D&B’s cloud shift will pay off

Article Excerpt

DUN & BRADSTREET CORP. $94 (New York symbol DNB; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 36.1 million; Market cap: $3.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 2.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.dnb.com) is the world’s largest provider of credit reports on individual companies. Established in 1841, its database contains information on 240 million businesses in over 200 countries. Clients use these reports to make lending and purchasing decisions and to limit their credit losses. The company gets 60% of its revenue from credit reports. The remaining 40% comes from other information products, such as software businesses use to manage websites and customer data. Revenue falls as D&B adjusts Dun & Bradstreet’s revenue fell 9.9%, from $1.8 billion in 2011 to $1.6 billion in 2014. The company sold some of its less-important operations as customer demand for its cloud-based subscription service rose. As part of this strategy, Dun & Bradstreet paid $328.5 million to re-acquire Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp. It…