Sentiment Analysis of the earnings transcript to help figure out if there are any bullish or bearish sentiments that could be gathered from it. We're doing ML and AI based analysis on the earnings call to get some more insights.
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| But I think given the range of users and use cases, as well as the strong engagement and retention rates that you're seeing, we're quite encouraged by the stability we've seen even in the Americas, even though it is a lower growth rate |
| I would try to say more broadly that I think that we're in a strong position to compete in the core business |
| In the third quarter, MSCI delivered impressive results in an uncertain environment |
| Among other highlights, we achieved adjusted EPS growth of over 21%, total revenue growth of 12%, recurring subscription run rate growth of 12% and a retention rate of 95.4% |
| Overall, we remain well positioned to drive growth |
| This signals our confidence in MSCI's long-term prospects and our commitment to be a compounder for shareholders |
| More content, which includes insights, better coverage of private assets, doing better and being more competitive in fixed income and structured products and climate risk |
| The front office, both in equities and fixed income, and you saw we had very nice numbers in equities |
| The good news is we are in a good position to help them navigate that |
| I think we continue to have structural improvements in how we deliver the products through better technology, greater integration of our content across different types of analytics |
| And in keeping with the theme that we've repeated here, our client engagement is excellent, and we have a wide variety of use cases that clients are asking us to solve from going across very large firm use cases to very specific structured products, front office use cases, equity portfolio construction |
| So it's just a category where with the combination of our investments in content, better technology and better delivery and the expertise that we bring to clients, we hope to continue to have a good directional growth |
| So over the past few years, I think for net new recurring subscription sales of ESG and Climate was quite strong in the fourth quarter |
| More generally, I would say we continue to have pretty good momentum across module types and client segments |
| In summary, MSCI continues to benefit from our resilient business model underpinned by rigorous financial management and a strong secular tailwinds |
| From our recurring revenue business model to our mission critical solutions, we believe MSCI remains well-positioned in any operating environment |
| So the Burgiss acquisition strategically is very -- it provides an extremely strong foundation for us to develop what we call the MSCI or the private asset classes |
| We had about 9% run rate growth from asset managers with solid double-digit growth across basically every other major client segment |
| MSCI achieved another solid quarter of performance across client segments and product lines |
| So I would say it's important to firstly underscore that we see a very strong engagement across ESG and Climate as we mentioned in the prepared remarks |
| So we've -- to this point, we've been successful at rolling out higher price increases, although, it's modest increases relative to what we've done in the past |
| As those numbers indicate, we have maintained our strength and momentum across all client segments |
| In index, we posted our 39th consecutive quarter of double-digit subscription run rate growth of 11% |
| But overall, we continue to think there is a big long-term opportunity where we are, I believe, quite well prepared to capitalize |
| While we expect the pressures to continue, we are encouraged by the long-term opportunity and the momentum we see in many of the market data, climate and portfolio offerings we are providing |
| And we're very excited about all the opportunities that we see ahead of us in all of our product lines from index, to analytics, to ESG and climate and now obviously private assets and the opportunities we can unlock with Burgiss and with Trove |
| This demonstrates how we continue to capitalize on rising demand for tools to support portfolio customization at scale, a trend that is especially visible in the wealth segment |
| We see momentum in our real estate index intel and portfolio offerings |
| And so as I mentioned, probably nothing too much to read into here, we continue to see good momentum across the franchise |
| As I was commenting on, we continue to be very excited about the long-term opportunities in both ESG and Climate |
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| The third pillar, which is actually the fastest one that we're going to execute on and more from loaded one is we believe that the Burgiss product line is severely undersold among LPs around the world |
| It is worth noting that the equity investors, in particular, are under pressure, and we see some of that translating through to cyclical impacts |
| It looks like it's been below your mid-to-high 20s medium-term guidance |
| The only thing I would add just as a slight note of caution is it is an uncertain and amicable environment and client events can occur, but those are often things that we don't control ourselves |
| We did to your point, see slower growth in the Americas |
| Although, we continue to see the impact of industry pressures on our transaction data, most notably in client segments such as real estate brokers and lenders |
| Relative to a year-ago, we saw lower new recurring sales in the Americas, which continue to reflect more measured purchasing decisions among US investors |
| If there is a big downdraft of obviously, equity values and slowdown in subscriptions, our desire, not our ability, but our desire to cut severely the new investments in the company may not be commensurate with the decline in -- with the slowdown in revenues |
| There's nothing there that would be abnormal of where we are today, allowing for the very uncertain environment for everyone, for our clients and some pressure on them |
| In ESG and Climate, you mentioned growth slowed in the Americas to 15%, while growth in EMEA was healthy at 35% |
| And so just bringing that in will bring the overall firm margin down |
| And so as we start to have Burgiss results in our overall financial results during 2024, the margin will likely be lower compared to the prior year |
| Clearly, there are varying degrees of pushback depending on the product and region and client type, and we are very cognizant of the fact that many of our clients are feeling pressure in the current environment |
| Additionally, I would highlight that we expect lower interest income on our cash balances as a result of funding Burgiss |
| I think it was a tough comp and 3Q is generally a little bit lower seasonally |
| We've slightly lowered and narrowed our effective tax rate guidance, reflecting the impact of a nontaxable gain on our investment in Burgiss of approximately $140 million in the fourth quarter, which will be excluded from our adjusted metrics |
| Maybe just some color, you increased the expense guidance, and it looks like Burgiss will be a drag for a bit next year |
| There are some cyclical factors at play which are impacting growth in the short term and other dynamics that we've talked about |
| It sounded from the prepared remarks like Europe maybe was somewhat flattish with America still under pressure |
| There are some environmental impacts as well |
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