FactSet Research Systems Inc. (FDS)

An analyst or portfolio manager spends the whole day inside such a system: company filings, estimates, models, portfolio analytics. The data is assembled and reconciled — that is what is paid for, because collecting it oneself costs more. The subscription is rarely cancelled: workflows and models are built around a specific terminal.

The market is divided among a few vendors, and growth comes not from new clients but from price increases and selling additional datasets. The weak point is job cuts in finance itself: the subscription is counted per user. Risks: client consolidation and competition from larger vendors. The dividend has been raised for many consecutive years.