Two financial techs: 1 buy, 1 hold

Article Excerpt

BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS $75.53 New York symbol BR; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (201714-3000; www.broadridge.com; Shares outstanding: 117.6 million; Market cap: $8.9 billion; Dividend yield: 1.8%) serves the investment industry in three main areas: investor communications, securities processing and transaction clearing. Investor communications makes up 72% of the company’s revenue. Securities processing and transaction clearing make up the remaining 28%. In the fiscal 2017 third quarter, ended March 31, 2017, revenue jumped 46.4%, to $1.0 billion from $689.0 million a year earlier. The big increase reflects the contributions of the North American Customer Communications business of DST Systems; in July 2016, Broadridge paid $410 million in cash for that business. Excluding one-time items, the company earned $83.0 million, or $0.69 a share, in the quarter. That’s up 18.6% from $70.0 million, or $58 a share, a year earlier. Timely acquisitions add to its expertise Broadridge recently announced another purchase. It will buy Message Automation Ltd. for an undisclosed amount. That firm makes software to help investment…