Financial companies rely on these three

Article Excerpt

All three of the companies we analyze below provide vital services to banks, credit card issuers and other financial services firms. They’re also benefiting as the improving economy spurs loan demand, prompting their clients to buy more of their products. What’s more, they all dominate their niche businesses, which makes it harder for new competitors to steal their customers. Thanks to these factors, all three are trading near their all-time highs. But only two are buys right now. BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SERVICES INC. $54 (New York symbol BR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 120.9 million; Market cap: $6.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.5; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.broadridge.com) serves the investment industry in three main areas: investor communications, securities processing and transaction clearing. It processes 90% of all proxy votes in the U.S. and Canada. Without one-time items, Broadridge earned $39.9 million, or $0.32 a share, in its fiscal 2015 second quarter, which ended December 31, 2014. That’s…