BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SERVICES INC. $41 (New York symbol BR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 120.7 million; Market cap: $4.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.0; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.broadridge.com) began trading on April 2, 2007, after former parent Automatic Data Processing handed out Broadridge stock to its own investors as a special dividend.
The company serves the investment industry in three main areas: investor communications, securities processing and transaction clearing. It processes 85% of all proxy votes in the U.S.
Broadridge earned $55.1 million in its fiscal 2014 third quarter, which ended March 31, 2014. That’s up 11.3% from $49.5 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 12.8%, to $0.44 from $0.39.
Revenue gained 5.1%, to $606.3 million from $576.7 million. Revenue from contracts that pay recurring fees rose 9% and accounted for two-thirds of the total. The other third comes from one-time events, such as special shareholder meetings and distributing information when mutual funds change managers.
Broadridge stayed in a narrow range between the 2008 financial crisis and 2012, but it jumped in 2013 and is now up 103% since it became a separate firm. The stock trades at a still-reasonable 18.1 times the $2.27 a share that Broadridge likely earned in fiscal 2014. The $0.84 dividend yields 2.0%.
Broadridge is a buy.