Topic: Wealth Management

Investment services are a rich niche market for Broadridge Financial

Investment Counsellor

Every Thursday we bring you our best U.S. stock picks. You get our specific recommendation on the stocks we profile, with a full explanation of how we arrived at our opinion. You will read about stocks making moves you should know about, most often from coverage in our newsletter on U.S. investing, Wall Street Stock Forecaster.

This company provides vital services in the investment industry. It’s a market leader with a well-established brand, which makes it hard for competitors to lure away its customers.

BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SERVICES INC. (New York symbol BR; www.broadridge.com)serves the investment industry in three main areas: investor communications, securities processing and transaction clearing. The company processes 85% of all proxy votes in the U.S.

Without one-time items, Broadridge earned $0.30 a share in its fiscal 2015 first quarter, which ended September 30, 2014. That’s down 23.1% from $0.39 a year earlier. The decline came from higher compensation, plus expanded sales and marketing costs, related to new business.

Overall revenue gained 1.9%, to $555.8 million from $545.2 million. Revenue from contracts that pay recurring fees rose 4% and accounted for two-thirds of the total. The remaining third comes from one-time events, such as notifications of special shareholder meetings and distributing information when mutual funds change managers.


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Stock market advice: Broadridge raises dividend for seventh straight year

Earlier this year, the company bought Emerald Connect, a private firm that helps financial advisors promote their services. Emerald helps its clients set up websites, publish newsletters, conduct seminars and manage direct-mail and online marketing campaigns.

Broadridge plans to merge Emerald with its Forefield subsidiary, which sells online courses and related services to financial professionals. The company paid $60 million for Emerald.

Broadridge stayed in a narrow range between the 2008 financial crisis and 2012, but it jumped in 2013 and is now up 107% since it became a separate firm. Excluding unusual items, Broadridge now expects to earn $2.42 to $2.52 a share in fiscal 2015. The stock trades at a reasonable 17.5 times the midpoint of that range.

The company raised its annual dividend rate for the seventh straight year. The $1.08 dividend yields 2.4%.

As well, Broadridge’s long-term debt of $524.1 million is a low 10% of its market cap, and it holds cash of $347.6 million, or $2.91 a share.

Broadridge Financial is a buy recommendation of our advisory on U.S. investing, Wall Street Stock Forecaster.

Coming up Next

Tomorrow Pat answers a question on a Canadian fuel company that’s aiming to replace a lost contract through a series of acquisitions.

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