Factset Research Systems Inc (FDS) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the FactSet First Fiscal Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

再會。謝謝你的支持。歡迎參加 FactSet 2023 財年第一季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意，今天的會議正在錄製中。

I would like to hand the conference over to your host today, Kendra Brown, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

今天我想把會議交給你的主持人，投資者關係高級副總裁肯德拉布朗。請繼續。

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to FactSet's First Fiscal Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. 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)

謝謝大家，早上好。歡迎來到 FactSet 的 2023 財年第一季度財報電話會議。在我們開始之前，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訪問。這些幻燈片將在本次電話會議結束時發佈在我們的網站上。將通過電話和我們的網站重播今天的電話會議。在我們準備好的評論之後，我們將開始接受投資者的提問。 （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.

在我們討論我們的結果之前，我鼓勵所有聽眾閱讀幻燈片 2 上的法律聲明，其中解釋了前瞻性陳述的風險和非 GAAP 財務措施的使用。此外，請參閱我們的 10-K 和 10-Q 表格，討論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。

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.

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 GAAP 財務指標。對於此類措施，與最直接可比的 GAAP 措施的調節在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 Linda Huber, Chief Financial Officer.

今天加入我的是首席執行官 Phil Snow；和首席財務官 Linda Huber。

I will now turn the discussion over to Phil Snow.

我現在將討論轉交給 Phil Snow。

Thank you, Kendra, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. I'm pleased to share our first quarter results.

謝謝你，肯德拉，大家早上好。感謝您今天加入我們。我很高興分享我們第一季度的業績。

We grew organic ASV plus professional services by 8.8% year-over-year, achieving adjusted diluted EPS of $3.99 and an adjusted operating margin of 38.3%. These results demonstrate our continued momentum coming out of fiscal 2022 and lay a solid foundation for executing on our full year targets.

我們的有機 ASV 加上專業服務同比增長 8.8%，調整後的稀釋每股收益為 3.99 美元，調整後的營業利潤率為 38.3%。這些結果證明了我們在 2022 財年的持續發展勢頭，並為實現我們的全年目標奠定了堅實的基礎。

Last year's Q1 ASV growth was a record for us, and this quarter's performance was a strong result for what is usually our seasonally lowest revenue quarter. The biggest contributors to this quarter's growth came from banking, asset owners and private equity and venture capital clients, all of which exhibited double-digit growth rates. Small and medium-sized deals across client types drove ASV growth this quarter. Our investments in content and technology, including deep sector, private markets, APIs and analytics solutions, continue to support client retention rates and expansion.

去年第一季度的 ASV 增長對我們來說是創紀錄的，而本季度的表現對於通常是我們季節性最低收入的季度來說是一個強勁的結果。本季度增長的最大貢獻者來自銀行、資產所有者以及私募股權和風險投資客戶，所有這些都呈現兩位數的增長率。本季度，跨客戶類型的中小型交易推動了 ASV 的增長。我們在內容和技術方面的投資，包括深度行業、私人市場、API 和分析解決方案，繼續支持客戶保留率和擴展。

It's important to acknowledge the continued uncertainty in global markets. While conditions have been supportive, we are starting to see a more challenging environment for our clients, and we are closely watching for signs indicating our prolonged change in conditions. These signs could include reduced client budgets, elongated sales cycles, material layoffs and a reduction in new firm creation. However, FactSet has a proven history of stability and growth in volatile markets, and we remain confident that our strategy and ability to execute will position us well even in a choppy economic cycle.

重要的是要承認全球市場的持續不確定性。雖然情況一直有利，但我們開始看到對我們的客戶更具挑戰性的環境，我們正在密切關注表明我們的情況長期變化的跡象。這些跡象可能包括客戶預算減少、銷售週期延長、材料裁員和新公司創建減少。然而，FactSet 在動蕩的市場中有著穩定和增長的良好歷史，我們仍然相信，即使在動蕩的經濟周期中，我們的戰略和執行能力也將使我們處於有利地位。

As we look ahead, we remain focused on building the leading open content and analytics platform, reinforcing our position as an anchor partner for clients, allowing us to grow our share of the addressable market.

展望未來，我們將繼續專注於構建領先的開放內容和分析平台，鞏固我們作為客戶主要合作夥伴的地位，從而擴大我們在目標市場的份額。

At the foundation of our strategy is our commitment to further scaling our content refinery. We continue to grow and invest in critical content. For example, within our Content and Technology Solutions business, our cloud-based real-time solutions are gaining traction with the launch of ticker plants in Europe and Asia and our recently announced relationship with BMLL for enhanced tick history.

我們戰略的基礎是我們承諾進一步擴大我們的內容精煉廠。我們繼續發展並投資於關鍵內容。例如，在我們的內容和技術解決方案業務中，我們的基於雲的實時解決方案隨著在歐洲和亞洲推出自動收報機工廠以及我們最近宣布與 BMLL 建立合作關係以增強即時報價歷史而獲得關注。

The connectivity of our data powers hyper-personalized solutions that puts key information and analytical tools in the hands of investment professionals, enabling them to generate alpha across all market conditions. FactSet is an essential partner for our clients as they advance their digital transformations to increase efficiency and be more competitive. These transformations are critical, and clients are prioritizing investments in technology and data to drive performance, giving us further confidence in the resilient nature of our business.

我們數據的連通性為超個性化解決方案提供動力，將關鍵信息和分析工具交到投資專業人士手中，使他們能夠在所有市場條件下產生阿爾法。 FactSet 是我們客戶不可或缺的合作夥伴，因為他們推進數字化轉型以提高效率和競爭力。這些轉型至關重要，客戶正在優先投資技術和數據以推動績效，這讓我們對我們業務的彈性有了進一步的信心。

Turning to our performance for the quarter. We continue to see strength in ASV growth across all our regions. The Americas remains the biggest contributor, with organic ASV growth of 8.5%. And growth was diverse across firm types driven primarily by higher retention in banking. Private equity and venture capital clients also drove growth with Cobalt, a leading portfolio monitoring solution, plus the workstation securing client wins.

談談我們本季度的表現。我們繼續看到我們所有地區的 ASV 增長強勁。美洲仍然是最大的貢獻者，ASV 的有機增長率為 8.5%。主要受銀行業更高保留率的推動，各公司類型的增長各不相同。私募股權和風險投資客戶也通過領先的投資組合監控解決方案 Cobalt 以及確保客戶獲勝的工作站推動了增長。

Organic ASV growth accelerated to 8.8% in EMEA, marking the region's strongest Q1 in recent history and the seventh quarter of increasing LTM growth. Performance was driven by higher retention among asset managers, asset owners and banking. Asset managers also saw a higher expansion across the product portfolio. And we also continue to see healthy demand for our wealth solutions, with Advisor Dashboard driving key wins.

歐洲、中東和非洲地區的有機 ASV 增長加速至 8.8%，標誌著該地區最近歷史上最強勁的第一季度，也是 LTM 增長增長的第七個季度。業績是由資產管理者、資產所有者和銀行業的更高保留率推動的。資產管理公司還看到了產品組合的更高擴展。我們還繼續看到對我們的財富解決方案的健康需求，Advisor Dashboard 推動了關鍵勝利。

Finally, in Asia Pacific, we delivered organic ASV growth of 11.1%, driven primarily by expansion among asset managers and new business wins with asset owners. However, we also experienced headwinds in the region from macro factors, including regional COVID policies, which resulted in slower decision-making among clients.

最後，在亞太地區，我們實現了 11.1% 的 ASV 有機增長，這主要是由於資產管理公司的擴張以及與資產所有者的新業務的推動。然而，我們在該地區也遇到了來自宏觀因素的不利因素，包括區域 COVID 政策，這導致客戶的決策速度變慢。

In summary, I'm pleased with our first quarter results. We recognize the uncertainty in the market and are closely monitoring the macro environment for any signs of weakness. As we head into the start of calendar 2023, we expect to get a clearer picture of our second half as client budgets are finalized.

總之，我對我們第一季度的業績感到滿意。我們認識到市場的不確定性，並密切關注宏觀環境是否有任何疲軟跡象。隨著我們進入 2023 年日曆之初，隨著客戶預算的最終確定，我們希望對下半年有更清晰的了解。

Using our downturn playbook as a guide, we are focused on disciplined expense management. And later in the call, Linda will share the actions we've proactively taken.

以我們的經濟低迷手冊為指導，我們專注於嚴格的費用管理。稍後在電話中，琳達將分享我們主動採取的行動。

FactSet maintains a long-term view of our strategy, and we will continue investing to sustain growth. We have a healthy pipeline of opportunities. And as such, we are reaffirming our guidance.

FactSet 對我們的戰略保持著長遠的眼光，我們將繼續投資以維持增長。我們有一個健康的機會管道。因此，我們重申我們的指導方針。

I'll now turn it over to Linda to discuss our first quarter performance in more detail.

我現在將其轉交給琳達來更詳細地討論我們第一季度的業績。

Thanks, Phil, and hello to everyone on the call. As you've seen from our press release this morning, we reported high single-digit organic ASV growth and double-digit year-over-year growth in revenue and adjusted diluted EPS. I'll now share more details on our first quarter performance.

謝謝 Phil，並向通話中的每個人問好。正如您今天早上從我們的新聞稿中看到的那樣，我們報告了高個位數的有機 ASV 增長和兩位數的收入同比增長以及調整後的攤薄每股收益。我現在將分享有關我們第一季度業績的更多細節。

Consistent with our definition of organic revenues in ASV, we exclude any revenue and ASV associated with CUSIP Global Services when reporting organic-related metrics for the 12 months following the acquisition date. We will, however, provide some specifics on CGS so you can continue to understand its performance as part of FactSet. Beginning March 1, 2023, the first anniversary of the CGS acquisition, it will be included in our organic results as a component of our CTS business. As Kendra noted, a reconciliation of our adjusted metrics to comparable GAAP figures is included at the end of our press release.

與我們對 ASV 有機收入的定義一致，在報告收購日期後 12 個月的有機相關指標時，我們排除了與 CUSIP 全球服務相關的任何收入和 ASV。但是，我們將提供有關 CGS 的一些細節，以便您可以繼續了解其作為 FactSet 一部分的性能。從 2023 年 3 月 1 日（收購 CGS 一周年）開始，它將作為我們 CTS 業務的一部分包含在我們的有機業績中。正如 Kendra 指出的那樣，我們的新聞稿末尾包含我們調整後的指標與可比較的 GAAP 數據的對賬。

We grew organic ASV plus professional services by 8.8%. As Phil stated earlier, this is a strong start to our fiscal year as compared to our typically lower revenue first quarter. Our performance reflects increased demand for our content and solutions, higher retention and continued expansion. We saw strength in the workstation for banking, key client wins with our enterprise solutions. And our subscription-based ASV continue to support value-based pricing.

我們將有機 ASV 和專業服務增長了 8.8%。正如菲爾早些時候所說，與我們通常較低的第一季度收入相比，這是我們財政年度的一個良好開端。我們的業績反映了對我們的內容和解決方案的需求增加、更高的保留率和持續的擴張。我們看到了銀行工作站的優勢，我們的企業解決方案贏得了重要客戶。我們基於訂閱的 ASV 繼續支持基於價值的定價。

GAAP revenue increased by 18.9% to $505 million for the first quarter. Organic revenue, which excludes any impact from foreign exchange and acquisitions, increased 8.3% to $460 million. Growth was driven primarily by CGS and our Analytics & Trading and Research & Advisory solutions.

第一季度 GAAP 收入增長 18.9% 至 5.05 億美元。剔除外彙和收購影響的有機收入增長 8.3% 至 4.6 億美元。增長主要由 CGS 和我們的分析與交易以及研究與諮詢解決方案推動。

All regions saw notable growth. From our geographic segments, on an organic basis, revenue growth for the Americas was at 7.6%; EMEA grew at 7.2%; and Asia Pacific came in at 14.9%. All regions primarily benefited from increases in Analytics & Trading and Research & Advisory solutions. GAAP operating expenses grew 10% in the first quarter to $333 million.

所有地區都有顯著增長。從我們的地理區域來看，在有機的基礎上，美洲的收入增長為 7.6%； EMEA 增長 7.2%；亞太地區為 14.9%。所有地區都主要受益於分析與交易以及研究與諮詢解決方案的增長。 GAAP 運營費用在第一季度增長了 10%，達到 3.33 億美元。

Let me now review our expenses based on our primary cost buckets. Starting with people, our expenses grew 4% year-over-year, primarily due to increased salary expenses for existing employees and higher stock-based compensation expense. As a percentage of revenue, this was 572 basis points lower year-over-year, demonstrating our continued focus on achieving a sustainable balance of investment in our talent and productivity.

現在讓我根據我們的主要成本桶回顧一下我們的開支。從人員開始，我們的支出同比增長 4%，這主要是由於現有員工的工資支出增加以及股票薪酬支出增加。作為收入的百分比，這比去年同期下降了 572 個基點，表明我們繼續致力於實現人才和生產力投資的可持續平衡。

Next, real estate costs decreased by 21% year-over-year driven by the rightsizing exercise we performed in fiscal '22. As a percentage of revenue, this was 181 basis points lower year-over-year.

接下來，由於我們在 22 財年進行的規模調整，房地產成本同比下降了 21%。作為收入的百分比，這比去年同期下降了 181 個基點。

Third, technology expenses increased this quarter by 11% driven by increased cloud spending. As a percentage of revenue, growth was 51 basis points lower year-over-year.

第三，在雲支出增加的推動下，本季度技術支出增長了 11%。作為收入的百分比，增長率同比下降了 51 個基點。

And finally, third-party data content costs decreased by more than 12% year-over-year driven by our continued focus on financial discipline and data governance. As a percentage of revenue, growth was 156 basis points lower year-over-year. While this is a good result for the first quarter, we expect the annual rate to grow at 5% to 6%, in line with the outlook we gave at our April 2022 Investor Day.

最後，在我們持續關注財務紀律和數據治理的推動下，第三方數據內容成本同比下降超過 12%。作為收入的百分比，增長率同比下降了 156 個基點。雖然這對第一季度來說是一個不錯的結果，但我們預計年增長率將達到 5% 至 6%，這與我們在 2022 年 4 月投資者日給出的展望一致。

Compared to the previous year, our GAAP operating margin increased by 517 basis points to 34.1%, and our adjusted operating margin increased by 471 basis points to 38.3%. Improvement was driven by higher revenue, lower personnel costs as compared to revenue, and lower content and real estate costs. These expenses were offset by higher technology expenses and costs related to the integration of CGS.

與上一年相比，我們的 GAAP 營業利潤率增加了 517 個基點，達到 34.1%，調整後的營業利潤率增加了 471 個基點，達到 38.3%。改進是由更高的收入、與收入相比更低的人員成本以及更低的內容和房地產成本推動的。這些費用被更高的技術費用和與 CGS 整合相關的成本所抵消。

Regarding our first quarter margin, I want to remind everyone that our first quarter margins tend to be seasonally higher than in subsequent quarters. While we've had a strong first quarter margin performance on both a GAAP and adjusted operating basis, we remain committed to balancing investment in our business with returning value to shareholders. As such, we continue to anticipate 50 to 75 basis points of margin expansion for the full fiscal year 2023. Further, we expect our fiscal 2023 adjusted operating margin to be between 34% and 35%. This means we anticipate that margins will likely be lower in the subsequent quarters of fiscal 2023. You will find an expense walk from revenue to adjusted operating income in the appendix of today's earnings presentation.

關於我們第一季度的利潤率，我想提醒大家，我們第一季度的利潤率往往比隨後的季度更高。雖然我們在 GAAP 和調整後的運營基礎上都取得了強勁的第一季度利潤率表現，但我們仍致力於平衡業務投資與股東回報價值。因此，我們繼續預計整個 2023 財年的利潤率將擴大 50 至 75 個基點。此外，我們預計 2023 財年調整後的營業利潤率將在 34% 至 35% 之間。這意味著我們預計 2023 財年隨後幾個季度的利潤率可能會降低。在今天的收益報告的附錄中，您會發現從收入到調整後營業收入的支出變化。

As a percentage of revenue, our cost of sales was 380 basis points lower than last year on a GAAP basis and 450 basis points lower on an adjusted basis. On a GAAP basis, SG&A was 140 basis points lower year-over-year as a percentage of revenues and 20 basis points lower on an adjusted basis.

按 GAAP 計算，我們的銷售成本佔收入的百分比比去年低 380 個基點，經調整後比去年低 450 個基點。根據 GAAP，SG&A 佔收入的百分比同比下降 140 個基點，調整後下降 20 個基點。

Moving on. Our tax rate for the quarter was 13.4% compared to last year's rate of 10.2%. Our higher rate's primarily due to higher pretax income and an increase in the U.K. statutory tax rate from 19% to 25%, which will continue for the foreseeable future. GAAP EPS increased 26.2% to $3.52 this quarter versus $2.79 in the prior year. Adjusted diluted EPS grew 22.8% to $3.99. Both EPS figures were driven by higher revenue and margin expansion and were partially offset by increased interest expense and a higher tax rate.

繼續。我們本季度的稅率為 13.4%，而去年為 10.2%。我們較高的稅率主要是由於較高的稅前收入和英國法定稅率從 19% 提高到 25%，這將在可預見的未來持續下去。本季度 GAAP 每股收益增長 26.2% 至 3.52 美元，而去年同期為 2.79 美元。調整後攤薄每股收益增長 22.8% 至 3.99 美元。這兩項每股收益數據均受到更高收入和利潤率擴張的推動，並被利息支出增加和更高稅率部分抵消。

As noted in our press release, adjusted EBITDA increased to $200 million up 38.2% from the same period in fiscal 2022. And finally, free cash flow, which we define as cash generated from operations less capital spending, was about $89 million for the quarter, an increase of 37.8% over the same period last year. This was due to higher net income, partially offset by increased capitalization costs related to internal use software.

正如我們在新聞稿中指出的那樣，調整後的 EBITDA 增至 2 億美元，比 2022 財年同期增長 38.2%。最後，自由現金流（我們定義為運營產生的現金減去資本支出）在本季度約為 8900 萬美元，比去年同期增長37.8%。這是由於淨收入增加，部分被與內部使用軟件相關的資本化成本增加所抵消。

Before moving on, I want to provide additional financial housekeeping items to help with modeling. First, CGS continued to perform well, adding $3 million in incremental ASV for the quarter. We expect it to grow in the mid- to high single digits. As a reminder, we will update guidance next quarter to include CGS. Once it is included as part of our organic results, we will no longer report on CGS separately.

在繼續之前，我想提供額外的財務管理項目來幫助建模。首先，CGS 繼續表現良好，本季度增加了 300 萬美元的增量 ASV。我們預計它會以中高個位數增長。提醒一下，我們將在下個季度更新指南以包括 CGS。一旦它被納入我們的有機結果的一部分，我們將不再單獨報告 CGS。

Next, interest expense for the quarter was $16 million. For the full year, we expect to end fiscal 2023 with interest expense of about $66 million. As a reminder, we paused share repurchases to prioritize debt repayment following the CGS acquisition. As such, no additional shares have been purchased since the first quarter of 2022. As of the end of November 2022, our weighted average diluted share count was 39 million shares.

接下來，本季度的利息支出為 1600 萬美元。對於全年，我們預計到 2023 財年結束時的利息支出約為 6600 萬美元。提醒一下，在收購 CGS 後，我們暫停了股票回購以優先償還債務。因此，自 2022 年第一季度以來沒有購買額外的股票。截至 2022 年 11 月底，我們的加權平均稀釋股數為 3900 萬股。

Moving on to the bonus accrual. Given our performance so far, we expect the bonus pool for fiscal 2023 to be about $100 million. Our operating income benefited from the strength of the U.S. dollar versus major currencies we hedge. However, we expect exchange rates to be volatile throughout the year, so the impact will fluctuate. As a reminder, 95% of our revenue and most of our expenses are denominated in U.S. dollars.

繼續累積獎金。鑑於我們迄今為止的表現，我們預計 2023 財年的獎金池約為 1 億美元。我們的營業收入受益於美元兌我們對沖的主要貨幣的強勢。但是，我們預計全年匯率都會波動，因此影響會波動。提醒一下，我們 95% 的收入和大部分支出都是以美元計價的。

Next, we ended the fiscal quarter with capital expenditures of about $18 million, up $9 million from the prior year period. This was driven by increases in capitalization as well as technology expenditures. As we discussed on our last earnings call, we expect an increase in CapEx this fiscal year to be about $68 million at the midpoint as we move to our hybrid cloud strategy, increased focus on capitalization and consolidate our offices in Paris as part of our real estate strategy. And finally, we expect our dividend program to continue delivering value to shareholders. Fiscal 2022 marked 23 consecutive years of growth, and we paid a quarterly dividend of $0.89 on December 15.

接下來，我們在本財政季度結束時的資本支出約為 1800 萬美元，比上年同期增加 900 萬美元。這是由資本化和技術支出的增加推動的。正如我們在上次財報電話會議上討論的那樣，隨著我們轉向混合雲戰略、更加關注資本化並整合我們在巴黎的辦事處作為我們實際業務的一部分，我們預計本財年的資本支出將在中點增加約 6800 萬美元房地產戰略。最後，我們預計我們的股息計劃將繼續為股東創造價值。 2022 財年連續 23 年實現增長，我們在 12 月 15 日支付了 0.89 美元的季度股息。

Our ASV retention for the first quarter remained greater than 95%. We grew the total number of clients by 13% compared to the prior year driven by corporate wealth and private equity and venture capital clients. Our client retention remains at 92% year-over-year, reflecting the stickiness of our content and digital platform.

我們第一季度的 ASV 保留率保持在 95% 以上。在企業財富、私募股權和風險投資客戶的推動下，我們的客戶總數比上一年增長了 13%。我們的客戶保留率同比保持在 92%，反映了我們的內容和數字平台的粘性。

Turning now to our balance sheet. We continue to pay down the term loan related to the acquisition of CGS. In the first fiscal quarter, we made another planned prepayment of $125 million, bringing our gross leverage ratio down to 2.7x from the initial 3.9x level when we financed the CGS acquisition. Following our next planned prepayment of $125 million in the second fiscal quarter, we expect to be within our target leverage ratio of 2 to 2.5x. The strength of our net income and adjusted EBITDA has allowed us to move faster than expected to reach this target.

現在轉向我們的資產負債表。我們繼續償還與收購 CGS 有關的定期貸款。在第一財季，我們再次計劃預付款 1.25 億美元，使我們的總槓桿率從我們為 CGS 收購提供資金時最初的 3.9 倍水平降至 2.7 倍。在我們下一個計劃在第二財季預付 1.25 億美元之後，我們預計槓桿率將在 2 至 2.5 倍的目標範圍內。我們的淨收入和調整後的 EBITDA 強勁，使我們能夠比預期更快地實現這一目標。

As a reminder, while we may make minor share repurchases to offset the dilutive impact of stock option grants during this time, we do not intend to resume our share repurchase program until at least the third fiscal quarter.

提醒一下，雖然我們可能會進行少量股票回購以抵消這段時間授予股票期權的稀釋影響，但我們至少要到第三財季才會恢復我們的股票回購計劃。

Next, I'd like to discuss our downturn playbook. As Phil mentioned, we are still experiencing supportive end markets, and FactSet has historically fared well during periods of volatility. Should anything change, our downturn playbook gives us levers to reduce our operating expenses by 2% to 3% or $24 million to $36 million. Given market uncertainty, we have proactively implemented parts of our downturn playbook to protect margins and prioritize investments. Actions taken to date include limiting travel to client engagement and essential business needs, revisiting our real estate footprint and focusing on the continued reduction of third-party content costs. In addition, we are also monitoring our open positions to ensure focus on roles that are essential to our business.

接下來，我想討論一下我們的低迷劇本。正如 Phil 所提到的，我們仍在經歷支持性的終端市場，而 FactSet 在波動時期歷來表現良好。如果有任何變化，我們的低迷劇本可以讓我們將運營費用減少 2% 至 3% 或 2400 萬至 3600 萬美元。鑑於市場的不確定性，我們已積極實施部分低迷策略，以保護利潤率並優先投資。迄今為止採取的行動包括將差旅限制為客戶參與和基本業務需求，重新審視我們的房地產足跡，並專注於持續降低第三方內容成本。此外，我們還在監控我們的空缺職位，以確保專注於對我們的業務至關重要的角色。

Finally, we've restructured our cloud budget as part of our hybrid cloud strategy, which will use both cloud and on-premise computing to run our core platforms. This change will save more than $20 million over the next 5 years, including $7 million this fiscal year.

最後，我們重組了雲計算預算，作為我們混合雲戰略的一部分，該戰略將同時使用雲計算和本地計算來運行我們的核心平台。這一變化將在未來 5 年內節省超過 2000 萬美元，包括本財年的 700 萬美元。

In closing, we are confident in our ability to navigate the changing market conditions. While it's still early in the fiscal year, we have confidence in our pipeline as we look ahead. And as stated before, we are reaffirming our guidance for 2023.

最後，我們對自己駕馭不斷變化的市場條件的能力充滿信心。雖然現在還處於本財年的早期，但我們對未來的發展充滿信心。如前所述，我們重申我們對 2023 年的指導。

With that, we're now ready for your questions. Operator?

這樣，我們現在就可以回答您的問題了。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) And our first question comes from the line of Manav Patnaik with Barclays.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Manav Patnaik。

Linda, you gave us kind of what to expect from margins, I guess, looking forward. I was just wondering, was there -- is there any cadence for ASV throughout the year based on what you see in the pipeline? Or is there any seasonality to pricing perhaps that we should keep in mind?

琳達，你給了我們對利潤率的期望，我想，期待。我只是想知道，根據您在管道中看到的情況，全年是否有 ASV 的節奏？還是我們應該牢記定價的季節性？

Sure, Manav. Let me talk a little bit about margin and our expectations, and then I'll let Phil go back on ASV and pricing, if that's okay. So to set the stage on margin, for the first quarter, we had 570 basis points of margin expansion on -- excuse me, 470 basis points of margin expansion as compared to last year. And about half of that has come from CUSIP. And looking forward, as we get past March 1, we will have lapped CUSIP. So we won't have that additive margin increase from CUSIP. The rest of the margin increase came from the organic business, which is great, and it is performing well.

當然，馬納夫。讓我談談保證金和我們的期望，然後我會讓菲爾回到 ASV 和定價上，如果可以的話。因此，為了保證利潤率，第一季度，我們的利潤率擴大了 570 個基點——對不起，與去年相比，利潤率擴大了 470 個基點。其中大約一半來自 CUSIP。展望未來，隨著 3 月 1 日的過去，我們將完成 CUSIP。因此，我們不會從 CUSIP 獲得附加保證金。其餘的利潤增長來自有機業務，這很好，而且表現良好。

If we look at our cost buckets, Manav, a couple of things that we note here. Our third-party data costs are doing very nicely and, in fact, have moved down. Our real estate costs have moved down as well. Our tech costs are up, but we've had a good replanning of our cloud strategy, which will result in $7 million of savings this year. So the big bucket to watch here is our people expenses. So we've got to keep a close eye on headcount and on compensation.

如果我們看看我們的成本桶，Manav，我們在這裡註意到幾件事。我們的第三方數據成本做得很好，實際上已經下降了。我們的房地產成本也下降了。我們的技術成本上升了，但我們對雲戰略進行了很好的重新規劃，今年將節省 700 萬美元。所以這裡要注意的大桶是我們的人員開支。因此，我們必須密切關注員工人數和薪酬。

So we will look forward to staying within our adjusted operating margin guidance of 34% to 35% for the year. But as we said in the script, we expect that margins might be lower for the next 3 quarters of this year than they've been for the first quarter. So I hope that answers the margin question. Sorry to go a bit backward, but Phil can now handle ASV and price.

因此，我們期待今年保持在我們調整後的 34% 至 35% 的營業利潤率指導範圍內。但正如我們在劇本中所說，我們預計今年未來 3 個季度的利潤率可能會低於第一季度。所以我希望這能回答保證金問題。抱歉有點倒退，但 Phil 現在可以處理 ASV 和價格。

Great. Manav, thanks for the question. Yes. So for the rest of the year, at least what we're looking at today, we're still looking more positive for Q2 and Q3 and Q4 than we were this time last year. Some of that is certainly supported by price. We -- as we -- as I indicated on the last call, we said we were going to go out at more than a 4% price increase. And conversations are going well with clients. Clearly, they're all going through their own introspection about trying to figure out what's happening in the markets. And budgets, I believe, are getting finalized now, so we'll have more visibility. But it's hard to argue, frankly, with the amount of investment FactSet has put into our platform over the last few years. So we've got great relationships with clients. Conversations are going well. We do believe that we'll be successful in executing on the price increase. And there's a lot going on in the markets right now.

偉大的。馬納夫，謝謝你的提問。是的。因此，在今年餘下的時間裡，至少我們今天所看到的，我們對第二季度、第三季度和第四季度的看法仍然比去年這個時候更加樂觀。其中一些肯定受到價格的支持。我們 - 正如我們 - 正如我在上次電話會議中所指出的那樣，我們表示我們將以超過 4% 的價格上漲。與客戶的對話進展順利。顯然，他們都在進行自己的反省，試圖弄清楚市場上正在發生什麼。我相信，預算現在正在敲定，所以我們會有更多的知名度。但坦率地說，FactSet 在過去幾年中對我們平台的投資額是無可爭辯的。因此，我們與客戶建立了良好的關係。談話進行得很順利。我們確實相信我們會成功地執行價格上漲。現在市場上發生了很多事情。

I'm cautiously optimistic. Our strategy is a good one. And we'll get more information, particularly as we head into January in terms of what the rest of the year looks like. We have better visibility on Q2 and Q3. And as you know, Q4 is such a big quarter for us. We need a bit more information in terms of how that's going to play out.

我持謹慎樂觀的態度。我們的策略是好的。我們將獲得更多信息，特別是當我們進入 1 月時，就今年剩餘時間的情況而言。我們對第二季度和第三季度有更好的了解。如您所知，第四季度對我們來說是一個重要的季度。我們需要更多關於結果如何的信息。

Got it. And if I could just follow up, Phil, just quickly on the sell-side. I mean you guys have been doing really well there. Obviously, the narrative there seems to be changing, but you guys are a little bit more enterprise and (inaudible) focused. I was just hoping that you could help us kind of filter through the noise we would anticipate on a lot more layoffs versus maybe how secure your contracts are on the sell-side.

知道了。如果我能跟進，菲爾，很快就在賣方。我的意思是你們在那裡一直做得很好。顯然，那裡的敘述似乎正在發生變化，但是你們更加有進取心並且（聽不清）專注。我只是希望你能幫助我們過濾掉我們預計會有更多裁員的噪音，而不是你的合同在賣方的安全性。

Sure. Yes. So the sell-side continues to accelerate. That may surprise some of you, but we're really healthy there. So we're not as exposed to capital markets or some other companies. And most of our users, as you know, are in investment banking. And in the conversations I've been having, it doesn't feel like the banks are laying off massive amounts of staff in investment banking. Maybe they're hoping for a soft landing here. And within like the next 6 months or so, M&A activity will pick up. But again, I'm optimistic that we'll be able to hang in, particularly in that part of the banks.

當然。是的。所以賣方繼續加速。這可能會讓你們中的一些人感到驚訝，但我們在那裡真的很健康。所以我們不那麼容易受到資本市場或其他一些公司的影響。如您所知，我們的大多數用戶都從事投資銀行業務。在我的談話中，我並不覺得銀行正在裁掉大量投資銀行業務的員工。也許他們希望在這裡實現軟著陸。在未來 6 個月左右的時間裡，併購活動將會增加。但同樣，我對我們能夠堅持下去感到樂觀，尤其是在銀行的那一部分。

And as you pointed out, we've begun to diversify our solutions for the sell-side. So I just took a look at this for the next 6 months, and it looks like we have a very good CTS pipeline on the sell-side. So we're now going in and being able to take out the value that we create and integrate it into client systems for their back and middle offices. And this is a theme, I would say, across most client types is that the data that our clients want to see -- they want to see consistency, right, in terms of the workstations they're using, whatever interfaces and the data that's going through the systems. And we're beginning to benefit from that, particularly on the sell-side.

正如您所指出的，我們已經開始為賣方提供多樣化的解決方案。所以我只是在接下來的 6 個月裡看了一下，看起來我們在賣方有一個非常好的 CTS 管道。因此，我們現在進入並能夠提取我們創造的價值並將其集成到他們的後台和中台辦公室的客戶系統中。這是一個主題，我想說，在大多數客戶類型中，我們的客戶希望看到的數據——他們希望看到一致性，正確的，就他們使用的工作站而言，無論是什麼接口和數據通過系統。我們開始從中受益，尤其是在賣方方面。

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

我們的下一個問題來自 Toni Kaplan 與摩根士丹利的對話。

I also wanted to ask one on sell-side. Really, really strong over the last 6 quarters. And I know last quarter, you had called out upsell. And so I wanted to see if there were any sort of solutions that were particularly in demand. I know you just called out the CTS pipeline, but just anything that is just different now that you're able to upsell to sell-side versus historically or things that they're demanding more than normal?

我也想問一個賣方。過去 6 個季度真的非常強勁。我知道上個季度，你曾呼籲追加銷售。所以我想看看是否有任何特別需要的解決方案。我知道你剛剛調用了 CTS 管道，但現在你能夠向賣方追加銷售與歷史上相比有什麼不同，或者他們要求的東西比平常更多？

Most of it seats, Toni. So I think the -- what you're seeing there is the investment that we've made in deep sector and private markets. So those new or newer content sets for FactSet that are getting expanded out are allowing us to get into maybe different parts of the bank, more users than we might have historically and just give us a good competitive advantage. So that's really helping with renewals, and it's helping us gain new users at the banks.

大部分都是座位，托尼。所以我認為 - 你所看到的是我們在深部門和私人市場上所做的投資。因此，正在擴展的 FactSet 的那些新的或更新的內容集使我們能夠進入銀行的不同部分，比我們過去可能擁有的用戶更多，這給我們帶來了良好的競爭優勢。所以這真的有助於續訂，它幫助我們在銀行獲得新用戶。

Yes. Okay. Great. And Phil, you mentioned a couple of times the uncertain environment and starting to see this more challenging environment for clients. Is it the hiring that's sort of driving your comments there? Or is it this, like, slower to pull the trigger, slower sales cycle? I guess what are the things that are really going on there?

是的。好的。偉大的。菲爾，你多次提到不確定的環境，並開始看到這個對客戶更具挑戰性的環境。是招聘推動了你的評論嗎？或者是這樣的，比如，更慢地扣動扳機，更慢的銷售週期？我想那裡真正發生的事情是什麼？

Yes. A bit of both. So we're going to, I imagine, see less hiring on the buy-side. We're also -- within institutional asset management, I should say. And for the larger transformations clients are going through, we're not seeing a lot of this yet, but I imagine that some of them may be deciding to pause some of these transformations that they're going to go through. I don't think it's negotiable with them. They have to go through these transformations. So we're confident that the solutions we're providing are the right ones, but it could be as they're trying to figure out their own futures, they may be pausing on some of these larger deals.

是的。兩者兼而有之。因此，我想，我們將看到買方的招聘人數減少。我們也是——在機構資產管理中，我應該說。對於客戶正在經歷的更大的轉變，我們還沒有看到很多，但我想他們中的一些人可能決定暫停他們將要經歷的一些轉變。我認為這與他們沒有商量餘地。他們必須經歷這些轉變。因此，我們相信我們提供的解決方案是正確的，但可能是因為他們試圖弄清楚自己的未來，他們可能會暫停其中一些較大的交易。

And our next question comes 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·布萊爾的台詞。

I first wanted to just follow up on Toni's question and just ask if you're seeing any difference in terms of kind of end market health on a regional basis. There was obviously some disparate growth between the different regions, but just curious if your comments are pretty uniform across geographies or if there's anything to call out on a region-by-region basis.

我首先想跟進 Toni 的問題，並詢問您是否發現區域終端市場健康狀況有任何差異。不同地區之間顯然存在一些不同的增長，但只是想知道您的評論是否在不同地區非常一致，或者是否有任何需要逐個地區提出的意見。

Say that pretty uniform, Andrew. Europe did have an exceptionally strong quarter this quarter. But as I look out into the next 6 months, there are different puts and takes there by region. Asia looks a little bit stronger, frankly, for the next 6 months maybe than the Americas and EMEA, but I wouldn't say that there's any one region that's dramatically different than others.

說那件漂亮的製服，安德魯。歐洲本季度確實表現異常強勁。但當我展望未來 6 個月時，各地區會有不同的看跌期權和看跌期權。坦率地說，在接下來的 6 個月裡，亞洲看起來可能比美洲和 EMEA 更強大一些，但我不會說有任何一個地區與其他地區截然不同。

In terms of where we might see more effects from recession, I would imagine that Europe just generally might get hit harder than other regions. But we don't see a lot of impact from that yet.

就我們可能會看到衰退的更多影響而言，我認為歐洲通常可能比其他地區受到更嚴重的打擊。但我們還沒有看到太多影響。

Got it. And then for my follow-up, I wanted to ask about the digital strategy. I know you hired a new CTO, Kate Stepp, half a year ago. Wondering if there are any major takeaways from her involvement with the strategy. It sounds like you're restructuring the cloud budget, and that's going to result in some cost savings. Any more color on what's happening under the hood there, that would be great.

知道了。然後對於我的後續行動，我想問一下數字戰略。我知道你半年前聘請了一位新的首席技術官 Kate Stepp。想知道她參與該戰略是否有任何重大收穫。聽起來您正在重組雲預算，這將節省一些成本。任何關於引擎蓋下發生的事情的更多顏色，那就太好了。

We've been spending a lot of time with Kate.

我們花了很多時間和凱特在一起。

Yes. First of all, Andrew, Kate has been with the company for quite a number of years. So she has changed position, but she's not a new hire. What we did was we sat down and we looked at the cloud budget, and we concluded that not everything needs to be on the cloud. So we have kicked up our CapEx, as I said, in the housekeeping. And we are looking to move a few items back into data centers. We've had to buy some new servers, things like that. But we think the long-term balance for the company is better with some on-premise computing, core capability as well as cloud capability. So we've rebalanced that. Over the next 5 years, we'll save $20 million with that change. We'll save $7 million this year, which is very helpful. But again, it's just a rebalancing of what we're doing with the cloud versus on-premise computing. And Kate has been very helpful as we thought through what we want to do with the technology budget. So I hope that helps you.

是的。首先，安德魯，凱特已經在公司工作了很多年。所以她換了職位，但她不是新員工。我們所做的是坐下來查看雲預算，並得出結論，並非所有東西都需要放在雲端。因此，正如我所說，我們在客房服務方面提高了資本支出。我們正在尋求將一些項目移回數據中心。我們不得不購買一些新服務器，諸如此類。但我們認為，通過一些本地計算、核心能力和雲能力，公司的長期平衡會更好。所以我們重新平衡了這一點。在接下來的 5 年裡，我們將通過這一改變節省 2000 萬美元。今年我們將節省 700 萬美元，這非常有幫助。但同樣，這只是我們在雲計算和本地計算方面所做工作的重新平衡。在我們考慮如何處理技術預算時，凱特提供了很大幫助。所以我希望這對你有幫助。

And our next question comes from the line of Ashish Sabadra with RBC Capital Markets.

我們的下一個問題來自 RBC Capital Markets 的 Ashish Sabadra。

This is John, filling for Ashish. Maybe just quickly on the people costs. It seems like headcount is up around 7% over the last 12 months, really focused in content, Analytics & Trading and sales. Could you maybe talk about any potential benefits you're seeing on just hiring technology talent as well as just the people bucket as a whole?

這是 John，正在為 Ashish 填補空缺。也許很快就可以降低人員成本。在過去的 12 個月裡，員工人數似乎增加了 7% 左右，真正專注於內容、分析和交易以及銷售。您能否談談您在僱用技術人才以及整個人員桶方面看到的任何潛在好處？

I'll start. I'm sure Linda will have some comments. So this is a great market for talent, frankly. And we've been very successful at hiring, who we wanted to hire over the last few months, and attrition has come down. So Linda and I are watching this day to day. We want to be careful that we're not running hot here. But we do have an opportunity here to continue to upgrade our talent and lean in and continue to invest. So we're hopeful, right, that we don't have to kind of slam on the brakes too hard here from a talent standpoint. But as we've done in previous cycles, if you're able to keep investing and not go through too much pain on the people side, it definitely helps you in the long run.

我會開始。我相信 Linda 會有一些意見。所以坦率地說，這是一個巨大的人才市場。我們在招聘方面非常成功，過去幾個月我們想招聘的人，而且人員流失率已經下降。所以琳達和我每天都在關注這一點。我們要小心，不要讓我們在這裡過熱。但我們確實有機會在這裡繼續提升我們的人才，依靠並繼續投資。所以我們很有希望，對吧，從人才的角度來看，我們不必在這裡猛踩剎車。但正如我們在之前的周期中所做的那樣，如果你能夠繼續投資並且不會在人員方面經歷太多痛苦，那麼從長遠來看它肯定會對你有所幫助。

Yes. As Phil said, John, we're watching headcount day by day. It's very important that we get that right and not run too hot. As Phil said, our attrition has come down very nicely. Some of that is the result of the market being a little bit more employer-friendly and some of the moves we made in our compensation last year to make sure that we're rewarding our people and our high performers appropriately. So we got that right.

是的。正如菲爾所說，約翰，我們每天都在關注人數。重要的是我們要做到這一點，不要太熱。正如菲爾所說，我們的流失率下降得非常好。部分原因是市場對雇主更加友好，以及我們去年在薪酬方面採取的一些舉措，以確保我們適當地獎勵我們的員工和高績效員工。所以我們做對了。

You're right, we have increased headcount quarter-over-quarter for the first quarter. About 65% of that headcount is in centers of excellence, so our lower cost locations. And we've been very careful about bringing on that headcount largely to support our deep sector effort, which we've talked about before, to help with the sales effort and to assist with Analytics & Trading. So, so far, so good, but the trends are attrition down, and hiring has to be sized accordingly to make sure we don't get out over our skis. But we're seeing a much healthier retention picture than we did at this time last year, which is a really nice thing. So hope that gives you a bit more clarity.

沒錯，第一季度我們的員工人數環比增加。大約 65% 的員工在卓越中心，因此我們的成本較低。我們一直非常謹慎地增加員工人數，主要是為了支持我們之前討論過的深入部門努力，以幫助銷售工作並協助分析和交易。所以，到目前為止，一切都很好，但趨勢正在減少，必須相應地調整招聘規模，以確保我們不會失控。但我們看到了比去年這個時候更健康的保留情況，這真是一件好事。所以希望這能讓你更清楚一點。

Yes. That's great color. And maybe quickly, could you just talk about the wealth pipeline and maybe if there's been any change in tone around client conversations as well as the sales cycle?

是的。那是很棒的顏色。也許很快，你能不能談談財富管道，也許圍繞客戶對話和銷售週期的語氣是否有任何變化？

Yes. The wealth pipeline continues to be healthy. We have a good mix of larger deals that we continue to work. And in terms of markets, that's one of the markets where we just feel like in the long run, we've got just such a great opportunity and more tailwinds.

是的。財富管道繼續保持健康。我們有很多大型交易，我們會繼續努力。就市場而言，從長遠來看，這是我們感覺的市場之一，我們擁有如此巨大的機會和更多的順風。

And our next question comes 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。

Just coming back to what you're seeing in different client segments or regional. Can you also expand your comments on the pricing side? Is it pretty uniform? Any sort of pushback you're getting? One of the things that we've heard, for example, is in Europe with all the FX changes year-over-year. Asking them for more when -- in dollar terms, when the currency has devalued so much over the last year is increasingly harder. So just curious if there's anything you would call on, on pricing by customer set or region.

只是回到您在不同客戶群或區域中看到的內容。您還可以擴展您對定價方面的評論嗎？是不是很統一？你遇到什麼阻力了嗎？例如，我們聽到的一件事是在歐洲，所有外匯都在逐年變化。當貨幣在去年貶值如此之多時，要求他們提供更多——以美元計算，這變得越來越困難。所以只是好奇您是否有任何要求，按客戶群或地區定價。

Nothing I'd call out yet, Alex. So similar to last year, not a lot of conversations have reached my desk, which is a good sign in terms of how the conversations are going. And as I said, it's very hard for clients to argue with the value that FactSet has put into the product. So my sense is that clients are understanding this. Everyone's seeing it everywhere in terms of inflation. And we're coming in, I believe, at a very moderate place relative to what clients may be seeing from other providers, which gives us a great opportunity to capture more market share. We've certainly gotten some inbound opportunities as a result of that, for sure.

我還沒有說什麼，亞歷克斯。與去年非常相似，沒有太多對話到達我的辦公桌，就對話的進展情況而言，這是一個好兆頭。正如我所說，客戶很難對 FactSet 賦予產品的價值提出異議。所以我的感覺是客戶正在理解這一點。就通貨膨脹而言，每個人都無處不在。我相信，相對於客戶可能從其他供應商那裡看到的情況，我們正在進入一個非常適中的位置，這為我們提供了獲得更多市場份額的絕佳機會。我們當然因此獲得了一些入站機會，這是肯定的。

That's helpful. And then maybe just one follow-up on the wealth side. And this may be too much in the weeds, but you called out in your press release the Model Center launch, which I think was at the beginning of November. Sounds to me like when I look at what you're describing here that this is something very much like a shelf, like -- something like an Envestnet has, for example. So my question is, a, can you talk about the revenue model in that business? Again, it's obviously very early days. But then is this a sign of you really expanding the scope of the workflows you want to order -- offer the wealth segment versus just obviously repurposing FactSet terminal or other services to wealth, but really getting deeper into that end market? And maybe talk about some of the things you envision yourself doing that you're not doing today.

這很有幫助。然後也許只是財富方面的後續行動。這可能在雜草中太多了，但你在新聞稿中提到了模型中心的發布，我認為這是在 11 月初。在我看來，當我看到你在這裡描述的內容時，這很像一個架子，就像 - 例如 Envestnet 的東西。所以我的問題是，a，你能談談該業務的收入模式嗎？同樣，這顯然還為時過早。但這是否表明你真的在擴展你想要訂購的工作流程的範圍——提供財富細分市場，而不是顯然將 FactSet 終端或其他服務重新用於財富，但真正深入到該終端市場？也許談談你設想自己做的一些你今天沒有做的事情。

Yes. It is absolutely a sign of that, Alex, and consistent across the other firm types that we're servicing. So FactSet is continuing to push beyond being just a workstation company. We've gone way beyond that already. But we're giving a lot of thought to, within each client type, what adjacencies can we get into. And as we open up the platform and work with other partners, what more can we do for clients.

是的。這絕對是一個跡象，亞歷克斯，並且在我們服務的其他公司類型中保持一致。因此，FactSet 正在繼續超越僅僅是一家工作站公司。我們已經超越了這一點。但我們正在考慮，在每種客戶端類型中，我們可以進入哪些鄰接關係。隨著我們開放平台並與其他合作夥伴合作，我們還能為客戶做些什麼。

Wealth is a relatively newer firm type for us, so there's a lot more, I think, room for us to expand than some other firm types where we're more well established. That's probably a good follow-up with Kendra later in terms of the detail on the model. It's probably a little bit too much detail for this call. And if you want to have a follow-up with our wealth team, I'm sure they'd be very happy to talk to you about what they're doing there.

Wealth 對我們來說是一種相對較新的公司類型，所以我認為，與其他一些我們更成熟的公司類型相比，我們有更多的擴展空間。就模型的細節而言，這可能是 Kendra 稍後的一個很好的跟進。這個電話可能有點太多細節了。如果你想跟進我們的財富團隊，我相信他們會很樂意和你談談他們在那裡所做的事情。

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

我們的下一個問題來自 George Tong 與高盛的對話。

You noticed that clients are pausing on larger deals. Are there any large deals coming up for renewal this fiscal year or any competitive large RFPs that you're involved in?

您注意到客戶正在暫停更大的交易。本財政年度是否有任何大型交易即將續約或您參與的任何具有競爭力的大型 RFP？

There are -- George, thanks for the question. There are deals like that every year. So I think this year -- and Kendra can -- or Linda can get into this later if we need to. But I believe there are less large renewals this year than we might have seen in previous years. So there are definitely a couple. And there are a couple of very interesting deals that we're working on that are larger in Q2 and Q3 and Q4 for this year, some sell-side related, some partner deals.

喬治，謝謝你提出這個問題。每年都有這樣的交易。所以我認為今年——Kendra 可以——或者如果我們需要的話，Linda 可以稍後再討論這個問題。但我相信今年的大更新比往年要少。所以肯定有一對。我們正在處理一些非常有趣的交易，這些交易在今年第二季度、第三季度和第四季度規模更大，一些與賣方相關，一些與合作夥伴交易。

Got it. And secondly, you mentioned you're seeing longer sales cycles, a little bit slower hiring. Can you talk a bit about what you're seeing with overall client enterprise budgets, the direction that those are moving in?

知道了。其次，你提到你看到銷售週期更長，招聘速度有點慢。你能談談你對整體客戶企業預算的看法，以及這些預算的發展方向嗎？

Yes. So I said these are things that we're watching out for. We're not seeing a lot of them yet, right? So there are indications that it may be happening. And again, we're -- I don't know if you saw that Financial Times article, which was a good one, that came out a few weeks ago, but it was an article -- I think it was titled, Asset Managers Pour Money Into Technology Platforms, and really speaks to the investment that a lot of the -- a lot of asset managers are having to make to be competitive. And this plays really well into FactSet's hands in terms of all the work that we've done on the PLC, all the work we've done to open the platform, all the work that we're doing with partners in the space, some of which we've been public about, some of which we haven't. So these transformations are not going to stop then Clients are not going to completely cancel these. It's just a question of the pace at which they go. But overall, I'm very optimistic about our position in the marketplace for these deals and our ability to execute.

是的。所以我說這些是我們要注意的事情。我們還沒有看到很多，對吧？所以有跡象表明它可能正在發生。再一次，我們——我不知道你是否看到了幾週前發表的《金融時報》那篇很好的文章，但它是一篇文章——我想它的標題是，資產經理將資金投入技術平台，並真正說明了很多 - 許多資產管理者必須進行的投資才能具有競爭力。就我們在 PLC 上所做的所有工作、我們為開放平台所做的所有工作、我們與該領域的合作夥伴所做的所有工作、一些其中我們已經公開，其中一些我們還沒有。所以這些轉變不會停止，那麼客戶就不會完全取消這些轉變。這只是他們前進速度的問題。但總的來說，我對我們在這些交易的市場地位和我們的執行能力非常樂觀。

And our next question comes from the line of Craig Huber with Huber Research.

我們的下一個問題來自 Huber Research 的 Craig Huber。

First question, can you just comment some more on the marketplace, the traditional buy-side out there? Just talk a little more specifically about the pressure points maybe that might be building there, the longer potential sales cycles? Just what's going on with that traditional part of your legacy business? I'll start there.

第一個問題，你能再評論一下市場，傳統的買方嗎？只是更具體地談談可能在那裡建立的壓力點，潛在的銷售週期越長？您遺留業務的傳統部分到底發生了什麼？我將從那裡開始。

Yes. So overall, it's pretty healthy, Craig. So we -- there's less hiring than there was last year, but I don't believe it's down significantly. The buy-side number that you see in our press release has a lot of components to it. So maybe it's helpful to sort of go through that so everyone understands what we're looking at. The 2 firm types where we're seeing the most headwinds now and less revenue than last year are corporates. So we did add a number of corporates this year. They make up a good part of the new firm creation for the quarter, but it's a lot less than it was in the prior year. And we had a really lumpy quarter with partners. So that's some of what -- that's what's in the buy-side number that you're seeing.

是的。所以總的來說，它非常健康，克雷格。所以我們——招聘人數比去年少，但我認為下降幅度不大。您在我們的新聞稿中看到的買方數字有很多組成部分。因此，通過這種方式可能會有所幫助，這樣每個人都可以理解我們正在研究的內容。我們現在看到的最不利因素和收入低於去年的兩種公司類型是公司。所以我們今年確實增加了一些公司。他們佔本季度新公司創建的很大一部分，但比去年少了很多。我們與合作夥伴度過了一個非常坎坷的季度。所以這就是一些 - 這就是你所看到的買方數字中的內容。

Above that, I would say that institutional asset management, hedge funds and wealth are all kind of a little bit less than last year or on par with last year in terms of what we're seeing in the environment. And on the plus side, asset owners are doing exceptionally well. So asset owners typically have a much longer view, and we're crushing it in asset owners versus last year. So that's very encouraging in terms of the work that we're doing there on the PLC and working with partners. And we're seeing great adoption of multi-asset class, solutions from the asset owners, and we're seeing positive signs on the fixed income side. So -- but hopefully, that's helpful in terms of thinking about the overall buy-side number that we give you.

除此之外，我想說的是，就我們在環境中看到的情況而言，機構資產管理、對沖基金和財富都比去年少一點或與去年持平。從好的方面來看，資產所有者的表現非常出色。因此，資產所有者通常有更長遠的眼光，與去年相比，我們在資產所有者中壓倒了它。因此，就我們在 PLC 上所做的工作以及與合作夥伴的合作而言，這是非常令人鼓舞的。我們看到資產所有者對多資產類別和解決方案的廣泛採用，我們在固定收益方面看到了積極跡象。所以 - 但希望這有助於考慮我們為您提供的總體買方數量。

Okay. And then, Linda, if I could ask on the cost side of things. I'm scratching my head a little bit here. Your fiscal fourth quarter costs were meaningfully higher than the third quarter costs or the quarter you guys just finished here by roughly $30 million if you take out the various onetime items and stuff. I know you've called out last time we spoke on this that about, say, an extra $6 million or so was incentive compensation in August quarter versus the May quarter. But then the total cost here in the November quarter in a good way fell back down to the May levels and stuff from last year and stuff. The lumpiness here of the cost, maybe you could just talk about that, maybe just a little more specific about how we should think, model out the costs for the rest of the year versus this lower number in the first quarter.

好的。然後，琳達，我是否可以問一下事情的成本方面。我在這裡有點撓頭。如果你去掉各種一次性項目和東西，你第四季度的財務成本明顯高於第三季度成本或你們剛剛在這裡結束的季度大約 3000 萬美元。我知道上次我們談到這個問題時你已經大聲疾呼，比方說，8 月季度與 5 月季度相比額外增加了 600 萬美元左右的激勵薪酬。但隨後 11 月季度這裡的總成本以一種好的方式回落到 5 月的水平和去年的水平等等。這裡成本的波動，也許你可以談談這個，也許只是更具體一點，我們應該如何思考，模擬今年剩餘時間的成本與第一季度的較低數字。

Yes. Thanks for that, Craig. And your observations are correct. In the fourth quarter, we really worked hard to ensure that we had compensation right. So you saw a couple of things. You saw a merit pool, which was stronger than usual to deal with inflationary adjustments in a number of countries and the U.S. You also saw bonuses, which were quite fulsome because we had a very strong FY '22. And then you saw that we also worked harder on equity, and equity-based compensation moved up as well in FY '22. So the goal there, while we were running strong, was to make sure we had a compensation picture correct for our employees coming off the great resignation.

是的。謝謝你，克雷格。而且你的觀察是正確的。在第四季度，我們真的很努力地確保我們得到了正確的補償。所以你看到了幾件事。你看到了一個績效池，它比平時更強大，可以應對許多國家和美國的通貨膨脹調整。你還看到了獎金，這非常豐厚，因為我們有一個非常強勁的 22 財年。然後你看到我們也在股權方面更加努力，基於股權的薪酬在 22 財年也有所上升。因此，我們的目標是，在我們運行良好的同時，確保我們的員工有一個正確的薪酬方案，以應對大辭職。

So as we move forward into this year, we're watching our costs very carefully. The entire situation has shifted, Craig, to one of conservatism around costs. I talked about our 3 buckets that are going well and are nicely controlled. I think the place where we watch here very closely is our people bucket, which includes both headcount and compensation costs. So we're watching those very, very carefully, as Phil said.

因此，隨著我們進入今年，我們正在非常仔細地觀察我們的成本。克雷格，整個情況已經轉變為一種圍繞成本的保守主義。我談到了我們的 3 個水桶，它們運行良好並且控制得很好。我認為我們在這裡非常密切關注的地方是我們的人員桶，其中包括員工人數和薪酬成本。正如 Phil 所說，我們正在非常、非常仔細地觀察它們。

A couple of things to notice on the revenue side for the first quarter. Last year, we had a record ASV level in Q1. That was about $17 million. This year, we're running at about half of that. So the timing change matters to us in terms of how the revenue comes through later in the year. So that makes my job just that much more exciting to make sure that we're managing correctly for the margin. So we're doing that.

第一季度的收入方面需要注意幾件事。去年，我們在第一季度創下了創紀錄的 ASV 水平。那大約是1700萬美元。今年，我們的運行速度約為一半。因此，就今年晚些時候的收入如何實現而言，時間變化對我們很重要。因此，這讓我的工作更加令人興奮，以確保我們正確地管理利潤。所以我們正在這樣做。

The other thing, Craig, to take a look at is the dollar had been very strong. Recently, the dollar has been retracing about 1/3 of that strength. So we have to be careful on the impacts of the later ASV, on timing and the conversion to revenue. And then we also have to be careful on what's happening with FX, which has been unusually bouncy as we have moved through the last couple of quarters. So hope that helps, but we've got an eagle eye on those cost buckets. And we did pretty nicely managing them in the first quarter. I'm happy to have the 38.3% margin in the bank, and that will help us as we move through the rest of the year. So prudence is the name of the game here. Hope that helps.

克雷格，要注意的另一件事是美元一直非常堅挺。最近，美元已經回撤了該強勢的大約 1/3。因此，我們必須注意後期 ASV 對時間和收入轉換的影響。然後我們還必須注意 FX 的情況，在過去幾個季度中，外匯異常活躍。所以希望這會有所幫助，但我們對這些成本桶有著敏銳的洞察力。我們在第一季度很好地管理了它們。我很高興銀行有 38.3% 的保證金，這將幫助我們度過今年餘下的時間。所以謹慎是這裡的遊戲名稱。希望有所幫助。

And our next question comes from the line of Faiza Alwy with Deutsche Bank.

我們的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的 Faiza Alwy。

So I wanted to ask about the competitive environment. Over the last several years, my perception is that you've gained share as some of your competitors have been busy integrating deals, and you've been investing. But it looks like there's now new products that they're rolling out. So I'm curious as we head into a potentially more challenging environment, how would you characterize your competitive positioning across your various products?

所以想問一下競爭環境。在過去的幾年裡，我的看法是你已經獲得了份額，因為你的一些競爭對手一直在忙於整合交易，而你一直在投資。但看起來他們現在正在推出新產品。所以我很好奇，當我們進入一個可能更具挑戰性的環境時，您如何描述您在各種產品中的競爭定位？

Faiza, thanks for the question. I'd characterize it as being exceptionally strong. If you just start with the FactSet workstation, all of the investments we've made in content are in there as well as we've really upgraded a lot of the applications that our clients use in terms of ease of use, searchability, alerting clients. So you see that reflected, frankly, in our workstation numbers across a number of firm types, and that's grown significantly over the last 5 years.

Faiza，謝謝你的提問。我認為它非常強大。如果您只是從 FactSet 工作站開始，我們在內容方面所做的所有投資都在那裡，而且我們已經在易用性、可搜索性和提醒客戶方面真正升級了客戶使用的許多應用程序.所以你看到，坦率地說，我們的工作站數量反映了許多公司類型，並且在過去 5 年中顯著增長。

On the analytics front, we continue to do great things with the portfolio life cycle and work with asset servicers and other partners in the space to go in and really be the core of -- or anchor partner for our clients in terms of what they want to achieve from the back, middle to front offices. So that -- there's a lot of runway for that, frankly.

在分析方面，我們繼續在投資組合生命週期方面做一些偉大的事情，並與該領域的資產服務商和其他合作夥伴合作，真正成為我們客戶的核心——或錨定合作夥伴，滿足他們的需求實現從後台、中台到前台。所以 - 坦率地說，有很多跑道。

The market is looking for accretive solutions. They're looking for companies that are ahead in terms of technology and innovation, and FactSet checks all those boxes. And on the CTS front, we've done a lot to expand that product suite. One of the things we're very excited about is real time. That's a pretty small piece of CTS today, but there's billions of dollars of market share out there on the real-time space.

市場正在尋找增值解決方案。他們正在尋找在技術和創新方面處於領先地位的公司，而 FactSet 滿足了所有這些要求。在 CTS 方面，我們做了很多工作來擴展該產品套件。我們非常興奮的一件事是實時性。這在今天的 CTS 中只是很小的一部分，但在實時領域卻有數十億美元的市場份額。

You might have seen that we made a recent investment in BMLL, which is a very good tick history product, which you need to do -- you need to complement real time. So this is an area of great opportunities. So there's just more and more ways we can help our clients. And the investment we've made over the last 3 years and continue to invest really put us in good stead.

您可能已經看到我們最近對 BMLL 進行了投資，這是一個非常好的即時報價歷史產品，您需要這樣做——您需要補充實時性。所以這是一個充滿機遇的領域。因此，我們可以通過越來越多的方式幫助客戶。我們在過去 3 年中所做的投資以及繼續投資確實讓我們處於有利地位。

And I'd be remiss not to sort of mention the FactSet relationships that we have with our clients. Many of our clients are trusted partners. They've been with us for a long time. And this is the type of environment, frankly, where they need help. And we've been there for them in the past, and we'll be there for them in the future. So I feel as good, frankly, is about our competitive position as I have in almost my entire 10-year at FactSet.

如果不提及我們與客戶之間的 FactSet 關係，我會失職。我們的許多客戶都是值得信賴的合作夥伴。他們已經和我們在一起很長時間了。坦率地說，這就是他們需要幫助的環境。我們過去一直為他們服務，將來我們也會為他們服務。因此，坦率地說，我對我們在 FactSet 幾乎整個 10 年的競爭地位感到滿意。

Great. And then just as a follow-up, wanted to ask about capital allocation and the interest expense guide that you provided, Linda. Just want to confirm, are you assuming sort of no further debt paydown? Because I think you raised the interest expense guide, and I understand that rates are a little bit higher, but I feel like you've also been paying down debt. So just wanted to clarify sort of any assumptions behind that guide.

偉大的。然後作為後續行動，想問一下你提供的資本配置和利息支出指南，琳達。只是想確認一下，您是否假設沒有進一步償還債務？因為我認為你提高了利息支出指南，而且我知道利率有點高，但我覺得你也一直在償還債務。所以只是想澄清一下該指南背後的任何假設。

Yes. Faiza, I think we mentioned this a bit in the script. So let's talk about our leverage levels and go back and think about that. So when we purchased CUSIP, our gross leverage level went up to 3.9x. We've made a number of paydowns of $125 million basically per quarter. Now our gross leverage ratio is 2.7x. We're looking to get back within what would be considered typical for our level of investment grade rating, which is 2.5x to 2x. So we have one more payment to make, which is what is anticipated to get inside that leverage level. And then we may not continue at the exact same pace of pay down prepayment on that term loan as we had done before.

是的。 Faiza，我想我們在劇本中提到過這一點。因此，讓我們談談我們的槓桿水平，然後回過頭來考慮一下。因此，當我們購買 CUSIP 時，我們的總槓桿水平上升到 3.9 倍。我們基本上每個季度支付了 1.25 億美元的款項。現在我們的總槓桿率為 2.7 倍。我們希望回到我們的投資等級評級水平的典型範圍內，即 2.5 倍至 2 倍。因此，我們還有一筆付款要支付，這是預計會達到該槓桿水平的金額。然後我們可能不會像以前那樣繼續以完全相同的速度支付該定期貸款的預付款。

At that point, we're going to speak to the rating agencies, be clear to resume our share buybacks. And we'll think about what we want to do with that. The remaining Board authorization -- I want to be crystal clear here -- authorization is $181 million. That doesn't mean that's what we're going to spend. That means that's what the authorization is. So you can note that. And we're going to think about what we want to do with this after we have those conversations.

到那時，我們將與評級機構交談，明確恢復我們的股票回購。我們會考慮我們想用它做什麼。剩餘的董事會授權——我想在這裡非常清楚——授權是 1.81 億美元。這並不意味著那是我們要花的錢。這意味著這就是授權。所以你可以注意到這一點。在我們進行這些對話之後，我們將考慮我們想用它做什麼。

So the interest expense presumes all those things that I had mentioned. And if we do get back into the share repurchase market, please note that's going to be back-end loaded. And it won't move the average share count all that much for FY '23 as a whole. It will be helpful as we move into FY '24. So hope that, that gives you all the detail that you need, Faiza.

因此，利息支出假設了我提到的所有這些事情。如果我們真的回到股票回購市場，請注意這將是後端加載的。而且它不會將整個 23 財年的平均股票數量移動那麼多。當我們進入 24 財年時，這將很有幫助。希望這能為您提供所需的所有詳細信息，Faiza。

And our next question comes from the line of Kevin McVeigh with Credit Suisse.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的 Kevin McVeigh。

I just want to circle back. On the downturn playbook -- very helpful. Of the $24 million to $36 million, can you tell us how much you've implemented? Like is it 1/3? And then the $7 million this year is obviously incremental, Linda. Is that right? I just want to make sure -- I think you've -- just want to make sure I heard the comments right.

我只想繞回來。關於經濟低迷的劇本——非常有幫助。在 2400 萬到 3600 萬美元中，您能告訴我們您實施了多少嗎？好像是1/3？然後今年的 700 萬美元顯然是增量的，琳達。那正確嗎？我只是想確定——我想你已經——只是想確保我聽到了正確的意見。

Yes. I think it'd be good, Kevin, to think about sort of the midpoint of that amount. And I think it'd be fair to say we've probably implemented about 1/3. We're taking a close look at what we want to do with T&E because, obviously, the top line is paramount here, and we've got to get that right. So we're looking at some of the other things that we need to do mostly around people. We're being extremely cautious on new hires, as we had said. And we'll see what happens with the bonus line.

是的。凱文，我認為最好考慮一下這個數額的中點。我認為可以公平地說我們可能已經實施了大約 1/3。我們正在仔細研究我們想用 T&E 做什麼，因為顯然，頂線在這裡是最重要的，我們必須把它做好。因此，我們正在研究其他一些我們需要做的主要圍繞人的事情。正如我們所說，我們對新員工非常謹慎。我們將看看獎金線會發生什麼。

It's too hard -- too difficult to tell at the end of the first quarter how that will lay out. Just to be clear, the bonus line, we are expecting, as I had said in the housekeeping section, about $100 million. We have booked about 24 for the first quarter. Generally, that number's ramped up a bit as we move through the year. So maybe you go from 24 to 26 in the fourth quarter if things play out the way that they have in previous years. That's a question mark. So we'll think about what happens with that.

這太難了——很難在第一季度末說出結果如何。需要明確的是，正如我在內務管理部分所說，我們預計獎金線約為 1 億美元。第一季度我們已經預訂了大約 24 個。一般來說，這個數字隨著我們一年的推移而有所增加。所以如果事情像前幾年那樣發展的話，你可能會在第四節從 24 分上升到 26 分。這是一個問號。所以我們會考慮會發生什麼。

If we don't do as well as we expect and the center point of our guidance matches what our bonus targets are, there's -- it's all very clear cut. If we come in light, perhaps our bonus line comes down by $10 million, which would save about another 1/3. But it's way too early to talk about that right now. So the solution is to make sure we've got it right in terms of the pace of hiring, keep that focus on the technology budget. And we're going to take another pass through our real estate footprint, probably as we get towards the fourth quarter. Any change we make in that real estate footprint, though, the expense saves will be something we'll see in FY '24. For the most part, it will come in later in fiscal year '23. So not going to be of too much help to us in that bucket. But as I said before, eagle eye on all these buckets, and we've got to support growing the top line.

如果我們做得不如預期，並且我們指導的中心點與我們的獎金目標相匹配，那麼 - 這一切都非常明確。如果我們曝光，也許我們的獎金線會減少 1000 萬美元，這將再節省大約 1/3。但現在談這個還為時過早。因此，解決方案是確保我們在招聘步伐方面做得對，將重點放在技術預算上。我們將再次檢查我們的房地產足跡，可能是在我們進入第四季度時。不過，我們在房地產足跡上所做的任何改變，我們將在 24 財年看到節省的費用。在大多數情況下，它將在 23 財年晚些時候推出。因此，在那個桶中不會對我們有太大幫助。但正如我之前所說，鷹眼注視著所有這些水桶，我們必須支持增加收入。

Our second and third quarter pipelines look even better than last year, as Phil had said. Just want to reemphasize that. So mainly, we've had a bit of a timing shift. So we're dealing with that and making sure we're matching the costs accordingly. So I hope that's helpful, Kevin.

正如菲爾所說，我們的第二和第三季度管道看起來比去年更好。只是想再次強調這一點。所以主要是，我們有一些時間上的轉變。所以我們正在處理這個問題，並確保我們相應地匹配成本。所以我希望這對您有所幫助，凱文。

Very, very helpful. And then just a quick follow-up. I know you talked about the centers of excellence. Is there any way to think about how to kind of the current employee footprint is today and where you think that can get to over time?

非常非常有幫助。然後只是快速跟進。我知道你談到了卓越中心。有什麼方法可以考慮當前員工足蹟的類型以及您認為隨著時間的推移可以到達哪裡？

Kevin, it's Phil. So are you talking about where the talent is located?

凱文，我是菲爾。那麼你是在談論人才所在的地方嗎？

Yes.

是的。

Yes. So the last few years have been very interesting, right, from a talent standpoint. We've learned a lot. We've taken the approach of having a hybrid work environment, which is why Linda is talking to you about real estate expense. So we do have more options globally. We have very good centers of excellence in India and the Philippines. Those continue to crank. But as we move forward, we want to make sure that we're -- we have the very best talent we can globally and that we're exploring all of our opportunities there. So we've made some moves actually to make it possible for us to hire employees in more locations if we needed to. And that's a piece of work that we're in the middle of right now.

是的。所以過去幾年非常有趣，對吧，從人才的角度來看。我們學到了很多。我們採用了混合工作環境的方法，這就是琳達與您談論房地產費用的原因。所以我們在全球範圍內確實有更多選擇。我們在印度和菲律賓有非常好的卓越中心。那些繼續曲柄。但隨著我們向前邁進，我們希望確保我們 - 我們擁有全球最優秀的人才，並且我們正在探索那裡的所有機會。因此，我們實際上採取了一些措施，使我們能夠在需要時在更多地點僱用員工。這是我們目前正在進行的一項工作。

And our next question comes from the line of Stephanie Moore with Jefferies.

我們的下一個問題來自 Stephanie Moore 與 Jefferies 的合作。

This is Hans Hoffman on for Stephanie. So for my first question, given you guys sort of noted sort of a more challenging environment, could you just update us on what you're seeing in terms of client cancellation trends?

這是斯蒂芬妮的漢斯霍夫曼。所以對於我的第一個問題，鑑於你們有點注意到更具挑戰性的環境，你能否向我們介紹一下你在客戶取消趨勢方面看到的情況？

Well, so far, it's been okay. And we're just being cautious as we go into the year, and clients are finalizing their budgets. You can see in the press release that we're net positive on users, and we're net positive on funds. So we're continuing to grow our business. The numbers are down from last year in terms of absolute numbers, but we're not seeing, like, a lot of panic out there in the client base, and we're seeing that we're very competitive. So we're -- I want to emphasize that these are signs we're looking for. We're managing our business well, but we're -- we feel really good about our ability to execute no matter what the market environment is. And FactSet has a strong history of that, as you all know.

好吧，到目前為止，一切都還好。我們只是在進入這一年時保持謹慎，客戶正在最終確定他們的預算。你可以在新聞稿中看到我們對用戶持淨積極態度，我們對資金持淨積極態度。因此，我們將繼續發展我們的業務。就絕對數字而言，這些數字比去年有所下降，但我們並沒有看到客戶群中有很多恐慌，而且我們看到我們非常有競爭力。所以我們——我想強調這些是我們正在尋找的跡象。我們的業務管理得很好，但無論市場環境如何，我們都對自己的執行能力感到非常滿意。眾所周知，FactSet 在這方面有著悠久的歷史。

Got it. That's helpful. And then just for my follow-up, could you just talk a bit about where you sort of see the biggest opportunity in the sort of next stage of investment in technology and content?

知道了。這很有幫助。然後就我的後續行動而言，您能否談談您認為下一階段技術和內容投資中最大的機會在哪裡？

There's a great opportunity given that we've opened up the platform. So we've done some press releases about partnerships we have, but really taking all of the components of FactSet and going in and being the anchor partner for the very largest firms is a big opportunity. When you look at the buy-side institutional asset management, we're doing very well in what we call our premier book. So our premier book also extends to the sell-side, but it's close to our top 100 clients. And that client base is doing actually very well on a relative basis to last year. So some of the weakness that we might see has to do more with smaller firms, in the middle markets, and I think less small firms getting created or potentially some firms going out of business.

鑑於我們已經開放了平台，這是一個很好的機會。因此，我們已經發布了一些關於我們擁有的合作夥伴關係的新聞稿，但真正採用 FactSet 的所有組件並進入並成為最大公司的主要合作夥伴是一個巨大的機會。當您查看買方機構資產管理時，我們在所謂的首要書籍中做得非常好。所以我們的首要書籍也延伸到賣方，但它接近我們的前 100 名客戶。與去年相比，該客戶群實際上做得很好。因此，我們可能看到的一些弱點更多地與中間市場的小公司有關，我認為創建的小公司較少，或者可能有一些公司倒閉。

But overall, within the clients that are much larger where we have a big percentage of our ASV and a big percentage of our opportunity, we're seeing very positive signs there.

但總的來說，在我們擁有很大比例的 ASV 和很大比例的機會的更大的客戶中，我們在那裡看到了非常積極的跡象。

To add, no one has asked us about the CUSIP business to this point in the call, and I want to make sure that we're clear that we also see opportunity coming from the CUSIP business. It's not technology exactly, as the last questioner had asked. But let me just point out some interesting points on CUSIP. So we're very happy with the acquisition. We're very happy with the team. And we're very happy with our relationship with the American Bankers Association, which is going great. We were just down to see them a few weeks ago.

補充一點，到目前為止，還沒有人在電話中問過我們關於 CUSIP 業務的問題，我想確保我們清楚，我們也看到了來自 CUSIP 業務的機會。正如最後一位提問者所問的，這不完全是技術。但讓我指出一些關於 CUSIP 的有趣觀點。所以我們對這次收購非常滿意。我們對團隊非常滿意。我們對與美國銀行家協會的關係感到非常高興，這種關係進展順利。幾週前我們剛剛去看他們。

So CUSIP's growth of $48 million contributed in revenue in Q1, about $42 million of that from subscriptions and the rest from the issuance business, about $6 million, which is a little bit slower, but still really good growth in the things you don't think about like municipal bond issuances and also certificates of deposits, which have grown very dramatically as interest rates continue to grow on those types of investments for individuals. So done very well with that. Overall, 7.6% growth, and we're very pleased with that. We see more growth opportunities coming from CUSIP. The retention grew about -- contributed about 2/3 of that growth and new logos, about 1/3 of that growth.

因此，CUSIP 在第一季度貢獻了 4,800 萬美元的收入增長，其中約 4,200 萬美元來自訂閱，其餘來自發行業務，約 600 萬美元，速度稍慢一些，但在您不關注的方面仍然增長良好想想市政債券發行和存款證，隨著個人投資的利率持續上升，它們的增長非常快。所以做得很好。總體而言，增長了 7.6%，我們對此感到非常滿意。我們看到更多來自 CUSIP 的增長機會。留存率增長了大約——貢獻了增長的 2/3 和新標識，貢獻了增長的 1/3。

Now we -- as we've said before, we see very good opportunities in a couple of areas: one is expanding CUSIP to the private markets; second would be expanding CUSIP to the leveraged markets; and third, potentially as different packages of ESG, for example, carbon credits are traded, we see growth there. So CUSIP has done a really good job for us. We will lap it, as we said, the 1st of March. We come off our technical services agreement. The only blip there with CUSIP is the days sales outstanding. That has extended a bit. And as we move into the lapping on March 1, we are going to tighten up on those days sales outstanding. So hope that's helpful to everyone, our biggest acquisition to date. And we're pleased with its performance. We have one more quarter where we'll give you the details on CUSIP. After that, it is subsumed in the CTS business, as we said.

現在我們 - 正如我們之前所說，我們在幾個領域看到了非常好的機會：一個是將 CUSIP 擴展到私人市場；其次是將 CUSIP 擴展到槓桿市場；第三，可能作為不同的 ESG 一攬子交易，例如，碳信用額的交易，我們看到了那裡的增長。所以 CUSIP 為我們做了非常好的工作。正如我們所說，我們將在 3 月 1 日對它進行測試。我們脫離了我們的技術服務協議。 CUSIP 的唯一亮點是銷售天數。那已經擴展了一點。當我們進入 3 月 1 日的包裝時，我們將收緊那些日子的銷售量。所以希望這對每個人都有幫助，這是我們迄今為止最大的一次收購。我們對其性能感到滿意。我們還有四分之一的時間向您提供有關 CUSIP 的詳細信息。之後，就是我們說的歸入CTS業務。

So with that, I may have front-run some of Shlomo's questions, but maybe we can move on.

因此，我可能會先行回答一些 Shlomo 的問題，但也許我們可以繼續前進。

And our next question is from Shlomo Rosenbaum with Stifel.

我們的下一個問題來自 Stifel 的 Shlomo Rosenbaum。

Yes, Linda, you absolutely did front-run the AR DSO question I was going to ask you about that, coming back up again. But I want to shift to just a little bit. Historically, the sell-side has been a lot more volatile in downturns than the buy-side. Is there any difference in the combination or the composition of what's in the sell-side right now that would lead you to believe that the case would not be the same if we end up in -- if some of the banks just decide not to hang on to people the same way? Is there some way that you would think that we wouldn't start to go -- start to see that be more of a drag on the growth as opposed to being a positive for the growth?

是的，琳達，你確實搶先了我要問你的 AR DSO 問題，然後又回來了。但我想轉移到一點點。從歷史上看，賣方在經濟低迷時期的波動性要比買方大得多。現在賣方的組合或組成是否有任何差異，這會讓你相信如果我們最終進入 - 如果一些銀行只是決定不掛起，情況就會不同以同樣的方式對人？有沒有什麼方法你會認為我們不會開始 - 開始看到它更多地拖累增長而不是對增長產生積極影響？

If there are large layoffs, Shlomo, in investment banking, that certainly would affect us, but the -- as I mentioned earlier, right, the CTS business, we're beginning to sell more than just workstations to the banks. So that's a very positive sign that there's other things we can sell them in terms of workflows and other departments we can go into. And again, the investment that we've made in content for deep sector and private markets just put us in a much stronger position and potentially open up new users for us.

如果投資銀行業務大量裁員，Shlomo，那肯定會影響我們，但是——正如我之前提到的，正確的，CTS 業務，我們開始向銀行出售的不僅僅是工作站。所以這是一個非常積極的跡象，表明我們可以在工作流程和我們可以進入的其他部門方面向他們出售其他東西。再一次，我們在深度行業和私人市場的內容上所做的投資使我們處於更有利的地位，並有可能為我們開闢新用戶。

The other thing that I haven't spoken about that's in the sell-side number is our private equity and venture capital firm type. So that's not massive, but it is growing very quickly. And over time, I expect it to be a meaningful contributor. So that is definitely something to keep an eye on. We called it out this quarter as being one of the drivers of the quarter. And as I look out into the next 6 months, it's private equity, venture capital firms, the sell-side and asset owners that look the strongest.

我沒有談到的另一件事是在賣方數字中是我們的私募股權和風險投資公司類型。所以這不是很大，但它增長非常快。隨著時間的推移，我希望它成為一個有意義的貢獻者。所以這絕對是值得關注的事情。我們將本季度稱為本季度的驅動因素之一。當我展望未來 6 個月時，看起來最強大的是私募股權、風險投資公司、賣方和資產所有者。

So I think the PE/VC and the CTS piece, in particular, are just a couple of things that will be hedged if those -- if big layoffs do occur in investment banking.

因此，我認為 PE / VC 和 CTS 部分，特別是只是一些可以對沖的東西 - 如果投資銀行確實發生大規模裁員。

Shlomo, just a couple of things to note. The M&A pipeline is still very strong. So there might be some interest to making sure headcounts stay pretty fulsome at the investment banks. Also, some of the trimming you're seeing now, those firms have not engaged in that what would be more normal trimming through the pandemic. So it's been a couple of years since they did that, and you're seeing some of that happen. And again, there's the question of headcount versus compensation for them. So we'll see what happens next. But analyst classes look to be about the same size. The lesson learned through the pandemic is that those more junior employees are important. They have to be brought on and trained. So just a few more points there that might help you.

Shlomo，只有幾件事需要注意。併購管道仍然非常強勁。因此，確保投資銀行的員工人數保持充足可能會有一些興趣。此外，你現在看到的一些修剪，這些公司沒有參與在大流行期間更正常的修剪。所以他們這樣做已經有幾年了，你會看到其中一些發生了。再者，還有人數與薪酬的問題。所以我們將看看接下來會發生什麼。但分析師班級看起來差不多。從大流行中吸取的教訓是，那些資歷較淺的員工很重要。他們必須被培養和訓練。所以還有幾點可能對你有幫助。

Okay. And then just -- I'm trying to make sure I understand the tone, which sounds more conservative with some of the comments that you've made about the strong pipeline. Is the cost actions that you took to implement some of the downturn strategy, just looking at the world around you versus what you're actually seeing happening with your pipeline and with your sales cycles, is that what's going on? Because it seems like the sales seem to be going pretty well, at least that's what the narrative sounds like.

好的。然後只是 - 我試圖確保我理解語氣，這聽起來比你對強大的管道所做的一些評論更加保守。您為實施某些低迷戰略而採取的成本行動是否只是看看您周圍的世界與您實際看到的管道和銷售週期發生的情況，這就是正在發生的事情嗎？因為看起來銷售似乎很順利，至少這就是敘述聽起來的樣子。

Well, one is we're just taking a long-term view here to sustainable margin expansion. So Linda, I think, come in and really put in a good framework for us. Some of that is just sort of a multiyear effort to make sure that we expand our margin on a reasonable basis. Attrition has come way down because of all of the great actions we took through the year. And people expense is our biggest expense. So I think that's -- the thing we're keeping an eye on the closest is just making sure that our headcount expense is moving ahead at the right pace.

好吧，一個是我們只是從長遠的角度看待可持續的利潤率擴張。所以我認為 Linda 進來並為我們提供了一個很好的框架。其中一些只是多年的努力，以確保我們在合理的基礎上擴大利潤率。由於我們在這一年中採取的所有偉大行動，人員流失率已經大幅下降。人員開支是我們最大的開支。所以我認為那是 - 我們正在密切關注的事情只是確保我們的員工費用以正確的速度前進。

And yes, there's so much news out there right now about possible recession and layoffs and cost cutting. We're just -- we're positioned well relative to a lot of other companies just in terms of our business model and our investment, but we just want to make sure that we're being conservative enough as we get into January when clients will be printing their budgets. We still don't have great visibility on what the budgets of our clients are going to look like. So that's the thing that I think will give us a lot more confidence in terms of the numbers that we can project.

是的，現在關於可能的經濟衰退、裁員和削減成本的消息太多了。我們只是 - 就我們的商業模式和投資而言，我們相對於許多其他公司處於有利地位，但我們只是想確保我們在進入 1 月份客戶時足夠保守將打印他們的預算。我們仍然無法很好地了解客戶的預算情況。所以我認為這會讓我們對我們可以預測的數字更有信心。

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

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

In terms of -- just trying to understand, and I guess going forward, if we do hit more of a downturn, where the risk is greatest for FactSet in terms of customers closing? I noted that PE and VC firms. If I would think they're most likely to close, you guys are doing very healthy now. So where do you see the business risks of losing customers as we do go into this -- downturn?

就 - 只是試圖理解，我想未來，如果我們確實遇到更多的經濟低迷，就客戶關閉而言，FactSet 的風險最大？我注意到PE和VC公司。如果我認為他們最有可能關閉，你們現在做得非常健康。那麼，當我們進入這種低迷時期時，您如何看待失去客戶的業務風險？

Well, I think yes, firms that are not being competitive, the smaller firms, there's risk of firm closure. Hedge funds could be one example. So for hedge funds, I'd sort of put them in the medium -- middle of the pack here for us in terms of the next 6 months. The hedge funds seem to be doing okay. That's another firm type where we're doing well from a CTS standpoint.

好吧，我認為是的，沒有競爭力的公司，較小的公司，存在公司倒閉的風險。對沖基金就是一個例子。所以對於對沖基金，我會把它們放在中間 - 就未來 6 個月而言，我們這裡的中間位置。對沖基金似乎做得不錯。從 CTS 的角度來看，這是我們做得很好的另一種公司類型。

And I -- it's unusual that FactSet loses completely a large asset manager or a bank that's out there. We have some footprint. So really, for us to win -- and what we're focused on is just taking market share within those firms. So firm closure doesn't worry me so much. More of our -- but it's hard to control that, frankly. More of our focus has to be on the largest accounts that have the largest amount of opportunity for us moving forward.

而我——FactSet 完全失去一家大型資產管理公司或一家銀行是不尋常的。我們有一些足跡。所以真的，為了我們要贏——我們關注的只是在這些公司中佔據市場份額。所以堅定的關閉不會讓我太擔心。我們的更多 - 但坦率地說，很難控制它。我們必須更多地關注最大的客戶，這些客戶有最大的機會讓我們向前邁進。

Great. I appreciate that. And then in terms of your revenue stream, remind me -- I know most of it is being reoccurring, but what portion of your revenue is nonrecurring? And how did that do in the quarter versus, I guess, obviously, recurring part?

偉大的。我很感激。然後就您的收入流而言，請提醒我——我知道其中大部分是重複發生的，但您的收入中有多少是非經常性的？與我想顯然的經常性部分相比，該季度的表現如何？

It's a very small percentage of our revenue. I mean I think it's probably less than 2%. It's something we're taking a closer look at. And if that would be more helpful to break out, that's something we're certainly going to consider moving forward. I think it'd have been a little down. Typically, it's going to trend with ASV, right? So -- and very much trends with the analytics business. So most of the professional services comes out of the analytics implementations.

這只占我們收入的很小一部分。我的意思是我認為它可能少於 2%。這是我們正在仔細研究的事情。如果這對突破更有幫助，那我們肯定會考慮向前推進。我認為它會有點下降。通常，它會與 ASV 一起流行，對嗎？所以 - 分析業務的趨勢非常多。因此，大多數專業服務都來自分析實施。

And our last question comes from the line of Owen Lau with Oppenheimer.

我們的最後一個問題來自 Owen Lau 與 Oppenheimer 的對話。

Could you please give us an update on your ESG initiatives? How should we think about the impact of your ESG initiatives to your revenue and expense this fiscal year?

您能否向我們介紹一下您的 ESG 舉措的最新情況？我們應該如何考慮您的 ESG 舉措對本財年收入和支出的影響？

So FactSet's overall -- our overarching ESG strategy is just to be an agnostic agent in the ecosystem for our clients. ESG is so fragmented. There's different focuses region by region globally. And we probably have the best selection of ESG in the market. And we integrate so many other providers. In fact, that adds its value in terms of concording that data so that firms that are creating their own ESG composites don't have to go through all the pain of managing the data. So building applications on top of that to provide clients their own tools to create their own view, that's primarily what we're focused on.

因此，FactSet 的總體 - 我們的總體 ESG 戰略只是成為我們客戶生態系統中的不可知論者。 ESG 如此分散。全球各地有不同的重點。我們可能擁有市場上最好的 ESG 選擇。我們整合了許多其他供應商。事實上，這在協調數據方面增加了它的價值，這樣創建自己的 ESG 組合的公司就不必經歷管理數據的所有痛苦。因此，在此基礎上構建應用程序，為客戶提供他們自己的工具來創建他們自己的視圖，這是我們主要關注的重點。

It's not a meaningful contributor to ASV today. I think some of it probably doesn't show up directly as ASV as its own product, but there's a lot of value that we've put into the workstation. So I believe most users that subscribe to a workstation can access whatever ESG products they're subscribing to in the market. So that's really where our primary focus is right now.

它不是今天 ASV 的一個有意義的貢獻者。我認為其中一些可能不會像 ASV 一樣直接顯示為它自己的產品，但我們已經在工作站中投入了很多價值。因此，我相信大多數訂閱工作站的用戶都可以訪問他們在市場上訂閱的任何 ESG 產品。所以這真的是我們現在主要關注的地方。

So thank you all for joining us today. We're off to a good start in fiscal 2023. While economic uncertainty persists, we are constantly talking to our clients and are really well prepared to respond to any market environment.

感謝大家今天加入我們。我們在 2023 財年有了一個良好的開端。雖然經濟不確定性依然存在，但我們一直在與客戶交談，並為應對任何市場環境做好了充分準備。

I'm confident in our ability to drive continued sustainable growth, and FactSet is a consistent performer with a proven history of successfully navigating volatility. We have a resilient business with an innovative product mix, differentiated content and diverse end markets. And we are only further strengthening our offerings as we continue to invest in our products to enhance our competitive position and the value we deliver to clients.

我對我們推動持續可持續增長的能力充滿信心，FactSet 的表現始終如一，在成功應對波動方面有著久經考驗的歷史。我們的業務具有彈性，具有創新的產品組合、差異化的內容和多樣化的終端市場。隨著我們繼續投資於我們的產品以提高我們的競爭地位和我們為客戶提供的價值，我們只會進一步加強我們的產品。

Before wrapping up, I really want to thank all FactSetters globally for their continued high level of execution and engagement. And hopefully, everyone at the firm is having fun. I know I am. I think most FactSetters are. We've invested, and we have a great culture. So it's a good place to be right now.

在結束之前，我真的要感謝全球所有的 FactSetters，感謝他們持續的高水平執行和參與。希望公司的每個人都玩得開心。我知道我是。我認為大多數 FactSetter 都是。我們進行了投資，我們擁有偉大的文化。所以現在是個好地方。

Please be well this holiday season. We look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. And in the meantime, feel free to contact Kendra Brown with any additional questions.

這個假期請好好過吧。我們期待下個季度再次與您交談。同時，如有任何其他問題，請隨時聯繫 Kendra Brown。

Operator, this ends today's call.

接線員，今天的通話到此結束。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。大家，祝你有美好的一天。