，我們會看到今年的進展，但目前沒有任何事情可以改變我們的觀點。

That's helpful. And congrats on the solid quarter.

這很有幫助。祝賀季度業績穩定。

Yes. Thank you.

是的。謝謝。

And our next question, coming from the line of Kevin McVeigh with Crédit Suisse.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞士信貸銀行的凱文·麥克維 (Kevin McVeigh)。

Great. And let me add my congratulations as well. For '22, the guide, can you unpack maybe a little bit, Helen, how are you thinking about new logos versus additional client offerings and then just any thoughts as to the client retention? Because again, you're seeing a lot of success across multiple vectors, so just try to get a sense of the buildup a little bit.

偉大的。請允許我也表達我的祝賀。對於'22，指南，你能解開一點嗎，海倫，你如何考慮新徽標與額外的客戶產品，以及關於客戶保留的任何想法？因為同樣，您在多個向量上看到了很多成功，所以只需嘗試稍微了解一下積累情況即可。

Yes, happy to do that. Thanks for your question. So we've been very pleased with the way we've been able to execute. Honestly, as we think about from a year ago to now, I think what has been extremely beneficial to us is our ability to grow with existing clients. So in the past, we've talked about 2/3 of the growth comes from existing, 1/3 from new. If we take a look at how the year actually progressed, we actually saw with existing clients the ability between retention and expansion to be nearly 3/4 of it.

是的，很高興這樣做。謝謝你的提問。因此，我們對我們的執行方式非常滿意。老實說，從一年前到現在，我認為對我們極為有利的是我們與現有客戶一起成長的能力。所以在過去，我們談到2/3的增長來自現有的，1/3來自新的。如果我們看一下這一年的實際進展，我們實際上發現現有客戶的保留和擴展之間的能力接近 3/4。

That doesn't mean that new business didn't grow. In fact, it grew at the same pace as in the past, Kevin. But what we saw was our ability from many of our investments to really resonate with our existing and even our largest clients. So we do look at new business going forward continuing to do well. As I think about the course of the year, we actually had more in terms of volume. The average transaction price might be a bit lower, but we made that up from volume. And I think that just reflects the virtual environment and the situation that we're in. But it continues to be a key part of our overall growth.

這並不意味著新業務沒有增長。事實上，它的增長速度與過去相同，凱文。但我們看到的是，我們的許多投資能夠真正與我們現有的甚至是我們最大的客戶產生共鳴。因此，我們確實認為未來的新業務將繼續表現良好。當我回想這一年的過程時，我們實際上在數量上有更多的收穫。平均交易價格可能會低一些，但我們是通過成交量彌補的。我認為這只是反映了虛擬環境和我們所處的情況。但它仍然是我們整體增長的關鍵部分。

That's great. And then just real quick, it looks like in September, Snowflake announced a new solution in the financial services data cloud. That probably brings more leverage in terms of what you're doing with them. But any updates as to how that impacts kind of the existing partnership you announced back in January, if at all?

那太棒了。然後很快，Snowflake 似乎在 9 月份宣布了金融服務數據云中的新解決方案。這可能會為你對它們所做的事情帶來更多的影響力。但是，這對您一月份宣布的現有合作夥伴關係有何影響（如果有的話）有什麼更新嗎？

I think it's just consistent, Kevin, with what we've been doing with them. And we're working with lots of different cloud providers to make sure that we provide FactSet's data and analytics in the places that our clients want to consume it. So super happy with the Snowflake relationship, adding on services like Concordance will help us. And we do think that new channels like this are going to be important as we move forward.

凱文，我認為這與我們一直以來對他們所做的事情是一致的。我們正在與許多不同的雲提供商合作，以確保我們在客戶想要使用 FactSet 的數據和分析的地方提供它。對 Snowflake 的關係非常滿意，添加 Concordance 等服務將對我們有所幫助。我們確實認為，隨著我們的前進，這樣的新渠道將變得很重要。

Great. Congrats again.

偉大的。再次恭喜。

Thank you.

謝謝。

And our next question, coming from the line of Manav Patnaik with Barclays.

我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的馬納夫·帕特奈克 (Manav Patnaik)。

So I just had a question on the analytics business team, I guess, stuck to the 6%, 7% growth for the last couple of years. Is that the right growth rate for this business? Or is there any initiatives in there that could probably get that higher?

所以我只是對分析業務團隊提出了一個問題，我想，過去幾年的增長率一直保持在 6%、7%。這對這項業務來說合適的增長率嗎？或者有沒有什麼舉措可以讓這個數字更高？

Manav, thanks for the question. We certainly think analytics can do better. We did get off to a bit of a choppy start with analytics in the last fiscal year. And we attributed that to, I think, sort of everyone getting their feet under them as we've learned how to work through the pandemic. Analytics had a much stronger second half, very good performance with our front office solutions, which include our portfolio management platform as well as our trading solutions. And analytics is setting up much better for next year. So we see a good pipeline for the first half and good pipeline within the buy side, which, as you know, is where most of our analytics solutions are pointed.

馬納夫，謝謝你的提問。我們當然認為分析可以做得更好。上一財年，我們的分析開局確實有點不穩定。我認為，我們將其歸因於每個人都在努力學習如何應對這一流行病。分析下半年表現強勁，我們的前台解決方案表現非常好，其中包括我們的投資組合管理平台以及交易解決方案。明年的分析工作將會更好。因此，我們看到上半年有良好的渠道，買方內部也有良好的渠道，正如您所知，這是我們大多數分析解決方案所針對的地方。

Got it. And then just on the research business, can you just talk about or help break out how much of that growth came from just new hiring on the sell side versus the rest of the buy side? And then I think you talked about winning some trading business, so if you can just elaborate a bit on the trading side of your offering.

知道了。然後就研究業務而言，您能否談談或幫助說明一下，這種增長有多少來自於賣方的新招聘與買方的其他人員的招聘？然後我認為您談到了贏得一些交易業務，所以您能否詳細說明一下您的產品的交易方面。

Sure. So we think that we outperformed significantly for three reasons: one is the investment in content and technology, which we outlined; the excellent performance of our front office team; and then we'd say about 1/3 of it probably was us really just capitalizing on the strong trends in banking. So I probably attribute about 1/3 of it to the trends that are out there. And it's the work that we put in though that allowed us to capitalize on those trends. The trading business is really the Portware business that we acquired a few years ago. We had a very strong year. We closed some new logos. And we increased our transaction revenue. I think a lot of that might have come from FX. So we've got very strong FX capabilities within our EMS.

當然。因此，我們認為我們的表現顯著優於其他三個原因：一是對內容和技術的投資，正如我們概述的那樣；二是對內容和技術的投資。我們前台團隊的出色表現；然後我們會說，其中大約 1/3 可能是我們實際上只是利用了銀行業的強勁趨勢。所以我可能將其中 1/3 歸因於現有的趨勢。正是我們所做的工作使我們能夠利用這些趨勢。貿易業務實際上是我們幾年前收購的Portware業務。我們度過了非常強勁的一年。我們關閉了一些新徽標。我們增加了交易收入。我認為其中很大一部分可能來自外匯。因此，我們的 EMS 擁有非常強大的外匯功能。

Yes, Manav, keep in mind that the retention piece that Phil alluded to is really quite key. It is a part of why research did so well this year.

是的，馬納夫，請記住，菲爾提到的保留部分確實非常關鍵。這也是今年研究表現如此出色的部分原因。

And our next question, coming from the line of Toni Kaplan with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的托尼·卡普蘭。

Wanted to focus on wealth. The ASV was up 6% organically year-over-year. It's a little bit lighter than we've seen in the last few years. You did mention that the workstations in wealth was up in the mid-20% range. So just hoping you could give some color on what sort of dragged the rest of wealth down.

想專注於財富。 ASV 同比有機增長 6%。它比我們過去幾年看到的要輕一些。您確實提到財富工作站上漲了 20% 左右。所以只是希望你能給出一些解釋是什麼拖累了其餘的財富。

Yes. Good question, Toni. So you're absolutely right. The desktop business grew significantly at 24% and the ASV ex the digital solutions part of wealth grew at about 10%. So we had one large deal that got canceled in February, which was a legacy digital solution from the acquisition we did many years ago, not the type of solution that we're sort of upgrading our clients to these days. So that was something that was out there. It was with a large firm that was under financial stress and something that was a headwind for us in Q2.

是的。好問題，托尼。所以你是完全正確的。桌面業務大幅增長 24%，ASV（財富的數字解決方案部分除外）增長約 10%。因此，我們在二月份取消了一項大型交易，這是我們多年前收購的遺留數字解決方案，而不是我們現在為客戶升級的解決方案類型。所以這就是存在的東西。這是一家面臨財務壓力的大公司，這對我們第二季度來說是一個阻力。

You might have -- I think I may have mentioned it in that quarter. We also had one other loss on the digital side, which was not related to wealth but another anticipated cancel. So in total, we might have had about $6 million in cancel from the old legacy digital business. So I would factor that in when you're thinking about our wealth business. But the new solutions we're focused on and how we're going to market now, that was exceedingly healthy and I think bodes well as we go into next fiscal year.

你可能——我想我可能在那個季度提到過它。我們在數字方面還遭受了另一次損失，這與財富無關，而是另一項預期的取消。因此，我們總共可能從舊的傳統數字業務中取消了約 600 萬美元。因此，當您考慮我們的財富業務時，我會考慮這一點。但我們關注的新解決方案以及我們現在將如何推向市場，這是非常健康的，我認為這對我們進入下一財年來說是個好兆頭。

Got it. And just regarding removing the wealth disclosure in the future, I guess, why are you doing that? And how much is related to research versus CTS? And if you could sort of give the growth rates of the pieces so that we know how much to impact each of those segments by, that would be helpful.

知道了。至於未來取消財富披露，我想，你為什麼要這樣做？與 CTS 相比，與研究相關的程度有多少？如果你能給出各個部分的增長率，以便我們知道對每個部分的影響有多大，那將會很有幫助。

Yes. So it's just -- we've realigned our business. So the wealth business, which was run by Goran Skoko, has now become research and advisory, which he'll be leading once Kristy moved into the Chief Product Officer role about a quarter ago. So really, there were two pieces to wealth. There was the web or workstation business, which lines up nicely with our research business line. And then there's the digital part of wealth, which lines up very nicely with CTS.

是的。所以，我們只是重新調整了我們的業務。因此，由戈蘭·斯科科 (Goran Skoko) 運營的財富業務現在已轉變為研究和諮詢業務，大約四分之一前克里斯蒂 (Kristy) 擔任首席產品官後，他將負責領導該業務。所以實際上，財富有兩部分。還有網絡或工作站業務，這與我們的研究業務線非常吻合。然後是財富的數字部分，這與 CTS 非常吻合。

So there are really good synergies on the product and workflow side that we can capture by organizing things this way. And the digital piece of wealth, some new really good capabilities have been built there called FactSet Widgets, which is in line with our open strategy. So I believe after the call, you'll get all of the numbers that show you what the growth rates would have been this year for those 3 business lines, which I'm sure Rima will be happy to review with you later today.

因此，我們可以通過這種方式組織事物來捕獲產品和工作流程方面的真正良好的協同效應。在數字財富方面，已經建立了一些新的非常好的功能，稱為 FactSet Widgets，這符合我們的開放戰略。因此，我相信在電話會議後，您將獲得所有數據，顯示這 3 個業務線今年的增長率，我相信 Rima 將很樂意在今天晚些時候與您一起回顧。

And our next question, coming from the line of Hamzah Mazari with Jefferies.

我們的下一個問題來自 Hamzah Mazari 和 Jefferies。

This is Mario Cortellacci filling in for Hamzah. My first question, just around on sales. Just could you comment on how much capacity and room for improvement there may be in sales execution today, and maybe you can also touch on what your hiring plans are over the next year?

我是馬里奧·科特拉奇 (Mario Cortellacci) 接替哈姆扎 (Hamzah)。我的第一個問題，關於銷售。您能否評論一下今天的銷售執行力可能有多少能力和改進空間，也許您也可以談談您明年的招聘計劃？

This is Helen. Thanks for that question. When I think about the continued pace for sales in terms of what we have the opportunity to do, I think from an execution perspective, the results speak for itself for this year. And where we're looking to accelerate our efforts will be along the lines of some of our solutions that right now, we're seeing a lot of client demand for on ESG, on wealth analytics. And what we're seeing, as I mentioned earlier, about our ability to expand with our -- within the wallet share of our existing clients, I would expect to see that continue as well.

這是海倫。謝謝你提出這個問題。當我考慮我們有機會做的事情的銷售持續增長時，我認為從執行的角度來看，今年的結果不言而喻。我們希望加快努力的方向將是我們的一些解決方案，目前我們看到很多客戶對 ESG 和財富分析的需求。正如我之前提到的，我們所看到的是，我們有能力在現有客戶的錢包份額內進行擴展，我希望看到這種情況也能繼續下去。

And so what we've done is we're going to be planning on essentially focusing on premier-type clients, our highest clients, and including some that we think we can really continue to do that expansion on the enterprise front. So from an execution perspective, those are the areas that I think we'll continue to expand on. But it really is building on the momentum that we already have seen this year.

因此，我們所做的就是計劃主要關注頂級客戶、我們的最高客戶，包括一些我們認為我們確實可以繼續在企業方面進行擴張的客戶。因此，從執行的角度來看，我認為我們將繼續擴展這些領域。但這確實是建立在我們今年已經看到的勢頭的基礎上的。

And then for my follow-up, I mean, we've seen a lot of large M&A in the financial services space in general. Maybe you can just talk about what your willingness is to participate in any of the larger M&A. And specifically, are there any synergies with assets that are currently not in your portfolio today? And then is there -- are there any significant scale advantages today that you might be lacking?

對於我的後續行動，我的意思是，我們在金融服務領域總體上看到了許多大型併購。也許您可以談談您參與任何較大型併購的意願。具體來說，與目前不在您的投資組合中的資產是否存在任何協同效應？那麼，目前您可能缺乏哪些顯著的規模優勢嗎？

Well, I think our answer has been consistent regarding M&A. So we're -- we feel that we have the scale we need. We're one very well-integrated platform. And we're very good at doing tuck-in acquisitions for unique content and technology, which we demonstrated this year. So we're really happy with our platform and our ability to be a central player in the ecosystem and be really agnostic to the data that's on our platform, whether it's ours or us integrating third-party content. We do have a very healthy balance sheet. And we've said historically that if the right transaction comes around that's larger, we're in a position to execute on it. But we don't feel that it's something we need to do to be successful. And we've demonstrated that this year.

嗯，我認為我們對於併購的回答是一致的。所以我們覺得我們擁有我們需要的規模。我們是一個集成度非常高的平台。我們非常擅長對獨特的內容和技術進行收購，今年我們就展示了這一點。因此，我們對我們的平台以及我們成為生態系統中的核心參與者的能力感到非常滿意，並且對我們平台上的數據真正不可知，無論是我們的數據還是我們集成的第三方內容。我們確實擁有非常健康的資產負債表。我們從歷史上就說過，如果正確的交易規模更大，我們就能夠執行它。但我們並不認為這是我們需要做的事情才能取得成功。今年我們已經證明了這一點。

And our next question, coming from the line of Alex Kramm with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的 Alex Kramm。

Sorry if I missed this in your prepared remarks, but can you just talk about the outperformance on ASV in the fourth quarter? I mean, obviously, you had some guidance out there that you gave us just a couple of months ago. And then I would say you beat that by, I don't know, $25-or-so million. So just wondering if there was anything chunky, maybe not repetitive, that you would call out that we may have missed because that obviously creates a tougher comp for next year.

抱歉，如果我在您準備好的發言中錯過了這一點，但是您能談談 ASV 在第四季度的出色表現嗎？我的意思是，顯然，您幾個月前給了我們一些指導。然後我想說你比這個數字多了 2500 萬美元左右，我不知道。因此，我只是想知道是否有任何厚重的，也許不重複的東西，你會指出我們可能錯過了，因為這顯然會為明年帶來更艱難的競爭。

Well, like some quarters, Alex, we do have some large wins. So we did have very -- one very good win on the wealth side, and we had one very good win on the data partner side. But that doesn't mean we can't have these types of wins in future quarters. So that certainly helped, getting those done. But again, I think just excellent execution from the sales team really closing out the year in dramatic fashion and capitalizing on those market trends that we spoke about earlier.

好吧，就像某些季度一樣，亞歷克斯，我們確實取得了一些重大勝利。因此，我們確實在財富方面取得了非常好的勝利，並且在數據合作夥伴方面取得了非常好的勝利。但這並不意味著我們在未來幾個季度不能取得這些類型的勝利。所以這肯定有助於完成這些工作。但我再次認為，銷售團隊的出色執行確實以戲劇性的方式結束了這一年，並利用了我們之前談到的市場趨勢。

Okay. No, that's helpful, just wanted to make sure there wasn't anything super chunky, but it seems like two larger things. And then just as a follow-up to a question earlier, I think you said that you think the environment added about 1/3 of the growth, so I guess, a little bit over 2% or so. So I guess as we look into 2022, what type of environment is kind of factored into your guidance from an overall industry perspective? Because you can't ignore, as you said yourself, that has been -- that there's been a lot of tailwinds in capital markets that had helped you. So just curious what you expect -- if you expect this to persist or what kind of environment we should be thinking about?

好的。不，這很有幫助，只是想確保沒有任何超級粗的東西，但它看起來像是兩個更大的東西。然後，就像之前問題的後續一樣，我想你說過你認為環境增加了大約 1/3 的增長，所以我猜，略高於 2% 左右。所以我想，當我們展望 2022 年時，從整個行業的角度來看，您的指導中會考慮什麼類型的環境？因為你不能忽視，正如你自己所說，資本市場上有很多順風車對你有幫助。所以只是好奇你的期望是什麼——如果你期望這種情況持續下去，或者我們應該考慮什麼樣的環境？

So just to be clear, I would say 1/3 of the outperformance versus our guidance was due to those trends, not 1/3 of our overall performance as a company. And as I mentioned in an earlier question, the buy side is setting up very nicely for us next year. We see a very healthy pipeline, good trends on the buy side. So even though there are some tough conditions out there for asset managers, our investment in our platform, our content opening it up really allow us to take market share and really help them with some of their challenges, which is managing data better, which CTS does a great job of, and then really being plug and play in terms of their workflow solutions. So we feel good about the buy side going into next year. Of course, continued health on the sell side will help us. But we don't need that to be successful and to meet our guidance.

因此，需要澄清的是，我想說的是，與我們的指導相比，業績優異的 1/3 是由於這些趨勢，而不是我們作為一家公司的整體業績的 1/3。正如我在之前的問題中提到的，明年買方為我們​​做好了很好的準備。我們看到了一個非常健康的渠道，買方的趨勢良好。因此，儘管資產管理公司面臨著一些艱難的條件，但我們對平台的投資、開放的內容確實使我們能夠佔據市場份額，並真正幫助他們應對一些挑戰，即更好地管理數據，CTS在他們的工作流程解決方案方面做得很好，並且真正做到了即插即用。因此，我們對明年的買方感覺良好。當然，賣方的持續健康將對我們有所幫助。但我們並不需要這樣才能成功並滿足我們的指導。

And our next question, coming from the line of Andrew Nicholas with William Blair.

我們的下一個問題來自安德魯·尼古拉斯和威廉·布萊爾。

This is actually Trevor Romeo in for Andrew. I was just kind of hoping you could provide an update on the selling environment and how sales cycles have evolved in terms of length and complexity. Have you seen any changes in the speed of client decision-making lately?

這實際上是特雷弗·羅密歐飾演的安德魯。我只是希望您能提供有關銷售環境的最新信息以及銷售週期在長度和復雜性方面的演變情況。您最近是否發現客戶決策速度有任何變化？

Thank you for that question. I'll take that one. So I think one of the other points that helped drive our outperformance was our analytics business, which accelerated, and some of the deals that perhaps had taken a bit longer really coming to fruition. And we continue to see that as we think about -- look at the pipeline going forward.

謝謝你提出這個問題。我會接受那個。因此，我認為幫助推動我們表現出色的其他因素之一是我們的分析業務，它的加速發展，以及一些可能需要更長時間的交易才真正實現。當我們思考時，我們會繼續看到這一點——看看未來的管道。

So I don't think I would say there's wholesale change yet in terms of the decision-making, that really is case-by-case. But I will say that as we settle into much more so of the virtual environment, clients are clearly focused on their own digital transformation and the need to improve. And as a result, some of the things that we've had for a while that got pushed were realized, and we'll continue to see that going forward.

因此，我認為我不會說決策方面存在大規模變化，這確實是根據具體情況而定。但我要說的是，隨著我們越來越適應虛擬環境，客戶顯然會關注自己的數字化轉型和改進的需求。結果，我們一段時間以來一直推動的一些事情得到了實現，我們將繼續看到這一點向前發展。

Okay. Great. And then just in terms of the deep sector content investments that you've been making, I was just wondering if there are any particular sectors or industries where you've kind of seen the strongest uptake at this point and then going forward, which ones you might expect to see the most investments.

好的。偉大的。然後，就您一直在進行的深度行業內容投資而言，我只是想知道是否有任何特定行業或行業在這一點上看到了最強勁的吸收，然後繼續前進，哪些是您可能期望看到最多的投資。

Yes. So we've -- I think the three that we have released are our financials, we've done some good work in insurance, our real estate. So we're seeing really good usage across all of those. And we're beginning to make progress on some of the other sectors. So I'd say it's pretty broad-based there.

是的。所以我們——我認為我們發布的三項是我們的財務數據，我們在保險和房地產方面做了一些很好的工作。所以我們看到所有這些都得到了很好的使用。我們開始在其他一些領域取得進展。所以我想說它的基礎非常廣泛。

Our next question, coming from the line of George Tong with Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的喬治·唐 (George Tong)。

I wanted to follow up on the components of ASV growth in fiscal 2022. You've had several larger wins in 2021 and also some larger legacy cancels. So as you look ahead to fiscal 2022, what kind of ASV growth do you expect across your realigned research, analytics and CTS businesses?

我想跟踪 2022 財年 ASV 增長的組成部分。2021 年有幾項較大的勝利，也有一些較大的遺留取消。那麼，當您展望 2022 財年時，您預計重組後的研究、分析和 CTS 業務的 ASV 增長情況如何？

I don't think we're giving explicit guidance there, George, on those three business lines. But I would say it's well balanced between all of them. CTS, I would expect will continue to have a high growth rate, just given the trends in the market and the opening-up of the platform. Analytics, as I've mentioned, is setting up well versus last year and not a lot has changed in terms of the components of that business line. And we're very optimistic about research, just based on what we've seen over the last year and our ability to close new logos and meaningfully increase the number of users of FactSet across a lot of different firm types.

喬治，我認為我們沒有在這三個業務領域提供明確的指導。但我想說的是，它們之間取得了很好的平衡。考慮到市場趨勢和平台的開放，我預計CTS將繼續保持較高的增長率。正如我所提到的，與去年相比，分析工作進展順利，並且該業務線的組成部分沒有發生太大變化。我們對研究非常樂觀，僅基於我們去年所看到的情況以及我們關閉新徽標並有意義地增加許多不同公司類型的 FactSet 用戶數量的能力。

And George, I would take a look across the geographies as well. I mean, if I look at the pipeline, quite frankly, Americas, which has been very strong in 2021, we expect to have that have continued strength. But we saw double-digit growth in Asia Pac and Europe ticking up as well. So I think it's clearly quite broad-based. I think it's what gives us not only a lot of pride of what we've just done but also the confidence as we go forward, which is reflected in our guidance.

喬治，我也會考察各個地區。我的意思是，坦率地說，如果我看看美洲市場，它在 2021 年表現非常強勁，我們預計該市場將繼續保持強勁勢頭。但我們看到亞太地區和歐洲也出現了兩位數的增長。所以我認為它的基礎顯然相當廣泛。我認為這不僅讓我們對我們剛剛所做的事情感到自豪，而且讓我們對前進充滿信心，這反映在我們的指導中。

Got it, very helpful. And then on pricing, what kind of pricing assumptions are you reflecting in your guide? And how much do you expect pricing to go up by in the forthcoming year, particularly as you think about how much competitors are raising their prices by? So are you -- do you think you're raising prices in line with the competition ahead of or below the competition for next year?

明白了，非常有幫助。然後在定價方面，您在指南中反映了什麼樣的定價假設？您預計來年的價格會上漲多少，特別是考慮到競爭對手的價格上漲了多少？那麼，您認為您明年的提價是否與競爭對手保持一致，是領先還是低於競爭對手？

Sure. I'll take that one as well. I mean, we're very -- we could see that our clients value our products by what we were able to capture this year, and we'll continue that into next year. I think we'll be in line with many of our competitors as well. So we would expect to see that similar impact, if not more. We've spent a lot in enhancements in the value that we can clearly tie back to what we've done for them. So George, I would expect to see it in line in -- not only in the market but in the previous year.

當然。我也拿那個。我的意思是，我們非常 - 我們可以看到我們的客戶通過我們今年能夠捕獲的產品來評價我們的產品，我們將在明年繼續這樣做。我認為我們也會與許多競爭對手保持一致。因此，我們預計會看到類似的影響，甚至更多。我們在提升價值方面投入了大量資金，我們可以清楚地將這些價值與我們為他們所做的事情聯繫起來。所以喬治，我預計不僅在市場上而且在前一年都會看到它。

And our next question, coming from the line of Patrick O'Shaughnessy with Raymond James.

我們的下一個問題來自帕特里克·奧肖內西和雷蒙德·詹姆斯。

In terms of your momentum with sell-side customers, to what extent would you ascribe that growth to new customer wins and new product sales as opposed to your existing customers growing their headcount?

就您與賣方客戶的勢頭而言，您在多大程度上將這種增長歸因於新客戶的贏得和新產品的銷售，而不是現有客戶人數的增加？

Patrick, it's Phil. So just in terms of new logos, we did better this year on the sell side than we did last year. I think we were actually down in terms of new logos on the sell side and we were up this year. So we're certainly adding new clients. And some of that, as you can expect, is being driven by just the investment that we've made, particularly in the content area.

帕特里克，我是菲爾。因此，就新標識而言，我們今年在賣方方面的表現比去年更好。我認為我們實際上在賣方的新標識方面有所下降，而今年我們有所上升。所以我們肯定會增加新客戶。正如您所期望的，其中一些是由我們所做的投資推動的，特別是在內容領域。

Okay. And then I guess, speaking of the headcount theme, FactSet's headcount growth has slowed. I think it was 4% in the fourth quarter year-over-year, I think, close to 3% ex acquisitions. Was that an intentional deceleration of your headcount growth? Or does it reflect challenges in terms of hiring and retaining talent in this environment?

好的。然後我想，說到員工人數主題，FactSet 的員工人數增長已經放緩。我認為第四季度的同比增長率為 4%，接近 3%（不含收購）。這是你們故意減緩員工人數增長嗎？或者它是否反映了在這種環境下招聘和留住人才方面的挑戰？

I think we've done very well in terms of the employee value proposition at FactSet over the last year. We've done a lot to really make sure that our employees feel like they're taken care of, that they have flexibility in terms of how they work and so on. So I think we have a lot to be proud of there for our employees. Like lots of firms, right, we're going to be faced with a lot of movement, I think, on the talent side.

我認為去年 FactSet 在員工價值主張方面做得非常好。我們做了很多工作來真正確保我們的員工感到自己受到照顧，在工作方式等方面具有靈活性。所以我認為我們的員工有很多值得自豪的地方。就像許多公司一樣，我認為，我們將在人才方面面臨很多變動。

We believe that creates a good opportunity for us in the marketplace. We think we'll be able to retain the talent we need at FactSet but also attract some really good new talent to the company. So I think we're probably in line, frankly, in terms of what we planned in terms of headcount growth there. I don't know, Helen, if you've got anything you wanted to add.

我們相信這為我們在市場上創造了良好的機會。我們認為我們將能夠保留 FactSet 所需的人才，同時也能吸引一些真正優秀的新人才加入公司。因此，坦率地說，我認為我們可能符合我們在員工人數增長方面的計劃。我不知道，海倫，你是否還有什麼要補充的。

Yes. No. And I think what we've seen is in our own productivity and efficiency improvements as we've gone through, I think we've talked before around workforce mix. If I take a look at where -- while our headcount has gone up, the mix of that is also quite key. And then when we talk about the operating leverage or our labor productivity, you've seen that come through as well. And please note that especially since we've invested quite a lot in the technology front, that is meant to help us in terms of having the type of work that our folks do. So I wouldn't necessarily look at people count as the driver here when you think about our opportunities going forward.

是的。不。我認為我們所看到的是我們自己的生產力和效率的提高，我想我們之前已經討論過勞動力組合。如果我看一下——雖然我們的員工人數有所增加，但這些因素的組合也非常關鍵。然後，當我們談論運營槓桿或勞動生產率時，您也看到了這一點。請注意，特別是因為我們在技術方面投入了大量資金，這旨在幫助我們完成我們員工所做的工作類型。因此，當你考慮我們未來的機會時，我不一定會將人們視為這裡的驅動力。

And our next question, coming from the line of Owen Lau with Oppenheimer.

我們的下一個問題來自 Owen Lau 和 Oppenheimer。

Going back to the driver of CTS, could you please remind us some of the use cases of CTS? And as this segment continues to evolve, do you see a scenario that customers will like mostly need API and data fits but not so much on the desktop or they will still come hand-in-hand because desktop can still provide a good distribution channel to customers?

回到CTS的驅動，您能給我們介紹一下CTS的一些用例嗎？隨著這一細分市場的不斷發展，您是否會看到這樣一種場景：客戶會喜歡大多數需要API 和數據的配合，但在桌面上不需要那麼多，或者它們仍然會齊頭並進，因為桌面仍然可以提供良好的分銷渠道顧客？

Yes. Good question. Thank you. Yes, so traditionally, FactSet has sold a lot of data workflow solutions through CTS to Quants. But that's not the only workflow that we've sold to. So we still do very well selling to Quants, but we're also thinking about how do we expand our market share by getting into more workflows across the middle and back office. And as we've opened up our platform and invested in new content, it's created some great opportunity for us to help clients manage their own data with our entity data map and our Concordance Services. Managing data is expensive and FactSet is really expert at that. So that is one area that we're seeing really good growth from, particularly as we make those services available through new channels such as cloud providers that we already spoke about.

是的。好問題。謝謝。是的，按照慣例，FactSet 通過 CTS 向 Quants 出售了大量數據工作流解決方案。但這並不是我們銷售的唯一工作流程。因此，我們對寬客的銷售仍然做得很好，但我們也在考慮如何通過進入中後台的更多工作流程來擴大我們的市場份額。隨著我們開放平台並投資新內容，這為我們創造了一些絕佳的機會，可以幫助客戶通過我們的實體數據地圖和索引服務管理自己的數據。管理數據的成本很高，而 FactSet 確實是這方面的專家。因此，這是我們看到真正良好增長的一個領域，特別是當我們通過新渠道（例如我們已經談到的雲提供商）提供這些服務時。

We've done traditionally well with performance workflows as well. This was a very good year for us with our Benchmark DataFeed. So FactSet does a lot of work to integrate all of the different benchmarks and indexes that are out there that feed into a client's own performance system. So that could be our own performance system, but we're not the only performance system out there. And so there's lots of opportunities here. Real-time is another opportunity, sort of that trading workflow. So as we've developed more of our own capabilities there, we view that as a good opportunity.

傳統上，我們在性能工作流程方面也做得很好。對於我們的基準數據饋送來說，今年是非常好的一年。因此，FactSet 做了很多工作來集成所有不同的基準和索引，這些基準和索引可以饋送到客戶自己的性能係統中。所以這可能是我們自己的性能係統，但我們並不是唯一的性能係統。所以這裡有很多機會。實時是另一個機會，有點像交易工作流程。因此，隨著我們在那裡開發了更多自己的能力，我們認為這是一個很好的機會。

And Owen, just to add to that, when we talk about the sell side, Phil alluded this, too, before, the growth there is also on the feed side. And so we're seeing, interestingly, that being a driver for our CTS business. So I think that's an important piece to consider as well.

歐文，補充一點，當我們談論賣方時，菲爾之前也提到過這一點，飼料方面也有增長。有趣的是，我們發現這是我們 CTS 業務的驅動力。所以我認為這也是需要考慮的重要部分。

And just to finish off, your second point there is a valid one, we do think there's going to be a very healthy balance out there for how people want to consume value. So it could be through a workstation or a web, where we tee up the next best action for a particular user. But increasingly, firms are going to want to consume data in new ways as they analyze things in new ways. And that could be just a research analyst deciding they want a program in Python or use Tableau or some other types of systems to sort of do their analysis. So that -- it could be the same type of user but through a different workflow or it could be just feeding directly into a system that a client has, like a CRM.

最後，你的第二點是有效的，我們確實認為人們想要如何消費價值將會有一個非常健康的平衡。因此，可以通過工作站或網絡，我們為特定用戶制定下一個最佳操作。但越來越多的公司希望以新的方式使用數據，同時以新的方式分析事物。這可能只是研究分析師決定他們想要一個 Python 程序或使用 Tableau 或其他一些類型的系統來進行分析。因此，它可能是同一類型的用戶，但通過不同的工作流程，也可能只是直接輸入到客戶擁有的系統中，例如 CRM。

Got it. That's extremely helpful. And then going back to the research, I think we touched on a lot about the growth there. But there are lots of news out there that many investment banks are raising the salary of the junior bankers on the banking side. Do you see -- like in terms of the new -- is there any like additional subscriptions from these clients? Do you think they also increase their hiring and FactSet can benefit from that as well?

知道了。這非常有幫助。然後回到研究，我認為我們觸及了很多有關那裡的增長的內容。但有很多消息稱，許多投行正在提高銀行部門初級銀行家的薪資。您是否看到——就像新的一樣——這些客戶是否有類似的額外訂閱？您認為他們是否也會增加招聘，FactSet 也可以從中受益嗎？

Yes. I think that's what we just saw in Q4 as we saw the banks, if I'm understanding your question correctly, hire a lot of new talent. And when that happens, very often, FactSet will just get deployed automatically onto those desks.

是的。我認為這就是我們在第四季度看到的情況，因為我們看到銀行，如果我正確理解你的問題，請僱用很多新人才。當這種情況發生時，FactSet 通常會自動部署到這些辦公桌上。

And I think also in addition to the number of analysts, to your point, Owen, what they're looking for is to be able to provide their analysts the tools that are needed. And I think that's what we're finding, and that's why I think our retention has grown -- has improved as well. What we're finding is getting the tools of FactSet to the analysts to allow them to do their work in a more efficient way, so they're not spending 100-plus hours. I think all of that comes into play.

我認為，除了分析師的數量之外，歐文，就你的觀點而言，他們所尋求的是能夠為分析師提供所需的工具。我認為這就是我們所發現的，這就是為什麼我認為我們的保留率有所增長——也有所改善。我們發現，為分析師提供 FactSet 工具可以讓他們以更高效的方式完成工作，這樣他們就不會花費 100 多個小時。我認為所有這些都會發揮作用。

And our next question, coming from the line of David Chu with Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 David Chu。

So you highlighted strong performance from the sales teams throughout the call. Helen, are there any key changes to the strategy since you took on the new role?

因此，您在整個電話會議中強調了銷售團隊的強勁表現。海倫，自從您擔任新職位以來，戰略有什麼重大變化嗎？

Yes. Thanks for your question. One of the things, quite frankly, is how proud I am in the fact of how we have executed. And I think the areas of focus, if anything, is more of an enhancement at this juncture. I think what we will focus on is our go-to-market strategy. I think we will focus more on driving the enterprise discussion with senior client executives. It really allows us to provide our platform for their own digital transformations. And in terms of major changes, I would say no, other than really again enhancing on the areas that we think we can leverage across the firm types or, quite frankly, operationally where we can provide them more bandwidth to spend more time with clients.

是的。謝謝你的提問。坦率地說，其中一件事是我對我們的執行方式感到非常自豪。我認為，目前關注的重點領域（如果有的話）更多的是增強。我認為我們將重點關注的是我們的進入市場策略。我認為我們將更加註重推動與高級客戶高管的企業討論。它確實使我們能夠為他們自己的數字化轉型提供平台。就重大變化而言，我想說不，除了真正再次加強我們認為我們可以在不同類型的公司中利用的領域，或者坦率地說，在運營上我們可以為他們提供更多的帶寬，讓他們花更多的時間與客戶打交道。

Got it. And then just on the wealth side, are there any meaningful RFPs coming up, let's say, in the next 12 months? And how would you characterize your win rates now when you go into these RFPs?

知道了。那麼就財富而言，在接下來的 12 個月內是否會出現任何有意義的 RFP？當您進入這些 RFP 時，您現在如何描述您的勝率？

Yes, we're not going to comment on that. But there is, I think, a steady drumbeat of these opportunities coming through each year. And we do exceptionally well when we get into an RFP just based on the product we have and the legendary FactSet service. Those are two things that really give us an advantage when we're competing for those businesses.

是的，我們不會對此發表評論。但我認為，這些機會每年都會源源不斷地出現。當我們僅基於我們擁有的產品和傳奇的 FactSet 服務進行 RFP 時，我們做得非常好。當我們競爭這些業務時，這兩件事確實給我們帶來了優勢。

And our next question, coming from the line of Keith Housum with Northcoast Research.

我們的下一個問題來自 Northcoast Research 的 Keith Housum。

Congrats on a great quarter. So just looking at the pipeline that you guys have talked about in the past of being fantastic, I remember back to last quarter, how would you talk -- how would you characterize the pipeline coming out of the fourth quarter compared to, I guess, the third and second quarter?

恭喜您度過了一個出色的季度。因此，只要看看你們過去談論過的非常棒的管道，我記得回到上個季度，您會如何談論 - 您如何描述第四季度的管道，我想，與第三季度和第二季度？

Well, the way that I would look at that, Keith, is just sort of versus the first half of last year. And we got off to a pretty rough start last Q1. We were definitely digging out of a hole there and just came storming back in the last 3 quarters. So as I mentioned already a few times, the first half, which is typically the period that we have the most visibility on, is setting up quite nicely, particularly on the buy side with the analytics team.

好吧，基思，我的看法是與去年上半年相比。上個季度我們的開局相當艱難。我們確實是從那裡挖了一個洞，然後在過去的三個季度裡猛烈反擊。正如我已經多次提到的，上半年，通常是我們知名度最高的時期，情況非常好，特別是在買方與分析團隊方面。

Great. If we talk about the growth that you guys are experiencing, would you talk about it as more market share gain or more an expansion of your overall product set and the expansion of the overall market?

偉大的。如果我們談論你們正在經歷的增長，您會將其視為更多的市場份額增益還是更多的整體產品集的擴展和整體市場的擴展？

It's a combination there. I think we do very well competitively. And our strategy, we believe, is differentiating in terms of opening up the platform and investing in new content sets and being neutral in terms of what data we provide the market. So that is resonating particularly well with our clients as they try to differentiate themselves and become more efficient. And we get a lot of upside from expanding clients. When we continue to build out our solution, our clients trust us and we've got great service. And when trends are good like this in the market, we're able to really capitalize on that.

這是一個組合。我認為我們在競爭中做得很好。我們相信，我們的戰略是在開放平台和投資新內容集方面實現差異化，並在我們向市場提供的數據方面保持中立。因此，這在我們的客戶中引起了特別好的共鳴，因為他們試圖使自己與眾不同並提高效率。我們從不斷擴大的客戶中獲得了很多好處。當我們繼續構建解決方案時，我們的客戶信任我們，並且我們獲得了優質的服務。當市場趨勢如此良好時，我們就能夠真正利用這一點。

And our next question, coming from the line of Craig Huber with Huber Research Partners.

我們的下一個問題來自克雷格·胡貝爾（Craig Huber）和胡貝爾研究合作夥伴（Huber Research Partners）。

My first question, as you remember 2 years ago, you guys put a 3-year investment plan and stuff with, I guess, on the back end that you're expecting to be able to get to high single-digit ASV growth on the back end of that. Is that still the plan here a year out? Or has it been pushed out some, as you've alluded to in prior calls, because of this pandemic?

我的第一個問題，正如你們所記得的 2 年前那樣，你們制定了一個 3 年投資計劃，我想，你們希望能夠在後端實現高個位數的 ASV 增長。後端。一年後這仍然是這個計劃嗎？或者正如您在之前的電話中提到的那樣，由於這種流行病，它是否被推遲了一些？

Thanks, Craig. Yes. So we're entering the third year of that original 3-year plan. And I think you can see our performance this year and what our guidance is for next year. So we're certainly -- high single digits is certainly something that's achievable. I believe back then, we articulated that we would exit the year with a 33% margin, which is, I think, I believe, the middle of our guidance here for this year.

謝謝，克雷格。是的。我們即將進入最初三年計劃的第三年。我認為您可以看到我們今年的表現以及我們明年的指導。所以我們確信——高個位數肯定是可以實現的。我相信當時我們就明確表示，今年我們將以 33% 的利潤率結束，我認為，我相信，這是我們今年指導的中間值。

And our aspiration was to get to double-digit EPS growth. I think if you look at the midpoint of our guidance, it's high single digits. But that doesn't mean if we execute well, we can't get to that thing. So I couldn't be prouder of our company. We've all worked exceptionally hard over the last 2 years. And it's really great to see this level of performance. And we're really optimistic as we go into FY '22.

我們的願望是實現兩位數的每股收益增長。我認為，如果你看一下我們指導的中點，就會發現它是高個位數。但這並不意味著如果我們執行得好，我們就無法實現這一目標。所以我為我們的公司感到無比自豪。在過去的兩年裡，我們都非常努力地工作。看到這種水平的表現真是太棒了。當我們進入 22 財年時，我們非常樂觀。

And then my follow-up, please, on the cost side related to that 3-year investment program, I think originally you thought you were going to spend $15 million each of the 3 years. It's changed. Maybe can you just update us on those numbers, please? I think it was higher last year. Do you have that number?

然後我的後續行動是，關於與 3 年投資計劃相關的成本方面，我想您最初認為您將在 3 年中每年花費 1500 萬美元。它改變了。也許您可以向我們通報這些數字的最新情況嗎？我認為去年這個數字更高。你有那個號碼嗎？

Sure. I can talk broadly on those points, Craig. Yes, I mean, we -- as discussed earlier, we are on target in terms of our plan. There are things that we probably accelerated in terms of spend, and in some cases, where we've adjusted along the way. That's what you would expect in a 3-year plan. So from a technology perspective, we probably spent a bit more. And we're able to make that up, as you can tell, from our performance this year.

當然。我可以廣泛地談論這些觀點，克雷格。是的，我的意思是，正如之前所討論的，我們的計劃已達到目標。在支出方面，我們可能會加速某些事情，在某些情況下，我們會一路進行調整。這就是您在三年計劃中所期望的。所以從技術角度來看，我們可能花了更多的錢。正如您所見，我們能夠從今年的表現中彌補這一點。

To go back a little bit to your point on us having pushed it out, I think what's really, I think, admirable is the fact that with the situation that we had with the pandemic, we were trying to be as transparent as possible. And the fact that we were able to achieve what we have and what we're indicating for the third year really does mean that we're -- that we were able to meet what we had originally given guidance on.

回到你關於我們推遲它的觀點，我認為真正令人欽佩的是，在我們應對大流行的情況下，我們試圖盡可能透明。事實上，我們能夠實現我們所擁有的目標以及我們第三年所表明的目標，這確實意味著我們能夠實現我們最初給出的指導目標。

I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to hand the conference back over to Mr. Phil Snow for closing remarks.

我目前沒有提出任何進一步的問題。現在我想將會議交還給菲爾·斯諾先生致閉幕詞。

Thank you all for joining us today. In closing, I want to reiterate how pleased we are with our performance this fiscal year. We also made substantial progress on our internal ESG strategy. Steps we have taken this past quarter alone include joining the UN Global Compact and Principles of Responsible Investment, publishing our global diversity figures and committing to becoming MLT Black Equity at Work-certified, in addition to completing our sustainability plan, which outlines our ESG goals and aspirations. I'm very proud of all FactSet has accomplished this year, and we look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. In the meantime, please call Rima Hyder with additional questions. Operator, this ends today's call.

感謝大家今天加入我們。最後，我想重申我們對本財年的業績感到非常滿意。我們的內部 ESG 戰略也取得了實質性進展。僅在上個季度，我們就採取了措施，包括加入聯合國全球契約和負責任投資原則、發布我們的全球多元化數據並承諾獲得MLT 黑人工作股權認證，此外還完成了概述我們ESG 目標的可持續發展計劃和願望。我對 FactSet 今年所取得的成就感到非常自豪，我們期待下個季度再次與您交談。同時，如有其他問題，請致電 Rima Hyder。接線員，今天的通話到此結束。

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude conference for today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

女士們、先生們，今天的會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。