FACTSET RESEARCH SYSTEMS INC.

FORM 10-K

For The Fiscal Year Ended August 31, 2019

Part I

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

Business Overview

FactSet Research Systems Inc. (the “Company” or “FactSet”) is a global provider of integrated financial information, analytical applications and industry-leading services for the investment and corporate communities. For over 40 years, global financial professionals have utilized our content and multi-asset class solutions across each stage of the investment process. Our goal is to provide a seamless user experience spanning idea generation, research, portfolio construction, trade execution, performance measurement, risk management, reporting, and portfolio analysis, in which we serve the front, middle, and back offices to drive productivity and improved performance. Our flexible, open data and technology solutions can be implemented both across the investment portfolio lifecycle or as standalone components serving different workflows in the organization. We are focused on growing our business throughout each of our three segments, the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific. We primarily deliver insight and information through the workflow solutions of Research, Analytics and Trading, Content and Technology Solutions and Wealth.

We currently serve financial professionals, which include portfolio managers, investment research professionals, investment bankers, risk and performance analysts, wealth advisors, and corporate clients. We provide both insights on global market trends and intelligence on companies and industries, as well as capabilities to monitor portfolio risk and performance and to execute trades. We combine dedicated client service with open and flexible technology offerings, such as a comprehensive data marketplace, a configurable mobile and desktop platform, digital portals and application programming interface (“APIs”). Our revenue is primarily derived from subscriptions to products and services such as workstations, analytics, enterprise data, research management, and trade execution.

Corporate History

FactSet was founded in 1978 and has been publicly held since 1996. We are dual listed on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) and the NASDAQ Stock Market (“NASDAQ”) under the symbol “FDS.” Fiscal 2019 marked our 41st year of operations and while much has changed in the market and in technology, our focus has always been to provide best-in-class products and exceptional client service.

The following timeline depicts the Company’s history since our founding in 1978:

Business Strategy

As a premier financial solutions provider for the global financial community, we provide workflow solutions and leading analytical applications across the investment lifecycle to create an open and scalable platform. We bring the front, middle and back offices together to drive productivity and performance throughout the portfolio lifecycle. Our strategy is focused on growing our business throughout each of our three segments, the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific. We believe this geographical strategy alignment helps us better manage our resources and concentrate on markets that demand our products. To execute on our strategy of broad-based growth across each geographical segment, we continue to look at ways to create value for our clients by offering data, products and analytical applications within our workflow solutions of Research, Analytics and Trading, Wealth, and Content and Technology Solutions.

Research Solutions

Our Research Solutions workflow (“Research”) focuses on company analysis, idea generation, and research management. The tools within Research provide solutions to analyze public and private companies, generate ideas and discover opportunities with our proprietary data. Research also allows users to monitor the global markets, to gain industry and market insights, and to collaborate on and share information across teams. FactSet combines the global coverage, deep history, and transparency with over 1,000 FactSet-sourced and third-party databases integrated in one flexible platform.

Analytics and Trading Solutions

Our Analytics and Trading Solutions workflow (“Analytics and Trading”) addresses processes around portfolio analytics, risk management and performance measurement and attribution. Analytics and Trading also focuses on client reporting, portfolio construction, trade execution and order management. The applications within Analytics and Trading are modularized and deployed to fulfill both targeted and holistic needs in the front and middle offices. Analytics and Trading integrates our clients’ proprietary data along with FactSet and third-party content to bring actionable insights to the portfolio management process. Analytics and Trading tools are accessible through a variety of mediums, including the FactSet workstation and application programming interfaces.

Wealth Solutions

Our Wealth Solutions workflow (“Wealth”) is specific to the wealth management industry and creates offerings that enable wealth professionals across an entire enterprise, including home office, advisory, and client engagement. Wealth empowers wealth managers to demonstrate value to clients and prospects while protecting and growing their assets with FactSet’s combined solution set of portfolio analytics, market monitoring tools, multi-asset class research and customized client facing digital solutions. Our Research Management Solutions products enable our wealth management clients to increase collaboration and communication between Home Office and Advisory functions within the firm and deliver consistent and scalable messaging to the clients of the advisor.

Content and Technology Solutions

Our Content and Technology Solutions workflow (“CTS”) is focused on delivering value to our clients in the way they want to consume it. Our goal is to reduce the number of customizations by standardizing and bundling our proprietary data into data feeds. Whether a client needs market, company, or alternative data, our data delivery services provide normalized data through APIs and a direct delivery of local copies of standard data feeds. Our symbology links and aggregates a variety of content sources to ensure consistency, transparency, and data integrity across a client’s business.

FactSet Clients

Buy-side

As buy-side clients continue to shift towards multi-asset class investment strategies, we are positioned to be a partner in the space, given our ability to provide enterprise-wide solutions across their entire workflow. We provide solutions across asset classes and at nearly every stage of the investment process by utilizing our workstations, analytics, proprietary content, data feeds and portfolio services. Buy-side clients include portfolio managers, analysts, traders, wealth managers, performance teams and risk and compliance teams at a variety of firms, such as traditional asset managers, wealth advisors, corporations, hedge funds, insurance companies, plan sponsors and fund of funds.

The buy-side annual subscription value (“ASV”) growth rate for fiscal 2019 was 4.8%. Buy-side clients accounted for 83.7% of ASV as of August 31, 2019.

Sell-side

FactSet delivers comprehensive solutions to sell-side clients including workstation, proprietary and third-party content, productivity tools for Microsoft® Office, FactSet Web and Mobile, and FactSet Partners for research authoring and publishing. Our focus remains on expanding the depth of content offered and increasing workflow efficiency for investment banking, private equity, corporate and research firms.

The sell-side ASV growth rate for fiscal 2019 was 6.3%. Sell-side clients accounted for 16.3% of ASV as of August 31, 2019.

Client Subscription Growth

During fiscal 2019, we added 432 net new clients, increasing the number of clients by 8.4% over the prior year. In the first quarter of fiscal 2019, we changed our client count definition to include clients from the April 2017 acquisition of FDSG. The prior year client count was not restated to reflect this change. We added 34,925 net new users during fiscal 2019, leading to a healthy progression in the number of users in both our buy-side and sell-side clients.

ASV Growth

ASV at any given point in time represents the forward-looking revenue for the next twelve months from all subscription services currently being supplied to clients and excludes professional service fees, which are not subscription-based. Organic ASV excludes ASV from acquisitions and dispositions completed within the last 12 months, and the effects of foreign currency, and professional services fees.

As of August 31, 2019, ASV was $1.46 billion, up from $1.39 billion a year ago. As of August 31, 2019, organic ASV was $1.46 billion, up $70.2 million or 5.0% from a year ago. This increase in organic ASV was due to growth across all of our geographic segments with the majority of growth in the U.S., followed by Asia Pacific and Europe. ASV growth from our workflow solutions was primarily driven by Analytics and Trading, CTS and Wealth.

The following chart provides a snapshot of FactSet’s historic ASV growth:

Financial Information on Geographic Areas

Operating segments are defined as components of an enterprise that have the following characteristics: (i) it engages in business activities from which it may earn revenues and incur expenses, (ii) its operating results are regularly reviewed by the company’s chief operating decision maker to make decisions about resources to be allocated to the segment and assess its performance, and (iii) its discrete financial information is available. Executive management, along with the CEO, constitute our chief operating decision making group (“CODMG”). Executive management consists of certain executives who directly report to the CEO, consisting of the Chief Financial Officer, Chief Technology and Product Officer, Global Head of Sales and Client Solutions, General Counsel, Chief Human Resources Officer and Head of Analytics and Trading. The CODMG reviews financial information at the operating segment level and is responsible for making decisions about resources allocated amongst the operating segments based on actual results.

Our operating segments are aligned with how the Company, including its CODMG, manages the business and the demographic markets in which it serves. Our internal financial reporting structure is based on three segments: the U.S., Europe and Asia Pacific. We believe this alignment helps to better manage the business and serve client needs, as each segment requires financial and economic information specific to their respective markets. Our primary functional groups within the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific segments include sales, consulting, data collection, product development and software engineering, which provide global financial and economic information to investment managers, investment banks and other financial services professionals.

The U.S. segment serves investment professionals, including financial institutions throughout the Americas. The Europe and Asia Pacific segments serve investment professionals located throughout Europe and Asia Pacific, respectively. Financial information, including revenues, operating income and long-lived assets related to our operations in each geographic area are presented in Note 8, Segment Information, and in the Notes to the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 8.

The U.S. segment has offices in 15 locations, within 13 states throughout the U.S., including our corporate headquarters in Norwalk, Connecticut, as well as two additional offices located in Brazil and Canada. The European segment maintains office locations in Bulgaria, UAE (Dubai), England, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, and Switzerland. The Asia Pacific segment has office locations in Australia, Hong Kong, China, India, Japan, the Philippines, and Singapore. Segment revenue reflects direct sales to clients based in their respective geographic locations. Each segment records compensation expense (including stock-based compensation), amortization of intangible assets, depreciation of furniture and fixtures, amortization of leasehold improvements, communication costs, professional fees, rent expense, travel, office and other direct expenses.

Expenditures associated with our data centers, third-party data costs and corporate headquarters charges are recorded by the U.S. segment and are not allocated to the other segments. The content collection centers, located in India, the Philippines, and Latvia, benefit all our operating segments, and thus the expenses incurred at these locations are allocated to each segment based on a percentage of revenue.

The following charts depict revenue related to our reportable segments.

Talent

We have built a collaborative culture that recognizes and rewards innovation and offers employees a variety of opportunities and experiences. Our employees are critical to our success and are the reason we continue to execute at a high level. We believe our continued focus on making employee engagement a top priority will help us provide high quality insights and information to clients globally.

As of August 31, 2019, our employee headcount was 9,681, an increase of 1.1% in the last twelve months. Of our total employees, 2,351 are in the U.S., 1,282 in Europe and 6,048 in the Asia Pacific segment. In order to optimize productivity, we have invested in expanding our footprint and talent pool in India and the Philippines, where we now have a combined workforce of approximately 5,800 people. As of August 31, 2019, approximately 430 FactSet employees within certain French and German subsidiaries were represented by mandatory works councils, an amount consistent with fiscal 2018. No other employees are represented by collective bargaining agreements.

In December 2018, we appointed Daniel Viens as Chief Human Resources Officer. In May 2019, we announced that John W. Wiseman, the Company’s Global Head of Sales and Client Solutions, would step down from his position on June 1, 2019, remaining at the company until August 31, 2019 to assist during the transition. In the same announcement, effective June 1, 2019, we appointed Franck A.R. Gossieaux as the Company's new Global Head of Sales and Client Solutions.

Third-Party Content

We aggregate content from over 1,000 third-party data suppliers, news sources, exchanges, brokers and contributors into our own dedicated single online service, which the client accesses to perform their analysis. We license content from premier providers of major global exchanges and data providers. We seek to maintain contractual relationships with a minimum of two content providers for each major type of financial data, though certain data sets on which we rely have a limited number of suppliers. We make every effort to assure that, where reasonable, alternative sources are available. We are not dependent on any one third-party data supplier in order to meet the needs of our clients. We have entered into third-party content agreements of varying lengths, which in some cases can be terminated on one year’s notice, at predefined dates, and in other cases on shorter notice. No single vendor or data supplier represented more than 10% of FactSet's total data costs during fiscal 2019, with the exception for one vendor, which is a supplier of risk models and portfolio optimizer data to FactSet and represented 11% of FactSet’s data costs in fiscal 2019.

Data Centers

Our business is dependent on our ability to process substantial volumes of data and transactions rapidly and efficiently on our networks and systems. Our global technology infrastructure supports our operations and is designed to facilitate the reliable and efficient processing and delivery of data and analytics to our clients. Our data centers contain multiple layers of redundancy to enhance system performance, including maintaining, processing and storing data at multiple data centers. User connections are load balanced between data centers. In the event of a site failure, equipment problem or localized disaster, the remaining centers have the capacity to handle the additional load. We continue to be focused on maintaining a global technological infrastructure that allows us to support our growing business.

We are embarking on a set of programs that will increasingly move our systems and applications to cloud computing platforms. We continue to operate fully redundant data centers in both Virginia and New Jersey in the U.S. that can handle our entire client capacity. In addition, select workloads are migrating to diverse cloud computing regions utilizing premier, market-leading Cloud providers.

The Competitive Landscape

We are a part of the financial information services industry, providing accurate financial information and workflow solutions to the global investment community. This extremely competitive market is comprised of both large, well-capitalized companies and smaller, niche firms including market data suppliers, news and information providers and many of the content providers that supply us with financial information included in the FactSet workstation. Our largest competitors are Bloomberg L.P., Refinitiv (formerly part of Thomson Reuters), and S&P Global Market Intelligence. Other competitors and competitive products include online database suppliers and integrators and their applications, such as MSCI Inc., Morningstar Inc., BlackRock Solutions and RIMES Technologies Corporation. Many of these firms offer products or services which are similar to those we sell. Our development of robust sets of proprietary content combined with our news and quotes offering have resulted in more direct competition with the largest financial data providers.

Despite competing products and services, we enjoy high barriers to entry and believe it would be difficult for another vendor to quickly replicate the extensive databases we currently offer. Through our in-depth analytics and client service, we believe we can offer clients a more comprehensive solution with one of the broadest sets of functionalities, through a desktop or mobile user interface or through a standardized or bespoke data feed. In addition, our applications, including our client support and service offerings, are entrenched in the workflow of many financial professionals given the downloading functions and portfolio analysis/screening capabilities offered. We are entrusted with significant amounts of our clients' own proprietary data, including portfolio holdings. As a result, our products have become central to our clients’ investment analysis and decision-making.

Intellectual Property

We have registered trademarks and copyrights for many of our products and services and will continue to evaluate the registration of additional trademarks and copyrights as appropriate. We enter into confidentiality agreements with our employees, clients, data suppliers and vendors. We seek to protect our workflow solutions, documentation and other written materials under trade secret, copyright and patent laws. While we do not believe we are dependent on any one of our intellectual property rights, we do rely on the combination of intellectual property rights and other measures to protect our proprietary rights. Despite these efforts, existing intellectual property laws may afford only limited protection.

Research and Product Development Costs

A key aspect of our growth strategy is to enhance our existing products and applications by making them faster with more reliable data. We strive to rapidly adopt new technology that can improve our products and services. At FactSet we do not have a separate research and product development department, but rather our product development and engineering departments work closely with our strategists, product managers, sales and other client-facing specialists to identify areas of improvement to provide increased value to our clients. Research and product development costs relate to the salary and benefits for our product development, software engineering and technical support staff. These costs are expensed as incurred within our cost of services as employee compensation. We intend to continue to invest in the development of new products and enhancements that will allow us to respond quickly to market changes and efficiently meet the needs of our clients. We incurred research and product development costs of $214.7 million, $217.1 million and $215.0 million during fiscal years 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively.

Government Regulation

FactSet is subject to reporting requirements, disclosure obligations and other recordkeeping requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and the various local authorities that regulate each location in which we operate. The Company’s P.A.N. Securities, LP, is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. and is a registered broker-dealer under Section 15 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. P.A.N. Securities, LP, as a registered broker-dealer, is subject to Rule 15c3-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which requires that the Company maintain minimum net capital requirements. The Company claims exemption under Rule 15c3-3(k)(2)(i).

Corporate Contact Information

FactSet was founded as a Delaware corporation in 1978, and its principal executive office is in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Mailing address of the Company’s headquarters: 601 Merritt 7, Norwalk, CT 06851 prior to January 1, 2020, and 45 Glover Avenue Norwalk, CT 06850, thereafter

Telephone number: +1 (203) 810-1000

Website address: www.factset.com

Available Information

Through the Investor Relations section of FactSet’s website (https://investor.factset.com), we make available the following filings as soon as practicable after they are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC: the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, Proxy Statements for the annual stockholder meetings, Reports on Forms 3, 4 and 5, and any amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All such filings are available free of charge.

Additionally, we broadcast live our quarterly earnings calls via the investor relations section of our website. We also provide notifications of news or announcements regarding our financial performance, including SEC filings, investor events, press and earnings releases, and blogs as part of our investor relations website. The contents of this website section are not intended to be incorporated by reference into this Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document the Company files and any reference to this section of our website is intended to be inactive textual references only.

In addition, the FactSet Code of Business Conduct and Ethics is posted in the Investor Relations section of the Company’s website. The same information is available in print to any stockholder who submits a written request to the Company’s Investor Relations department. Any amendments to or waivers of such code that are required to be publicly disclosed by the applicable exchange rules or the SEC will be posted on our website. The Corporate Governance Guidelines and the charters of each of the committees of the Company’s Board of Directors, including the Audit Committee, Compensation and Talent Committee, and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee are available on the Investor Relations section of our website. The same information is available in print, free of charge, to any stockholder who submits a written request to our Investor Relations department.

Executive Officers of the Registrant

The following table shows FactSet’s current executive officers:

F. Philip Snow – Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Snow was named Chief Executive Officer effective July 1, 2015. Prior to that, Mr. Snow held the title of President. He began his career at FactSet in 1996 as a Consultant, before moving to Asia to hold positions in the Tokyo and Sydney offices. Following his move back to the U.S. in 2000, Mr. Snow held various sales leadership roles prior to assuming the role of Senior Vice President, Director of U.S. Investment Management Sales in 2013. Mr. Snow received a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley and a Master of International Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. He has earned the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Helen L. Shan – Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Ms. Shan joined FactSet in September 2018 from Marsh and McLennan Companies, where she was CFO for Mercer, a professional services firm. During her time at Mercer, Ms. Shan was responsible for global financial reporting and performance, operational finance, investments, and corporate strategy, leading a team of finance professionals supporting clients in over 130 countries. Preceding her tenure as the CFO for Mercer, Ms. Shan also served as the Vice President and Treasurer for Marsh and McLennan Companies, with additional prior experience in the same position with Pitney Bowes Inc. and served as a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan. In September 2018, Ms. Shan joined the Board of Directors of EPAM Systems Inc., a global provider of digital platform engineering and software development services. Ms. Shan holds dual degrees with a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and School of Applied Science and Engineering. Ms. Shan also has a Master of Business Administration from Cornell University’s SC Johnson College of Business.

Frank A.R. Gossieaux – Executive Vice President, Global Head of Sales and Client Solutions. Mr. Gossieaux joined FactSet in September 2004. Mr. Gossieaux held multiple senior leadership roles at FactSet in both Europe and North America including Senior Vice President of Americas Sales, Senior Vice President of EMEA Sales, and Senior Vice President of International Investment Management. Mr. Gossieaux received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University Pantheon-Assas (Sorbonne-Assas) in Paris.

Rachel R. Stern – Executive Vice President, Strategic Resources and General Counsel. Ms. Stern joined FactSet in January 2001 as General Counsel. In addition to her role in the Legal Department, Ms. Stern is also responsible for Compliance, Facilities and Real Estate Planning, and the administration of our offices in Hyderabad, Manila and Riga. Ms. Stern is admitted to practice in New York, Washington D.C., and as House Counsel in Connecticut. Ms. Stern received a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University, a Master of Arts from the University of London and a Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Gene D. Fernandez – Executive Vice President, Chief Technology and Product Officer. Mr. Fernandez joined FactSet in November 2017 from J.P. Morgan, where he served as the Chief Technology Officer, New Product Development. In this role, he developed the strategy and built the engineering function responsible for new product innovation. During a decade at J.P. Morgan, Mr. Fernandez held various other roles, including Chief Technology Officer for Client Technology and Research and Banking Information Technology. Prior to J.P. Morgan, he worked at Credit Suisse and Merrill Lynch. Mr. Fernandez received a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Economics from Rutgers University.

Robert J. Robie – Executive Vice President, Head of Analytics and Trading Solutions. Mr. Robie joined FactSet in July 2000 as a Product Sales Specialist. During his tenure at FactSet, Mr. Robie has held several positions of increasing responsibility, including Senior Director of Analytics and Director of Global Fixed Income and Analytics, where he led sales and support efforts for FactSet’s fixed income product offering. Although Mr. Robie joined FactSet in 2000, he did work at BTN Partners from 2004 through 2005 in their quantitative portfolio management and performance division, before returning to continue his career with FactSet. Mr. Robie holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Beloit College.

Daniel Viens – Senior Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer. Mr. Viens joined FactSet in September 1998 as a Vice President, Director of Human Resources and has held several leadership positions of increased responsibility in Human Resources. Prior to joining FactSet, Mr. Viens was a Director of Human Resources for First Data Solutions and Donnelly Marketing (a former company of Dun & Bradstreet), where he developed significant Human Resources acumen. Mr. Viens graduated from Boston University, and holds both a Master's Degree from Eastern Illinois University in Clinical Psychology, and a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University.

Additional Information

Additional information with respect to FactSet’s business is included in the following pages and is incorporated herein by reference:

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

The following risks could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, cash flows, results of operations and as a result, the trading price of our common stock could decline. These risk factors do not identify all risks that we face; our operations could also be affected by factors that are not presently known to us or that we currently consider to be immaterial to our operations. Due to risks and uncertainties, known and unknown, our past financial results may not be a reliable indicator of future performance, and historical trends should not be used to anticipate results or trends in future periods. Investors should also refer to the other information set forth in this Report on Form 10-K, including “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our financial statements including the related notes. Investors should carefully consider all risks, including those disclosed, before making an investment decision.

Loss, corruption and misappropriation of data and information relating to clients and others

Many of our products, as well as our internal systems and processes, involve the storage and transmission of our own, as well as supplier and customer proprietary information and sensitive or confidential data. This includes data from client portfolios and strategies. Breaches of this confidentiality, should they occur, could result in the loss of clients and termination of arrangements with suppliers for the use of their data. If we fail to maintain the adequacy of our internal controls, unauthorized access or misappropriation of client or supplier data by an employee or an external third-party could occur. Additionally, the maintenance and enhancement of our systems may not be completely effective in preventing loss, unauthorized access or misappropriation. Data misappropriation, unauthorized access or data loss could instill a lack of confidence in our products and systems and damage our brand, reputation and business. Breaches of security measures could expose us, our clients or the individuals affected to a risk of loss or misuse of this information, potentially resulting in litigation and liability for us, as well as the loss of existing or potential clients. Many jurisdictions in which we operate have laws and regulations relating to data privacy and protection of personal information, including the European Union General Data Protection Regulation which became effective May 25, 2018, and California's Consumer Privacy Act, effective January 1, 2020. Both require companies to satisfy requirements regarding the handling of personal and sensitive data, including our use, protection and the ability of persons whose data is stored to correct or delete such data about themselves. The law in this area continues to develop and the changing nature of privacy laws could impact our processing of personal and sensitive information related to our content, operations, employees, clients, and suppliers, and may expose us to claims of violations.

Successful cyber-attacks and the failure of cyber-security systems and procedures

In providing our digital-enabled services to clients, we rely on information technology infrastructure that is primarily managed internally, along with some reliance placed on third-party service providers. We and these third-party service providers are subject to the risks of system failures and security breaches, including cyber-attacks, such as phishing scams, viruses and denials of service attacks, as well as employee errors or malfeasance. Our protective systems and procedures and those of third parties to which we are connected, such as cloud computing providers, may not be effective against these threats. We could suffer significant damage to our brand and reputation: if a cyber-attack or other security incident were to allow unauthorized access to, or modification of, clients’ or suppliers’ data, other external data, internal data or information technology systems; if the services provided to clients were disrupted; or if products or services were perceived as having security vulnerabilities. The costs we would incur to address and resolve these security incidents would increase our expenses. These types of security incidents could also lead to lawsuits, regulatory investigations and claims, loss of business and increased legal liability. We also make acquisitions periodically. While significant effort is placed on addressing information technology security issues with respect to the acquired companies, we may inherit such risks when these acquisitions are integrated into our infrastructure.

A prolonged or recurring outage at our data centers and other business continuity disruptions at facilities could result in reduced service and the loss of clients

Our clients rely on us for the delivery of time-sensitive, up-to-date data and applications. Our business is dependent on our ability to process substantial volumes of data and transactions rapidly and efficiently on our computer-based networks and systems. Our computer operations, as well as our other business centers, and those of our suppliers and clients are vulnerable to interruption by fire, natural disaster, power loss, telecommunications failures, terrorist attacks, acts of war, civil unrest, Internet failures, computer viruses, security breaches, and other events beyond our reasonable control. We maintain back-up facilities and certain other redundancies for each of our major data centers to minimize the risk that any such event will disrupt those operations. However, a loss of our services involving our significant facilities may materially disrupt our business and may induce our clients to seek alternative data suppliers. Any such losses or damages we incur could have a material adverse effect on our business. Although we seek to minimize these risks through security measures, controls, back-up data centers and emergency planning, there can be no assurance that such efforts will be successful or effective.

Competition in our industry may cause price reductions or loss of market share

We continue to experience intense competition across all markets for our products with competitors ranging in size from smaller, highly specialized, single-product businesses to multi-billion-dollar companies. While we believe the breadth and depth of our suite of products and applications offer benefits to our clients that are a competitive advantage, our competitors may offer price incentives to attract new business. Future competitive pricing pressures may result in decreased sales volumes and price reductions, resulting in lower revenue. Weak economic conditions may also result in clients seeking to utilize lower-cost information that is available from alternative sources. The impact of cost-cutting pressures across the industries we serve could lower demand for our products. Clients within the financial services industry that strive to reduce their operating costs may seek to reduce their spending on financial market data and related services, such as ours. If our clients consolidate their spending with fewer suppliers, by selecting suppliers with lower-cost offerings or by self-sourcing their needs for financial market data, our business could be negatively affected.

The continued shift from active to passive investing could negatively impact user count growth and revenue

The predominant investment strategy today is still active investing, which attempts to outperform the market. The main advantage of active management is the expectation that the investment managers will be able to outperform market indices. They make informed investment decisions based on their experiences, insights, knowledge and ability to identify opportunities that can translate into superior performance. The main advantage of passive investing is that it closely matches the performance of market indices. Passive investing requires little decision-making by investment managers and low operating costs which result in lower fees for the investor. A continued shift to passive investing, resulting in an increased outflow to passively managed index funds, could reduce demand for the services of active investment managers and consequently, the demand of our clients for our services.

A decline in equity and/or fixed income returns may impact the buying power of investment management clients

Approximately 83.7% of our ASV is derived from our investment management clients. The profitability and management fees of these clients are tied to assets under management. An equity market decline not only depresses the value of assets under management but also could cause a significant increase in redemption requests from our clients’ customers, further reducing their assets under management. Reduced client profits and management fees may cause our clients to cut costs. Moreover, extended declines in the equity and fixed income markets may reduce new fund or client creation. Each of these developments may result in lower demand from investment managers for our services and workstations, which could negatively affect our business.

Failure to develop and market new products and enhancements that maintain our technological and competitive position and failure to anticipate and respond to changes in the marketplace for our products

The market for our products is characterized by rapid technological change, including methods and speed of delivery, changes in client demands, development of new investment instruments and evolving industry standards. The direction of these trends can render our existing products less competitive, obsolete or unmarketable. As a result, our future success will continue to depend upon our ability to identify and develop new products and enhancements that address the future needs of our target markets and to respond to their changing standards and practices. We may not be successful in developing, introducing, marketing, licensing and implementing new products and enhancements on a timely and cost-effective basis or without impacting the stability and efficiency of existing products and customer systems. Further, any new products and enhancements may not adequately meet the requirements of the marketplace or achieve market acceptance. Our failure or inability to anticipate and respond to changes in the marketplace, including competitor and supplier developments, may also adversely affect our business, operations and growth.

Uncertainty, consolidation and business failures in the global investment banking industry may cause us to lose clients and users

Our investment banking clients that perform mergers and acquisitions ("M&A") advisory work, capital markets services and equity research, account for approximately 16.3% of our ASV. A significant portion of these revenues relate to services deployed by the largest banks. Consolidation or contraction in this industry directly impacts the number of prospective clients and users within the sector. Thus, economic uncertainty for our global investment banking clients, consolidation and business failures in this sector could adversely affect our financial results and future growth.

Volatility in the financial markets may delay the spending pattern of clients and reduce future ASV growth

The decision on the part of large institutional clients to purchase our services often requires management-level sponsorship and typically depends upon the size of the client, with larger clients having more complex and time-consuming purchasing processes. The process is also influenced by market volatility. These characteristics often lead us to engage in relatively lengthy sales efforts. Purchases (and incremental ASV) may therefore be delayed as uncertainties in the financial markets may cause clients to remain cautious about capital and data content expenditures, particularly in uncertain economic environments.

Additional cost due to tax assessments resulting from ongoing and future audits by tax authorities as well as changes in tax laws

In the ordinary course of business, we are subject to tax examinations by various governmental tax authorities. The global and diverse nature of our business means that there could be additional examinations by governmental tax authorities and the resolution of ongoing and other probable audits which could impose a future risk to the results of our business. In August 2019, FactSet received a Notice of Intent to Assess (the “Notice”) additional sales taxes, interest and underpayment penalties from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Revenue relating to prior tax periods. The Notice follows FactSet’s previously disclosed response to a letter from the Commonwealth requesting additional sales information. Based upon a preliminary review of the Notice, the Company believes the Commonwealth may assess sales tax, interest and underpayment penalties on previously recorded sales transactions. The Company intends to contest any such assessment, if assessed, and continues to cooperate with the Commonwealth’s inquiry. Due to uncertainty surrounding the assessment process, the Company is unable to reasonably estimate the ultimate outcome of this matter and, as such, has not recorded a liability as of August 31, 2019. While FactSet believes that it will ultimately prevail if the Company is presented with a formal assessment; if FactSet does not prevail, the amount could have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial position, cash flows and results of operations.

Changes in tax laws or the terms of tax treaties in a jurisdiction where we are subject to tax could increase our taxes payable. On December 22, 2017, the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, ("TCJA") was signed into law. The TCJA enacted broad changes to the U.S. Internal Revenue code, including reducing the federal corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%, amongst many other complex provisions. The ultimate impact of such tax reform may differ from our current estimate due to changes in interpretations and assumptions made by us as well as the issuance of further regulations or guidance.

Failure to identify, integrate, or realize anticipated benefits of acquisitions and strains on resources as a result of growth

There can be no assurance that we will be able to identify suitable candidates for successful acquisition at acceptable prices. Additionally, there may be integration risks or other risks resulting from acquired businesses. Our ability to achieve the expected returns and synergies from past and future acquisitions and alliances depends in part upon our ability to integrate the offerings, technology, sales, administrative functions and personnel of these businesses effectively into our core business. We cannot guarantee that our acquired businesses will perform at the levels anticipated. In addition, past and future acquisitions may subject us to unanticipated risks or liabilities or disrupt operations.

Growth, such as the addition of new clients and acquisitions, puts demands on our resources, including our internal systems and infrastructure. These may require improvements or replacement to meet the additional demands of a larger organization. Further, the addition of new clients and the implementation of such improvements would require additional management time and resources. These needs may result in increased costs that could negatively impact results of operations. Failure to implement needed improvements, such as improved scalability, could result in a deterioration in the performance of our internal systems and negatively impact the performance of our business.

Failure to enter into or renew contracts supplying new and existing data sets or products on competitive terms

We collect and aggregate third-party content from thousands of data suppliers, news sources, exchanges, brokers and contributors into our own dedicated online service, which clients access to perform their analyses. Clients have access to the data and content found within our databases. These databases are important to our operations as they provide clients with key information. We have entered into third-party content agreements of varying lengths, which in some cases can be terminated on one year’s notice at predefined dates, and in other cases on shorter notice. Some of our content provider agreements are with competitors, who may attempt to make renewals difficult or expensive. We seek to maintain favorable contractual relationships with our data suppliers, including those that are also competitors. We also make efforts, when reasonable, to locate alternative sources to ensure we are not dependent on any one third-party data supplier. We believe we are not dependent on any one significant third-party data supplier. Our failure to be able to maintain these relationships or the failure of our suppliers to deliver accurate data or in a timely manner could adversely affect our business.

Inability to hire and retain key qualified personnel

Our business is based on successfully attracting, motivating and retaining talented employees. Competition for talent, especially engineering personnel, is strong. We need technical resources such as engineers to help develop new products and enhance existing services. We rely upon sales personnel to sell our products and services and maintain healthy business relationships. If we are unsuccessful in our recruiting efforts, or if we are unable to retain key employees, our ability to develop and deliver successful products and services may be adversely affected and could have a material, adverse effect on our business.

Increased accessibility to free or relatively inexpensive information sources may reduce demand for our products

Each year, an increasing amount of free or relatively inexpensive information becomes available, particularly through the Internet, and this trend may continue. The availability of free or relatively inexpensive information may reduce demand for our products. While we believe our service offering is distinguished by such factors as customization, timeliness, accuracy, ease-of-use, completeness and other value-added factors, if users choose to obtain the information they need from public or other sources, our business and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Third parties may claim we infringe upon their intellectual property rights or may infringe upon our intellectual property rights

We may receive notice from others claiming that we have infringed upon their intellectual property rights. Responding to these claims may require us to enter into royalty and licensing agreements on unfavorable terms, incur litigation costs, enter into settlements, stop selling or redesign affected products, or pay damages and satisfy indemnification commitments with our clients or suppliers under contractual provisions of various license arrangements. Additionally, third parties may copy, infringe or otherwise profit from the unauthorized use of our intellectual property rights requiring us to litigate to protect our rights. Certain countries may not offer adequate protection of proprietary rights. If we are required to defend ourselves or assert our rights or take such actions mentioned, our operating margins may decline as a result. We have incurred, and expect to continue to incur, expenditures to acquire the use of technology and intellectual property rights as part of our strategy to manage this risk.

Operations outside the U.S. involve additional requirements and burdens that we may not be able to control or manage successfully

In fiscal 2019, approximately 38% of our revenue related to operations located outside the U.S. In addition, a significant number of our employees, approximately 76%, are located in offices outside the U.S. We expect our growth to continue outside the U.S., with non-U.S. revenues accounting for an increased portion of total revenue in the future. Our non-U.S. operations involve risks that differ from or are in addition to those faced by our U.S. operations. These risks include difficulties in developing products, services and technology tailored to the needs of non-U.S. clients, including in emerging markets; different employment laws and rules; rising labor costs in low-wage countries; difficulties in staffing and managing personnel that are located outside the U.S.; different regulatory, legal and compliance requirements, including in the areas of privacy and data protection, anti-bribery and anti-corruption, trade sanctions and currency controls, marketing and sales and other barriers to conducting business; social and cultural differences, such as languages; diverse or less stable political, operating and economic environments and market fluctuations; civil disturbances or other catastrophic events that reduce business activity; limited recognition of our brand and intellectual property protection; differing accounting principles and standards; restrictions on or adverse tax consequences from entity management efforts; and changes in U.S. or foreign tax laws. If we are not able to adapt efficiently or manage the business effectively in markets outside the U.S., our business prospects and operating results could be materially and adversely affected.

Exposure to fluctuations in currency exchange rates and the failure of hedging arrangements

Due to the global nature of our operations, we conduct business outside the U.S. in several currencies including the Euro, Indian Rupee, Philippine Peso, British Pound Sterling, and Japanese Yen. To the extent our international activities increase in the future, our exposure to fluctuations in currency exchange rates may increase as well. To manage this exposure, we utilize derivative instruments (such as foreign currency forward contracts). By their nature, all derivative instruments involve elements of market and credit risk. The market risk associated with these instruments resulting from currency exchange movements is expected to offset the market risk of the underlying transactions, assets and liabilities being hedged. Credit risk is managed through the continuous monitoring of exposure to the counterparties associated with these instruments. Our primary objective in holding derivatives is to reduce the volatility of earnings with changes in foreign currency. Although we believe that our foreign exchange hedging policies are reasonable and prudent under the circumstances, our attempt to hedge against these risks may not be successful, which could cause an adverse impact on our results of operations.

Legislative and regulatory changes in the environments in which we and our clients operate

Many of our clients operate within a highly regulated environment and must comply with governmental legislation and regulations. The U.S. regulators have increased their focus on the regulation of the financial services industry. Increased regulation of our clients may increase their expenses, causing them to seek to limit or reduce their costs from outside services such as ours. Additionally, if our clients are subjected to investigations or legal proceedings they may be adversely impacted, possibly leading to their liquidation, bankruptcy, receivership, reduction in assets under management, or diminished operations, which would adversely affect our revenue. In the European Union, the new version of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (recast), also known as “MiFID II” became effective in January 2018. We believe that compliance with MiFID II requirements is time-consuming and costly for the investment managers who are subject to it and will cause clients to adapt their pricing models and business practices significantly. These increased costs may impact our clients’ spending and may cause some investment managers to lose business or withdraw from the market, which may adversely affect demand for our services. However, MiFID II may also present us with new business opportunities for new service offerings. In addition to the MiFID II requirements, we further believe the proposed withdrawal of the U.K. from the European Union (also known as Brexit) on terms still being negotiated, has created economic uncertainty among our client base. This uncertainty may have an impact on our clients’ expansion or spending plans, which may in turn negatively impact our revenue or growth.

As a business, we are also subject to numerous laws and regulations in the U.S. and in the other countries in which we operate. These laws, rules, and regulations, and their interpretations, may change in the future, and compliance with these changes may increase our costs or cause us to make changes in or otherwise limit our business practices. In addition, the global nature and scope of our business operations make it more difficult to monitor areas that may be subject to regulatory and compliance risk. If we fail to comply with any applicable law, rule, or regulation, we could be subject to claims and fines and suffer reputational damage.

Adverse resolution of litigation or governmental investigations

We are party to lawsuits in the normal course of business. Litigation and governmental investigations can be expensive, lengthy and disruptive to normal business operations. Moreover, the results of complex legal proceedings are difficult to predict. Unfavorable resolution of lawsuits could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results or financial condition. For additional information regarding legal matters, see Item 3, Legal Proceedings, contained in Part I of this Report on Form 10-K.

Failure to maintain reputation

We enjoy a positive reputation in the marketplace. Our ability to attract and retain clients and employees is affected by external perceptions of our brand and reputation. Reputational damage from negative perceptions or publicity could affect our ability to attract and retain clients and employees and our ability to maintain our pricing for our products. Although we monitor developments for areas of potential risk to our reputation and brand, negative perceptions or publicity could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial results.

ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None.

ITEM 2. PROPERTIES

As of August 31, 2019, we leased approximately 202,000 square feet of office space at our headquarters in Norwalk, Connecticut. On February 14, 2018, we entered into a new lease agreement to relocate our corporate headquarters to 45 Glover Avenue in Norwalk, Connecticut. The new location will comprise approximately 173,000 square feet of office space. We took possession of the newly leased property on January 1, 2019, for fit-out purposes. We will continue to occupy our existing headquarters space until the new headquarters is ready for occupancy, currently estimated to be in the second quarter of fiscal 2020.

We have data content collection offices located in India, the Philippines and Latvia, which benefit all our operating segments. Additionally, we have data centers that support our technological infrastructure located in New Jersey and Virginia. The other locations listed in the table below are leased office space. The leases expire on various dates through 2035. We believe the amount of leased space as of August 31, 2019 is adequate for our current needs and that additional space can be available to meet any future needs.

Including new lease agreements executed during fiscal 2019, our Company’s worldwide leased space increased to approximately 1,860,000 square feet as of August 31, 2019, up 110,000 square feet, or 6.3%, from August 31, 2018 and includes properties at the following locations:

ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

From time to time, the Company is subject to legal proceedings, claims and litigation arising in the ordinary course of business, including intellectual property litigation. Based on currently available information, the Company’s management does not believe that the ultimate outcome of these unresolved matters against FactSet, individually or in the aggregate, is likely to have a material adverse effect on the Company's consolidated financial position, its annual results of operations or its annual cash flows. However, these matters are subject to inherent uncertainties and management’s view of these matters may change in the future.

ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

Not applicable.

Part II

ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

Market Information – Our common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) and the NASDAQ Stock Market under the symbol FDS. The following table sets forth, for each fiscal period indicated, the high and low sales prices per share of our common stock as reported on the NYSE:

Holders of Record – As of October 24, 2019, we had approximately 199,571 holders of record of our common stock. However, because many of our shares of common stock are held by brokers and other institutions on behalf of stockholders, we are unable to estimate the total number of stockholders represented by these record holders. The closing price of our common stock on October 24, 2019, was $253.22 per share as reported on the NYSE.

Dividends - During fiscal years 2019 and 2018, our Board of Directors declared the following dividends on our common stock:

All the above cash dividends were paid from existing cash resources on a quarterly basis. Future dividend payments will depend on our earnings, capital requirements, financial condition and other factors considered relevant by us, and is subject to final determination by our Board of Directors.

There were no sales of unregistered equity securities during fiscal 2019.

The following table provides a month-to-month summary of the share repurchase activity under the current stock repurchase program during the three months ended August 31, 2019:

(in thousands, except per share data)

Securities Authorized for Issuance under Equity Compensation Plans – see Part III of this Report on Form 10-K

Stock Performance Graph

The annual changes for the five-year period shown in the graph below assume $100 had been invested in our common stock, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, the NYSE Composite Index and the Dow Jones U.S. Financial Services Index on August 31, 2014. The total cumulative dollar returns shown on the graph represent the value that such investments would have had on August 31, 2019. Stockholder returns over the indicated period are based on historical data and should not be considered indicative of future stockholder returns.

The information contained in the above graph shall not be deemed to be soliciting material or filed or incorporated by reference in future filings with the SEC, or subject to the liabilities of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, except to the extent that FactSet specifically incorporates it by reference into a document filed under the Securities Act of 1933 or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA

The following selected financial data has been derived from our consolidated financial statements. This financial data should be read in conjunction with Item 7, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, of this Report on Form 10-K.

Consolidated Statements of Income Data

Consolidated Balance Sheets Data

ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (“MD&A”) is designed to provide a reader of our financial statements with a narrative from the perspective of our management on our financial condition, results of operations, liquidity and certain other factors that may affect our future results. Our MD&A is presented in the following sections:

The MD&A should be read in conjunction with the Consolidated Financial Statements and related Notes included in Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, of this Report on Form 10-K.

Executive Overview

FactSet Research Systems Inc. (the “Company” or “FactSet”) is a global provider of integrated financial information, analytical applications and industry-leading services for the investment and corporate communities. For over 40 years, global financial professionals have utilized our content and multi-asset class solutions across each stage of the investment process. Our goal is to provide a seamless user experience spanning idea generation, research, portfolio construction, trade execution, performance measurement, risk management, reporting, and portfolio analysis, in which we serve the front, middle, and back offices to drive productivity and improved performance. Our flexible, open data and technology solutions can be implemented both across the investment portfolio lifecycle or as standalone components serving different workflows in the organization. We are focused on growing our business throughout each of our three segments, the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific. We primarily deliver insight and information through the workflow solutions of Research, Analytics and Trading, Content and Technology Solutions and Wealth.

We currently serve financial professionals, which include portfolio managers, investment research professionals, investment bankers, risk and performance analysts, wealth advisors, and corporate clients. We provide both insights on global market trends and intelligence on companies and industries, as well as capabilities to monitor portfolio risk and performance and to execute trades. We combine dedicated client service with open and flexible technology offerings, such as a comprehensive data marketplace, a configurable mobile and desktop platform, digital portals and application programming interface (“APIs”). Our revenue is primarily derived from subscriptions to products and services such as workstations, analytics, enterprise data, research management, and trade execution.

Fiscal 2019 Year in Review

Revenue for the fiscal year 2019 was $1.44 billion, an increase of 6.3% from the prior year comparable period, of which, 6.2% of the increase can be attributed to organic revenue growth. Revenue growth can be attributed primarily to Analytics and Trading, CTS and Wealth due mainly to increased demand for our portfolio analytics solutions, core and premium data feeds and our wealth workstations. As of August 31, 2019, organic annual subscription value (“organic ASV”) plus professional services totaled $1.48 billion, an increase of 5.1% over the prior year.

Operating income grew 19.6% and diluted earnings per share ("EPS") increased 33.9% compared to the prior year period. In addition, clients and users reached new highs of 5,574 and 126,822, respectively, in fiscal 2019. Over the last 12 months, we returned $320.4 million to stockholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends.

We won multiple awards, which included Best Data Provider to the Sell-Side, Best Performance Measurement and Attribution System Provider, and Best Client Reporting System at the Waters Technology Awards, Best Alternative Data Initiative and Best Data Analytics Provider at the Inside Market Data Awards. We expanded our data offering within CTS, on the Open:FactSet Marketplace, which now includes over 100 content and solution sets, including new data feeds from Mastercard and IHS Markit. Additionally, we launched a Global Robotics and Automation Index licensed to Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management Co., Ltd., marking our entry in the Japanese index mutual fund market.

In December 2018, we appointed Daniel Viens as Chief Human Resources Officer and in June 2019, we appointed Franck Gossieaux as Executive Vice President, Global Head of Sales and Client Solutions.

Client Service / Consultants

As part of the comprehensive value of FactSet’s solutions, consultants are versatile business people with knowledge of the financial markets and FactSet products. Consultants work closely with clients advising how FactSet solutions can be best leveraged to enhance their efficiency across workflows. A client-centric approach is a key foundation of our success at the Company. Additionally, our information and analytical applications are supported by a team of financial data and modeling experts. Client satisfaction is critical to how we measure the success of our service. According to our global client satisfaction survey, greater than 93% of respondents were satisfied or very satisfied with FactSet’s support. We believe that these strong relationships help enable high rates of retention and expansion of client business.

Key Metrics

The following is a review of our key metrics:

The table below provides an unaudited reconciliation of ASV to organic ASV:

Organic Annual Subscription Value Growth

Organic ASV at any given point in time represents the forward-looking revenue for the next 12 months from all subscription services currently being supplied to clients, excludes ASV from acquisitions and dispositions completed within the last 12 months, the effects of foreign currency, and professional services. With proper notice to us, our clients can add to, delete portions of, or terminate service at any time, subject to certain contractual limitations. As of August 31, 2019, our organic ASV totaled $1.46 billion, up 5.0% organically over the prior year. As of August 31, 2019, organic ASV plus professional services was $1.48 billion, an increase of 5.1%, compared to the prior year period.

The increase in year over year organic ASV was due to growth across all of our geographic segments with the majority of growth in the U.S., followed by Asia Pacific and Europe. ASV growth from our workflow solutions was primarily driven by Analytics and Trading, CTS and Wealth. The increase includes sales of products and solutions to new and existing clients, an annual price increase for both the majority of the U.S. and international clients, partially offset by cancellations due primarily to industry-wide cost pressures, firm consolidations and closures. ASV growth in Analytics and Trading was primarily due to increased sales for our portfolio analytics solutions. ASV growth in CTS was primarily driven by increased sales in core and premium data feeds while ASV growth in Wealth was mainly due to increased workstation sales.

As of August 31, 2019, ASV from the U.S. segment was $909.7 million, an increase of 4.7% from the prior year comparable period. This increase was primarily from Analytics and Trading, CTS and Wealth, due to the increased demand for our portfolio analytics solutions, core and premium data feeds and wealth workstations.

ASV from the international operations was $548.3 million as of August 31, 2019, an increase of 4.6% over August 31, 2018. International ASV represents 37.6% of total ASV as of August 31, 2019, remaining consistent with the prior year period. The ASV increase from our international operations was due to continued growth in Analytics and Trading in both Asia Pacific and Europe as well as CTS growth in Europe. The Analytics and Trading growth was driven by our portfolio analytics solutions, while the CTS growth was due to core and premium data feeds.

Buy-side and sell-side ASV growth rates for the last 12 months were 4.8% and 6.3% respectively. Buy-side clients account for 83.7% of ASV, which include traditional asset managers, wealth advisors, corporations, hedge funds, insurance companies, plan sponsors and fund of funds. The remaining portion of ASV is derived from sell-side firms that perform M&A advisory work, capital markets services and equity research.

Client and User Additions

Our total client count was 5,574 as of August 31, 2019, representing a net increase of 432 clients in the last twelve months. In the first quarter of fiscal 2019, we changed our client count definition to include clients from the April 2017 acquisition of FDSG. The prior year client count was not restated to reflect this change. The net increase was primarily driven by an increase in wealth management and corporate clients. As part of our long-term growth strategy, we continue to focus on expanding and cultivating relationships with our existing client base through sales of workstations, applications, services and content.

As of August 31, 2019, there were 126,822 professionals using FactSet, representing a net increase of 34,925 or 38.0% in the last 12 months primarily driven by Wealth and Research workstation sales.

Annual client retention as of August 31, 2019 was 89%, when expressed as a percentage of clients. Our successful client retention demonstrates that a majority of our clients maintain their subscriptions to FactSet year over year, highlighting the strength of our business strategy. As of August 31, 2019, our largest individual client accounted for approximately 3% of total subscriptions, and annual subscriptions from our ten largest clients did not surpass 15% of total client subscriptions.

Returning Value to Stockholders

On August 9, 2019, our Board of Directors approved a regular quarterly dividend of $0.72 per share. The cash dividend of $27.3 million was paid on September 19, 2019 to common stockholders of record at the close of business on August 30, 2019. We repurchased 0.9 million shares for $213.1 million during fiscal 2019 under our existing share repurchase program. Over the last 12 months, we have generated $427.1 million in cash from operations and have returned $320.4 million to stockholders in the form of share repurchases and cash dividends.

On June 24, 2019, the Board of Directors of FactSet approved a $210.0 million expansion of the existing share repurchase program. Subsequent to this expansion, $238.6 million was available for future repurchases as of August 31, 2019.

Capital Expenditures

Capital expenditures were $59.4 million during fiscal 2019, compared to $33.5 million a year ago. Capital expenditures of $28.0 million, or 47%, were primarily related to corporate infrastructure investments, additional server equipment for our data centers located in New Jersey and Virginia, as well as computers and peripherals for new office space primarily in India. The remainder of our capital expenditures was primarily for the build-out of office space, with $22.3 million related to the new corporate headquarters in Norwalk, Connecticut and $6.6 million related to new office space in India.

Results of Operations

For an understanding of the significant factors that influenced our performance during the past three fiscal years, the following discussion should be read in conjunction with the Consolidated Financial Statements and the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements presented in this Report on Form 10-K.

Revenue

Fiscal 2019 compared to Fiscal 2018

Revenue in fiscal 2019 were $1.44 billion, increasing 6.3% compared to fiscal 2018. Our organic revenue growth rate for fiscal 2019 was 6.2% compared to the prior year period. Organic revenue excludes the effects of acquisitions and dispositions completed in the last 12 months, foreign currency in all periods presented and deferred revenue fair value adjustments from purchase accounting. The increase in revenue was due to revenue growth across all geographic segments and workflow solutions, including client additions and product expansion within our existing client base. The growth in the workflow solutions was primarily driven by Analytics and Trading, CTS and Wealth. The increase includes sales of products and solutions to new and existing clients, an annual price increase, partially offset by cancellations. Revenue growth in Analytics and Trading was primarily due to increased demand for our portfolio analytics solutions. The growth in CTS was driven mainly by increased sales of core and premium data feeds. Wealth also experienced revenue growth due to higher sales of our workstation product. Offsetting these growth factors were cancellations, resulting from continued industry-wide cost pressures and firm consolidations and closures.

Fiscal 2018 compared to Fiscal 2017

Revenue in fiscal 2018 were $1.35 billion, increasing 10.6% compared to fiscal 2017. Our organic revenue growth rate for fiscal 2018 was 5.6% compared to fiscal 2017, with cancellations remaining relatively flat during fiscal 2018. Organic revenue excludes the effects of acquisitions and dispositions completed in the last 12 months and foreign currency in all periods. The increase in revenue was throughout our geographical segments and workflow solutions. The U.S. segment revenues was up 7.4% compared to the fiscal 2017, primarily driven by additional clients, expansion from within our existing client base and an annual price increase, while holding client cancellations steady. Our international operations also grew as demonstrated by our 17.3% growth in Europe and a 13.1% increase in Asia Pacific. In addition to revenue growth amongst the geographic segments, achievements were also made across each workflow solution which include Research, Analytics and Trading, CTS, and Wealth. The Research workflow growth was driven by additional users due to banking new hires. The growth in the Analytics and Trading workflow was primarily attributed to increased sales in the portfolio analytics, reporting, and risk platforms, coupled with the enhancement of our multi-asset class risk model offerings, which strengthened our position in the analytics market. The CTS workflow growth was driven by increased demand for our proprietary content data feeds while new business sales drove the Wealth workflow growth.

Revenue by Geographic Segment

Fiscal 2019 compared to Fiscal 2018

Revenues from our U.S. segment increased 6.3% to $894.6 million in fiscal 2019 compared to $841.9 million in fiscal 2018. This increase was primarily due to increased sales of products and solutions to new and existing clients primarily in Analytics and Trading, CTS and Wealth, an annual price increase for the majority of our U.S. segment clients, partially offset by cancellations. Excluding the effects of acquisitions and dispositions, organic revenues in the U.S. was up 6.2% compared to fiscal 2018. Revenues from our U.S. operations accounted for 62.3% of our consolidated revenue during fiscal 2019, consistent with the prior year period.

Revenue from our international operations increased 6.4% in fiscal 2019 compared to fiscal 2018.

European revenues increased 5.3% to $408.1 million in fiscal 2019 compared to $387.6 million in fiscal 2018. This increase was primarily driven by increased sales of products and solutions to new and existing clients primarily in Analytics and Trading and CTS, which includes our annual price increase for the majority of our European clients, partially offset by increased cancellations in Research. European organic revenues grew 5.0% in fiscal 2019 compared to fiscal 2018. Foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations decreased our European growth rate by 30 basis points.

Asia Pacific revenues increased 10.0% during fiscal 2019, compared with fiscal 2018. This increase was due mainly to increased sales of products and solutions to new and existing clients primarily in Analytics and Trading, which includes our annual price increase for the majority of our Asia Pacific clients, partially offset by cancellations. Asia Pacific organic revenues grew 10.0% during fiscal 2019 compared to fiscal 2018, with foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations having a minimal impact.

Fiscal 2018 compared to Fiscal 2017

Revenues from our U.S. segment increased 7.4% to $841.9 million in fiscal 2018 compared to $784.1 million in fiscal 2017, due to organic ASV growth across our workflow solutions and strong performance executing new business sales. Cancellations remained relatively flat for fiscal 2018 showing signs of stability. Excluding the effects of acquisitions and dispositions, organic revenues in the U.S. were up 5.1% compared to fiscal 2017. Revenues from our U.S. operations accounted for 62.4% of our consolidated revenue during fiscal 2018, a decrease from 64.2% in fiscal 2017.

Revenue from our international operations increased 16.3% in fiscal 2018 compared to fiscal 2017, due to growth across our workflow solutions, partially offset by higher cancellations compared to the prior year.

European revenues increased 17.3% to $387.6 million in fiscal 2018 compared to $330.3 in fiscal 2017. Excluding the effects of acquisitions and dispositions completed in the last 12 months and foreign currency, European organic revenues grew 9.4% in fiscal 2018 compared to fiscal 2017. Foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations increased our European growth rate by 150 basis points.

Asia Pacific revenues increased 13.1% during fiscal 2018, compared with fiscal 2017. Excluding the effects of acquisitions and dispositions completed in the last 12 months and foreign currency, Asia Pacific organic revenues grew 12.9% during fiscal 2018 compared to fiscal 2017, with foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations having a minimal impact.

Operating Expenses

Cost of Services

Fiscal 2019 compared to Fiscal 2018

Cost of services increased 0.6% to $663.4 million in fiscal 2019 compared to $659.3 in fiscal 2018. This increase was primarily due to an increase in data costs and computer-related expenses, partially offset by a reduction in compensation costs and contractor fees. Cost of services, expressed as a percentage of revenue, was 46.2% during fiscal 2019, a decrease of 260 basis points over the prior year period. This decrease was primarily due to revenue growth outpacing the growth of cost of services on a year over year basis, as well as a decrease in compensation costs, partially offset by an increase in computer-related expenses, when expressed as a percentage of revenue.

Employee compensation, when expressed as a percentage of revenue decreased 300 basis points in fiscal 2019, compared to the prior fiscal year. This decrease in employee compensation was primarily driven by a foreign currency benefit from a stronger U.S. dollar, a shift in headcount distribution from our higher to lower cost locations, the timing of new employee hiring, and a restructuring charge impacting the prior year period, partially offset by higher employee benefit costs. Computer-related expenses increased 40 basis points, when expressed as a percentage of revenue for fiscal 2019, compared to the prior year period, primarily driven by increased costs from cloud-based hosting and licensed software arrangements.

Fiscal 2018 compared to Fiscal 2017

Cost of services increased 16.4% to $659.3 million in fiscal 2018 compared to $566.6 million in fiscal 2017. Cost of services, expressed as a percentage of revenue, was 48.8% during fiscal 2018, an increase of 240 basis points over fiscal 2017. This increase was primarily due to higher employee compensation costs driven by increased employee headcount and restructuring actions, incremental data costs from recent acquisitions and additional users as well as amortization of intangible assets associated with our recent acquisitions. This increase was partially offset by a reduction in stock-based compensation expenses from accelerated vesting in fiscal 2017.

Employee compensation, including stock-based compensation, when expressed as a percentage of revenue increased 100 basis points in fiscal 2018, compared to fiscal 2017. The increase is primarily due to the hiring of 497 net new employees over the last 12 months, with the majority of their compensation recorded in cost of services due to their involvement with content collection, engineering and product development. Employee compensation expense further increased due to headcount expansion from fiscal 2017 acquisitions that were included for a full year in fiscal 2018, while fiscal 2017 only included a partial year amount. In addition, during fiscal 2018 we incurred $17.4 million of restructuring charges primarily related to severance of which $8.5 million was recorded within cost of services. Data costs, when expressed as a percentage of revenue, increased 60 basis points due primarily from our recent acquisitions and higher variable data costs associated with additional users. Amortization of acquired intangible assets, when expressed as a percentage of revenue, increased 20 basis points in fiscal 2018 compared to the same period a year ago, primarily due to recent acquisitions, which added $93.2 million of intangible assets to be amortized over a weighted-average life of 11.5 years. These intangible assets were amortized for the full fiscal 2018, while, fiscal 2017 did not include a similar amount of acquisition amortization due to the dates of each acquisition.

Selling, General and Administrative

Fiscal 2019 compared to Fiscal 2018

SG&A expenses increased 2.8% to $333.9 million during fiscal 2019 compared to $324.6 million in fiscal 2018. This increase was primarily due to an increase in bad debt expense and compensation costs, partially offset by a reduction in travel expenses. SG&A expenses, expressed as a percentage of revenue, were 23.3% in fiscal 2019, a decrease of 70 basis points over the prior year period. This year over year decrease was primarily due to revenue growth outpacing the growth of SG&A related expenses, lower employee compensation and a reduction in travel costs, partially offset by an increase in bad debt expense, when expressed as a percentage of revenue.

Employee compensation, when expressed as a percentage of revenue, decreased 50 basis points in fiscal 2019, compared to fiscal 2018. This decrease is primarily driven by a foreign currency benefit from a stronger U.S dollar, a shift in headcount distribution from our higher to lower cost locations, the timing of new employee hiring, and a restructuring charge impacting the prior year period, partially offset by higher employee benefit costs. Travel expenses decreased 30 basis points, as a percentage of revenue, due to an internal focus on cost discipline measures. Bad debt expense increased 60 basis points, as a percentage of revenue.

Fiscal 2018 compared to Fiscal 2017

SG&A expenses increased 7.3% to $324.6 million during fiscal 2018 compared to $302.5 million in fiscal 2017. SG&A expenses, expressed as a percentage of revenue, were 24.0% in fiscal 2018, a decrease of 70 basis points over fiscal 2017. This decrease was primarily due to revenue growth outpacing the growth of SG&A related expenses on a year over year basis, foreign currency exchange gains on hedging activities of our Indian Rupee and lower overall employee compensation including stock-based compensation expense. This decrease was partially offset primarily by higher legal costs, restructuring actions and new employee additions.

Employee compensation, including stock-based compensation, when expressed as a percentage of revenue decreased 50 basis points compared to fiscal 2017. The decrease is primarily related to a higher percentage of our employees working in a cost of services capacity compared to an SG&A role. Compensation for our employees within the content collection, consulting, product development, software and systems engineering groups is recorded within cost of services while employees within our sales and various other support and administrative departments are reflected in SG&A. In fiscal 2018, the majority of our hiring had been in departments within cost of services, thus driving a higher percentage of our employee compensation in this area. Partially offsetting these decreases were higher legal expenses primarily from the settlement of a legal matter in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018, a full year of employee compensation from acquisitions and $8.9 million of severance charges.

Operating Income and Operating Margin

Fiscal 2019 compared to Fiscal 2018

Operating income increased 19.6% to $438.0 million in fiscal 2019 compared to $366.2 million in fiscal 2018. Operating income increased due to revenue growth, favorable foreign exchange rates which reduced the overall operating expense impact and mainly resulted in a reduction in compensation expense, as well as, decreased costs from restructuring actions, decreased travel expenses and contractor fees, partially offset by an increase in data costs, computer-related expenses and bad debt expense. Our operating margin increased in fiscal 2019 to 30.5%, compared to 27.1% for fiscal 2018. Operating margin increased due to incremental revenue that outpaced the growth of our operating expenses year over year, favorable foreign exchange rates, which reduced the overall operating expense impact and mainly resulted in a reduction in compensation expense, as well as, lower costs from restructuring actions, a reduction in travel expenses, partially offset by higher bad debt expense and computer-related expenses, when expressed as a percentage of revenue.

Fiscal 2018 compared to Fiscal 2017

Operating income increased 4.0% to $366.2 million in fiscal 2018 compared to $352.1 million in fiscal 2017. Our operating margin decreased in fiscal 2018 to 27.1%, compared to 28.8% for fiscal 2017. Operating income increased due to incremental revenue that outpaced the growth of SG&A expenses year over year partially offset by higher cost of services. The reduction in operating margin year over year was due to an increase in employee compensation costs, including restructuring actions, data costs from acquisitions and additional users, amortization of intangible assets associated with acquisitions, and incremental legal fees partially offset by foreign currency exchange gains on hedging activities and lower stock-based compensation.

Operating Income by Segment

Our operating segments are aligned with how we manage the business, the demographic markets we serve, and how the CODMG assesses performance. Our internal financial reporting structure is based on three reportable segments, the U.S., Europe and Asia Pacific, which we believe helps us better manage the business and view the markets we serve. Sales, consulting, data collection, product development and software engineering are the primary functional groups within each segment. Each segment records compensation expense, including stock-based compensation, amortization of intangible assets, depreciation of furniture and fixtures, amortization of leasehold improvements, communication costs, professional fees, rent expense, travel, office and other direct expenses. Expenditures associated with our data centers, third-party data costs and corporate headquarter charges are recorded by the U.S. segment and are not allocated to the other segments. The centers of excellence, located in India and the Philippines, primarily focus on content collection that benefit all our segments. The expenses incurred at these locations are allocated to each segment based on a percentage of revenue.

Fiscal 2019 compared to Fiscal 2018

U.S. operating income increased 21.1% to $179.4 million during fiscal 2019, compared to $148.1 million a year ago. The increase in U.S. operating income was primarily due to revenue growth of 6.3% and a reduction in compensation expense, partially offset by increased computer-related expenses, data costs, bad debt expense and occupancy expense. Compensation expense decreased due to a net reduction in headcount of 4.9% over the past 12 months, the timing of new employee hiring, and a restructuring charge impacting the prior year period, partially offset by higher employee benefit costs. Computer related expenses increased year over year primarily due to increased costs from cloud-based hosting and licensed software arrangements. Data costs increased due to increased acquisition costs of fixed cost content and additional spend on variable cost content to drive revenue growth. Occupancy costs increased primarily related to leasing the new corporate headquarters space in Norwalk, Connecticut.

European operating income increased 20.3% to $179.3 million during fiscal 2019, compared to $149.0 million a year ago. The increase in European operating income was primarily due to revenue growth of 5.3% and an overall reduction in operating expenses driven mainly by a decrease in employee compensation expense and occupancy expense, partially offset by an increase in bad debt expense. Employee compensation decreased primarily due to a foreign currency benefit from a stronger U.S. dollar, a restructuring charge impacting the prior year period, partially offset by a net headcount increase of 2.9% over the past 12 months. Occupancy costs decreased due to a one-time adjustment recognized in fiscal 2019. The impact of foreign currency increased European operating income by $6.6 million year over year.

Asia Pacific operating income increased 14.9% to $79.4 million during fiscal 2019, compared to $69.1 million a year ago. The increase in Asia Pacific operating income was due to revenue growth of 10.0% and benefits from a stronger U.S. dollar, partially offset by increases in compensation expense and occupancy costs. Employee compensation was higher, year over year, due to a 3.3% increase in our Asia Pacific workforce, partially offset by a foreign currency benefit from a stronger U.S. dollar. Occupancy costs increased due primarily to the expansion of office space in India and the Philippines. The impact of foreign currency increased Asia Pacific operating income by $3.2 million year over year.

Fiscal 2018 compared to Fiscal 2017

U.S. operating income increased 8.0% to $148.1 million during fiscal 2018 compared to $137.1 million in fiscal 2017. The increase in U.S. operating income was primarily due to revenue growth of 7.4%, partially offset by increased expenses related to employee compensation, computer equipment and data costs. Employee compensation increased primarily due to annual base salary increases, restructuring actions, and higher employee benefit costs including medical expenditures. Computer related expenses, which include depreciation, maintenance, software and other fees, increased year over year due to expenses associated with upgrades to existing computer systems in Norwalk, additional server equipment in our data centers located in New Jersey and Virginia, as well as laptop computers and peripherals for new and existing employees. Data costs increased due to higher third-party data costs from our recent acquisitions and additional users.

European operating income decreased 3.1% to $149.0 million during fiscal 2018 compared to $153.7 million in fiscal 2017. The impact of foreign currency decreased European operating income by $4.9 million year over year. Additionally, the decrease in European operating income was due to a full year impact of fiscal 2017 acquisitions, that contributed to higher employee compensation, amortization of intangible assets, and data costs, partially offset by revenue growth of 17.3%.

Asia Pacific operating income increased 12.7% to $69.1 million during fiscal 2018 compared to $61.4 million in fiscal 2017. The increase in Asia Pacific operating income was due to revenue growth of 13.1% and benefits from a stronger U.S. dollar, partially offset by increases in employee compensation and occupancy costs. Employee compensation was higher year over year as result of a 9.2% increase in our Asia Pacific workforce. Occupancy costs increased due primarily to an increase in rent expense for additional office space in our Philippines location. The impact of foreign currency increased Asia Pacific operating income by $3.6 million year over year.

Income Taxes, Net Income and Diluted Earnings per Share

Income Taxes

Fiscal 2019 compared to Fiscal 2018

The fiscal 2019 provision for income taxes was $69.2 million, a decrease of 18.4% from the same period a year ago. The decrease was primarily attributable to the enactment of the TCJA. The TCJA imposed a one-time transition tax expense, which resulted in a $23.2 million impact to the income tax provision for fiscal 2018, without a comparable impact in fiscal 2019. This transition tax impact was revised during fiscal 2019, resulting in a net benefit of $3.4 million upon finalizing the accounting for the tax effects of the TCJA. The TCJA also lowered the statutory U.S corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%, effective January 1, 2018, which was fully applicable for fiscal 2019 compared to the lower tax rate being phased in for the prior year comparable period. The reduction in the U.S. corporate income tax rate required a remeasurement of our net U.S. deferred tax position, which resulted in a non-recurring tax charge of $2.2 million during fiscal 2018. The decrease in the income tax provision year over year was partially offset by a $3.3 million income tax expense from finalizing prior years’ tax returns and other discrete items for fiscal 2019.

Our effective tax rate was 16.4% for the full fiscal 2019 year compared to 24.1% a year ago was mainly due the reduction in the federal statutory rate from the enactment of the TCJA that was fully applicable for fiscal year 2019 compared to being phased in for the prior year comparable period. The decrease in the effective tax rate for fiscal 2019 was also due to the one-time transition tax from the TCJA that was recorded in the prior year period. These benefits were partially offset by higher foreign income taxed at rates lower than U.S. rates.

Fiscal 2018 compared to Fiscal 2017

The fiscal 2018 provision for income taxes was $84.8 million, a decrease of 1.5% from fiscal 2017. The decrease was primarily attributable to the impacts associated with the U.S. tax reform under the TCJA. On December 22, 2017, the U.S. government enacted comprehensive tax legislation through the TCJA. The TCJA, among other things, lowered the statutory U.S. corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%, effective January 1, 2018. Due to our August 31 fiscal year-end, the lower tax rate was phased in, resulting in a blended U.S. statutory federal rate of 25.7% for fiscal 2018. The TCJA also implemented a modified territorial tax system and imposed a mandatory one-time transition tax on accumulated earnings and profits (“E&P”) of foreign subsidiaries that were previously deferred from U.S. income taxes.

Our effective tax rate was 24.1% for the full fiscal 2018 year compared to 25.0% in fiscal 2017, due to higher foreign income taxed at rates lower than U.S. rates, incremental income tax benefits from R&D tax credits and increased excess tax benefits from stock option exercises. These benefits were partially offset by the one-time transition tax of $23.2 million and a $2.3 million tax expense associated with the remeasurement of our net U.S. deferred tax position, both of which related to the TCJA. We had approximately $250 million in undistributed foreign E&P generated prior to December 31, 2017, which resulted in the provisional amount for the one-time transition tax expense of $23.2 million, payable over an eight-year period.

Net Income and Diluted Earnings per Share

Fiscal 2019 compared to Fiscal 2018

Net income increased 32.1% to $352.8 million while diluted earnings per share increased 33.9% to $9.08 during fiscal 2019 compared to fiscal 2018. Net income and diluted EPS increased primarily due to higher operating income, a reduction in the income tax provision primarily due to the TCJA reform, partially offset by an increase in interest expense associated with our outstanding debt. Diluted EPS also benefited from a 0.5 million share reduction in our diluted weighted average shares outstanding, compared to the same period a year ago, mainly due to share repurchases, partially offset by the impact from stock options issued.

Fiscal 2018 compared to Fiscal 2017

Net income increased 3.4% to $267.1 million, while diluted earnings per share increased 4.1% to $6.78 during fiscal 2018 compared to fiscal 2017. Net income and diluted EPS grew primarily from higher revenue from strong performances across our segments and workflow solutions, gains earned from our foreign currency hedges, and a decrease in our effective tax rate due to the TCJA. These benefits were partially offset by an increase in employee compensation expenses, data costs, amortization of intangible assets from acquisitions, occupancy costs, and interest expense associated with our outstanding debt. Diluted EPS also benefited from a 0.3 million reduction in our weighted average shares outstanding due to share repurchases partially offset by stock option exercises during fiscal 2018.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement the financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP, we use non-GAAP financial measures including organic revenue, adjusted operating margin, adjusted net income and adjusted diluted earnings per share. The reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable financial measures calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP are shown in tables below. These non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for or superior to, financial measures reported in accordance with GAAP. Moreover, these non-GAAP financial measures have limitations in that they do not reflect all the items associated with the operations of the business as determined in accordance with GAAP. Other companies may calculate similarly titled non-GAAP financial measures differently than we do, limiting the usefulness of those measures for comparative purposes.

Despite the limitations of these non-GAAP financial measures, we believe these adjusted financial measures and the information they provide are useful in viewing our performance using the same tools that management uses to gauge progress in achieving our goals. Adjusted measures may also facilitate comparisons to our historical performance.

The table below provides an unaudited reconciliation of revenue to organic revenue.

The table below provides an unaudited reconciliation of operating income, operating margin, net income and diluted EPS to adjusted operating income, adjusted operating margin, adjusted net income and adjusted diluted EPS, respectively.

Liquidity

The table below, for the periods indicated, provides selected cash flow information:

Fiscal 2019 compared to Fiscal 2018

Cash and cash equivalents aggregated to $359.8 million, or 23.1% of total assets at August 31, 2019, compared with $208.6 million, or 14.7% of total assets at August 31, 2018. Our cash and cash equivalents increased $151.2 million during fiscal 2019, primarily due to $575.0 million in proceeds from debt, $427.1 million of net cash provided by operating activities, $107.1 million in proceeds from the exercise of employee stock options and $3.3 million in net proceeds from investments. These cash inflows were partially offset by $575.0 million related to the repayment of debt, $220.4 million in share repurchases (which included $213.1 million under the existing share repurchase program and $7.3 million in shares repurchased from employees to cover their cost of taxes upon vesting of restricted stock), $100.1 million in dividend payments, $59.4 million of capital expenditures, and $5.6 million from the effects of foreign currency translations.

Net cash used in investing activities was $56.1 million in fiscal 2019, representing a $7.6 million increase in cash used from investing activities, compared to fiscal 2018. This increase was primarily due to $25.9 million of higher capital expenditures, offset by a $15.0 million decrease in acquisition activity, and a $3.3 million increase in net proceeds from investments (net of purchases).

During fiscal 2019, net cash used in financing activities was $214.3 million, representing a $105.8 million decrease from fiscal 2018. This decrease was due primarily to $575.0 million of borrowings under our 2019 Credit Agreement, an $83.6 million decrease in share repurchases and a $35.4 million increase in proceeds from employee stock plans. This decrease was partially offset by the $575.0 million retirement of the 2017 Credit Agreement and a $10.6 million increase in dividend payments. Refer to the Capital Resources section of the MD&A for a discussion on our Long-term debt borrowings.

We expect that for at least the next 12 months, our operating expenses will continue to constitute a significant use of our cash. As of August 31, 2019, our total cash and cash equivalents worldwide was $359.8 million, with $132.6 million included in the U.S. segment, the majority of which is held in bank accounts located within the U.S., $183.5 million in the Europe segment, predominantly within bank accounts in the UK, France, and Germany, and the remaining $43.7 million held in the Asia Pacific segment. As of August 31, 2019, we also had $574.2 million in outstanding borrowings (net of $0.8 million of unamortized debt issuance costs). We believe our liquidity (including cash on hand, cash from operating activities and other cash flows that we expect to generate) within each geographic segment will be sufficient to meet our short-term and long-term operating requirements, including working capital needs, capital expenditures, dividend payments, stock repurchases, growth objectives and other financing activities. In addition, we expect existing foreign cash, cash equivalents and cash flows from operations to continue to be sufficient to fund our foreign operating activities and cash commitments for investing activities, such as capital expenditures, for at least the next 12 months and thereafter, for the foreseeable future.

Free cash flow generated in fiscal 2019 was $367.8 million, an increase of 4.4% compared to $352.1 million in fiscal 2018. Free cash flow is the result of $427.1 million of net cash provided by operating activities, partially offset by $59.4 million in capital expenditures. The year over year increase to free cash flow was primarily driven by higher net income and an increase in client collections due to a reduction in our days sales outstanding ("DSO") to 37 days as of August 31, 2019, compared to 41 days for the prior year period, partially offset by higher capital requirements from the build-out of new office space and the timing of supplier and tax payments.

Fiscal 2018 compared to Fiscal 2017

Cash and cash equivalents aggregated to $208.6 million, or 14.7% of our total assets at August 31, 2018, compared with $194.7 million, or 13.8% of our total assets at August 31, 2017. Our cash and cash equivalents increased $13.9 million during fiscal 2018 due to net cash provided by operating activities of $385.7 million and $71.6 million in proceeds from the exercise of employee stock options. These cash inflows were partially offset by $89.4 million in dividend payments, $33.5 million of capital expenditures, $15.0 million related to a business investment, $3.2 million from the effects of foreign currency translations and $303.9 million in share repurchases, which included $302.4 million under the existing share repurchase program and $1.5 million in shares repurchased from employees to cover their cost of taxes upon vesting of restricted stock.

Net cash used in investing activities was $48.5 million in fiscal 2018, representing a $298.8 million decrease from fiscal 2017. This reduction was primarily due to decreased acquisition activity with $15.0 million invested in fiscal 2018 compared to $303.1 million largely related to the BI-SAM Technologies (“BISAM”) and Vermilion Holdings Limited (“Vermilion”) acquisitions in fiscal 2017. Additionally, cash used in investing activities decreased year over year due to lower capital expenditures of $3.3 million and a decrease in the purchase of investments (net of proceeds) of $7.4 million year over year

During fiscal 2018, net cash used in financing activities was $320.0 million, representing a $311.9 million increase from fiscal 2017. This increase was due to $275.0 million in proceeds (net of repayment) from the issuance of long-term debt in fiscal 2017 that did not occur in fiscal 2018. In addition, the decrease was due to higher dividend payments of $8.5 million, an increase in share repurchases of $43.0 million, and a change in the presentation of tax benefits from share-based payment arrangements due to the adoption of the accounting standard update, which required us to disclose benefits from stock option exercises as an operating cash inflow instead of a financing activity. This presentation change was adopted prospectively beginning with fiscal 2018. These cash outflows were partially offset by an increase in proceeds from employee stock plans of $21.6 million.

Free cash flow generated in fiscal 2018 was $352.1 million, an increase of 24.1% compared to $283.7 million in fiscal 2017. Free cash flow was attributable to $267.1 million of net income, $87.0 million of non-cash items, $31.6 million of working capital changes, less $33.5 million in capital expenditures. The year over year free cash flow growth was driven by positive working capital changes totaling $47.6 million and lower capital expenditures of $3.3 million. Working capital improved year over year due to timing of supplier payments and payroll, stabilization of our days sales outstanding (“DSO”) at 41 days and the adoption of an accounting standard update for share-based payments, which required the presentation of benefits from stock options exercised to be reported as an operating activity, when in prior periods it was reported as a financing activity.

Capital Resources

Capital Expenditures

Capital expenditures were $59.4 million during fiscal 2019, compared to $33.5 million a year ago. Capital expenditures of $28.0 million, or 47%, were primarily related to corporate infrastructure investments, additional server equipment for our data centers located in New Jersey and Virginia, as well as computers and peripherals for new office space primarily in India. The remainder of our capital expenditures was primarily for the build-out of office space, with $22.3 million related to the new corporate headquarters in Norwalk, Connecticut and $6.6 million related to new office space in India.

Capital expenditures were $33.5 million during fiscal 2018, down from $36.9 million in fiscal 2017. Capital expenditures of $24.2 million, or 72% of our capital expenditures during fiscal 2018 related to upgrades to existing computer systems in Norwalk, additional server equipment in our data centers located in New Jersey and Virginia, as well as laptop computers and peripherals for new and existing employees. The remainder of our capital expenditures was primarily for the build out of office space including $2.2 million at our India location, $2.8 million at our Hong Kong location and $1.5 million at our Netherlands location.

Capital Needs

Long-Term Debt

2019 Credit Agreement

On March 29, 2019, the Company entered into the 2019 Credit Agreement ("the 2019 Credit Agreement") between FactSet, as the borrower, and PNC Bank, National Association ("PNC"), as the administrative agent and lender. The 2019 Credit Agreement provides for a $750.0 million revolving credit facility ("the 2019 Revolving Credit Facility"). FactSet may request borrowings under the 2019 Revolving Credit Facility until its maturity date of March 29, 2024. The 2019 Credit Agreement also allows FactSet, subject to certain requirements, to arrange for additional borrowings with PNC for an aggregate amount of up to $500.0 million, provided that any such request for additional borrowings must be in a minimum amount of $25.0 million.

FactSet borrowed $575.0 million of the available $750.0 million provided by the 2019 Revolving Credit Facility, resulting in $175.0 million available to be withdrawn. FactSet is required to pay a commitment fee using a pricing grid currently at 0.10% based on the daily amount by which the available balance in the 2019 Revolving Credit Facility exceeds the borrowed amount. All outstanding loan amounts are reported as Long-term debt within the consolidated balance sheets at August 31, 2019. The principal balance is payable in full on the maturity date.

The fair value of our long-term debt was $575.0 million as of August 31, 2019, which the Company believe approximates carrying amount as the terms and interest rates approximate market rates given its floating interest rate basis. Borrowings under the loan bear interest on the outstanding principal amount at a rate equal to the daily LIBOR rate plus a spread using a debt leverage pricing grid, currently at 0.875%. During fiscal years 2019, 2018 and 2017, FactSet recorded interest expense of $19.8 million, $15.9 million and $8.4 million, respectively, on its outstanding debt amounts. The weighted average interest rate on amounts outstanding under our credit facilities was 3.35% and 2.69% as of August 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively. Interest on the loan outstanding is payable quarterly, in arrears, and on the maturity date.

During fiscal 2019, FactSet incurred approximately $0.9 million in debt issuance costs related to the 2019 Credit Agreement. These costs were capitalized as loan origination fees and are amortized into interest expense ratably over the term of the 2019 Credit Agreement.

The 2019 Credit Agreement contains covenants and requirements restricting certain FactSet activities, which are usual and customary for this type of loan. In addition, the 2019 Credit Agreement requires that FactSet maintain a consolidated net leverage ratio, as measured by total net funded debt/EBITDA below a specified level as of the end of each fiscal quarter. The Company was in compliance with all the covenants and requirements within the 2019 Credit Agreement as of August 31, 2019.

The borrowings from the 2019 Credit Agreement were used to retire all outstanding debt under the previous 2017 Credit Agreement between FactSet, as the borrower, and PNC as the lender on March 29, 2019. The total principal amount of the debt outstanding at the time of retirement was $575.0 million and there were no prepayment penalties.

2017 Credit Agreement

On March 17, 2017, the Company entered into a Credit Agreement (the "2017 Credit Agreement") between FactSet, as the borrower, and PNC Bank, National Association ("PNC"), as the administrative agent and lender. The 2017 Credit Agreement provided for a $575.0 million revolving credit facility (the "2017 Revolving Credit Facility"). The 2017 Credit Agreement also allowed FactSet, subject to certain requirements, to arrange for additional borrowings with PNC for an aggregate amount of up to $225.0 million, provided that any such request for additional borrowings was in a minimum amount of $25.0 million. FactSet could have requested borrowings under the 2017 Revolving Credit Facility until its maturity or retirement date. Borrowings under the loan were subject to interest on the outstanding principal amount at a rate equal to the daily LIBOR rate plus 1.00%. Interest on the loan outstanding was payable quarterly in arrears and on the maturity date. There were no prepayment penalties if the Company elected to prepay the outstanding loan amounts prior to the scheduled maturity date. The principal balance was repaid in full on March 29, 2019.

Letters of Credit

From time to time, we are required to obtain letters of credit in the ordinary course of business. Approximately $2.8 million of standby letters of credit have been issued in connection with our leased office spaces as of August 31, 2019. These standby letters of credit contain covenants that, among other things, require us to maintain minimum levels of consolidated net worth and certain leverage and fixed charge ratios. As of August 31, 2019 and 2018, we were in compliance with all covenants contained in the standby letters of credit.

Foreign Currency

Foreign Currency Exposure

Certain wholly-owned subsidiaries within the Europe and Asia Pacific segments operate under a functional currency different from the U.S. dollar. The financial statements of these foreign subsidiaries are translated into U.S. dollars using period-end rates of exchange for assets and liabilities and average rates for the period for revenues and expenses. Translation gains and losses that arise from translating assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses of foreign operations are recorded in accumulated other comprehensive (loss) income as a component of stockholders’ equity.

Our foreign currency exchange exposure is related to our operating expense base in countries outside the U.S., where 76% of our employees were located as of August 31, 2019. During fiscal 2019, foreign currency movements increased operating income by $10.1 million, compared to a decrease in operating income by $1.3 million for fiscal 2018.

Foreign Currency Hedges

As of August 31, 2019, we maintained the following foreign currency forward contracts to hedge our exposures:

As of August 31, 2019, the gross notional value of foreign currency forward contracts to purchase Philippine Pesos and Indian Rupees with U.S. dollars was ₱1.4 billion and Rs.1.4 billion, respectively. The gross notional value of foreign currency forward contracts to purchase U.S. dollars with Euros and British Pound Sterling was €35.7 million and £20.5 million, respectively.

There were no other outstanding foreign currency contracts as of August 31, 2019. A loss on derivatives of $1.8 million was recorded in operating income during fiscal 2019, compared to a gain of $3.1 million in fiscal 2018.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

At August 31, 2019 and 2018, we had no off-balance sheet financing or other arrangements with unconsolidated entities or financial partnerships (such as entities often referred to as structured finance or special purpose entities) established for purposes of facilitating off-balance sheet financing or other debt arrangements or for other contractually limited purposes.

Share Repurchase Program

Repurchases will be made from time to time in the open market and privately negotiated transactions, subject to market conditions. In fiscal 2019, we repurchased 0.9 million shares for $213.1 million compared to 1.5 million shares for $302.4 million in fiscal 2018 under the existing share repurchase program. Over the last 12 months, we have returned $320.4 million to stockholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends.

On June 24, 2019, the Board of Directors of FactSet approved a $210.0 million expansion of the existing share repurchase program. Subsequent to this expansion, $238.6 million is available for future repurchases as of August 31, 2019.

Contractual Obligations

Fluctuations in our operating results, the degree of success of our accounts receivable collection efforts, the timing of tax and other payments, as well as, necessary capital expenditures to support growth of our operations will impact our liquidity and cash flows in future periods. The effect of our contractual obligations on our liquidity and capital resources in future periods should be considered in conjunction with the factors disclosed below. As of August 31, 2019 and 2018, we had total purchase commitments with suppliers of $83.3 million and $79.0 million, respectively. There were no material changes in the Company’s purchase commitments with suppliers during fiscal 2019.

The following table summarizes our significant contractual obligations as of August 31, 2019 and the corresponding effect that these obligations will have on our liquidity and cash flows in future periods:

Purchase orders do not necessarily reflect a binding commitment but are merely indicative of authorizations and intention to conclude purchases in the future. For the purpose of this tabular disclosure, purchase obligations for goods and services are defined as agreements that are enforceable and legally binding on us and that specify all significant terms, including: fixed or minimum quantities to be purchased; fixed, minimum or variable price provisions; and the approximate timing of the transaction. It is expected that all the contractual obligations noted in the table will be funded from existing cash and cash flows from operations. Expected timing pertaining to the contractual obligations included in the table above has been estimated based on information currently available. The amounts paid, and the timing of those payments may differ based on when the goods and services provided by our vendors to whom we are contractually obligated are received, as well, as due to changes to agreed-upon amounts for any of our obligations.

On February 14, 2018, we entered into a new lease to relocate our corporate headquarters to 45 Glover Avenue in Norwalk, Connecticut. The new location will comprise approximately 173,000 square feet of office space. We took possession of the newly leased property on January 1, 2019 for fit-out purposes. We will continue to occupy our existing headquarters space until the new headquarters property is ready for occupancy, currently estimated to be in the second quarter of fiscal 2020.