Smart acquisitions drive Broadridge

Article Excerpt

BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS INC. $81 (New York symbol BR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 116.5 million; Market cap: $9.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.3; Dividend yield: 1.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.broadridge.com) serves the investment industry in three main areas: investor communications, securities processing and transaction clearing. In the fiscal 2017 fourth quarter, ended June 30, 2017, revenue jumped 38.1%, to $1.3 billion from $974.5 million a year earlier. The big increase reflects the contributions of the North American Customer Communications business of DST Systems; Broadridge paid $410 million in cash for that business in July 2016. The company also recently paid $24.0 million for the 75% of Message Automation Ltd. that it did not already own. That firm makes software to help investment banks and brokers comply with increasingly complex securities-trading and reporting regulations. Excluding one-time items, the company earned $204.0 million, or $1.71 a share, in the quarter. That’s up 15.9% from $176.0 million, or $1.45 a share, a year earlier. The…