Sifting through countless of stocks in the Capital Markets industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in LPL Financial Holdings Inc. or FactSet Research Systems Inc. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how LPL Financial Holdings Inc. and FactSet Research Systems Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About LPL Financial Holdings Inc. and FactSet Research Systems Inc.

LPL Financial Holdings Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides an integrated platform of brokerage and investment advisory services to independent financial advisors and financial advisors at institutions in the United States. The company’s brokerage offerings include variable and fixed annuities, mutual funds, equities, fixed income, alternative investments, retirement and 529 education savings plans, and insurance; and client cash programs consist of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insured bank sweep vehicles, and a client cash and money market account. It also provides fee-based platforms that provide access to mutual funds, exchange traded funds, stocks, bonds, certain options strategies, unit investment trusts, institutional money managers, and no-load multi-manager variable annuities. In addition, the company offers retirement solutions for commission and fee-based services that allow advisors to provide brokerage services, consultation, and advice to retirement plan sponsors. Further, it provides other services comprising tools and services that enable advisors to maintain and grow their practices; trust, investment management oversight, and custodial services for estates and families; an advisor-facing trading and portfolio rebalancing platform; insurance brokerage general agency services; and technology products, including proposal generation, investment analytics, and portfolio modeling. The company was formerly known as LPL Investment Holdings Inc. and changed its name to LPL Financial Holdings Inc. in June 2012. LPL Financial Holdings Inc. was founded in 1989 and is based in San Diego, California.

FactSet Research Systems Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a financial digital platform and enterprise solutions provider for the investment community. It offers data, products, and analytical applications; and workstations, portfolio analytics, and enterprise data solutions, as well as managed services for supporting data, performance, risk, and reporting workflows. The company also provides subscription-based financial data and market intelligence on securities, companies, industries, and people that enable clients to research investment ideas, as well as analyze, monitor, and manage portfolios; and solutions covering investment lifecycle of investment research, portfolio construction and analysis, trade execution, performance measurement, risk management, and reporting. In addition, it offers services through configurable desktop and mobile platform, data feeds, cloud-based digital solutions, and application programming interfaces. It operates in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company serves investment professionals, including institutional asset managers, bankers, wealth managers, asset owners, partners, hedge funds, corporate users, and private equity and venture capital professionals. It has a strategic partnership with Google Cloud to create a new generation of AI-powered solutions for the financial industry. FactSet Research Systems Inc. was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Latest Capital Markets and LPL Financial Holdings Inc., FactSet Research Systems Inc. Stock News

As of July 31, 2026, LPL Financial Holdings Inc. had a $28.0 billion market capitalization, compared to the Capital Markets median of $2.8 million. LPL Financial Holdings Inc.’s stock is down 1% in 2026, up 7.6% in the previous five trading days and down 11.35% in the past year.

Currently, LPL Financial Holdings Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 31.6. LPL Financial Holdings Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $17.8 billion with a 5.2% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 35.0%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $23.857 per share for the current fiscal year. LPL Financial Holdings Inc. currently has a 0.3% dividend yield.

As of July 31, 2026, FactSet Research Systems Inc. had a $9.4 billion market cap, putting it in the 76th percentile of all stocks. FactSet Research Systems Inc.’s stock is down 9.3% in 2026, up 3.5% in the previous five trading days and down 35.67% in the past year.

Currently, FactSet Research Systems Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 17.3. FactSet Research Systems Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $2.4 billion with a 23.2% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 6.4%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $17.826 per share for the current fiscal year. FactSet Research Systems Inc. currently has a 1.8% dividend yield.

How We Compare LPL Financial Holdings Inc. and FactSet Research Systems Inc. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at LPL Financial Holdings Inc. and FactSet Research Systems Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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LPL Financial Holdings Inc. and FactSet Research Systems Inc. Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
LPL Financial Holdings Inc.	LPLA	D
FactSet Research Systems Inc.	FDS	C

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. has a Value Score of 23, which is Expensive. FactSet Research Systems Inc. has a Value Score of 43, which is Average.

The Value Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither LPL Financial Holdings Inc. or FactSet Research Systems Inc. has a high enough value grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolio. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if LPL Financial Holdings Inc. or FactSet Research Systems Inc. is the better investment when it comes to value.

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. and FactSet Research Systems Inc. Growth Grades

Company	Ticker	Growth
LPL Financial Holdings Inc.	LPLA	D
FactSet Research Systems Inc.	FDS	A

The foundation of growth investing is seeking out stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth that is expected to continue into the future.

In order to compute the growth score and assign it a letter grade, the percentile ranks for each of three components‐consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations‐must be determined. These three rank figures are added together, and the sum is ranked against the entire stock universe to arrive at a company’s Growth Score to create an equal distribution of grades.

The companies in the bottom 20% of the stock universe receive Growth Grades of F, considered to be very weak, while those in the top 20% receive A grades, which are considered very strong.

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. has a Growth Score of 40, which is Weak. FactSet Research Systems Inc. has a Growth Score of 100, which is Very Strong.

The Growth Grade Winner: FactSet Research Systems Inc.

As you can clearly see from the Growth Grade breakdown above, FactSet Research Systems Inc. has a more attractive growth grade than LPL Financial Holdings Inc.. For investors who focus solely on how a company is growing relative to other companies in the same industry, FactSet Research Systems Inc. could be a good stock to add to their portfolio. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. and FactSet Research Systems Inc.’s Momentum Grades

Company	Ticker	Momentum
LPL Financial Holdings Inc.	LPLA	C
FactSet Research Systems Inc.	FDS	D

Momentum grades help to uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming. Momentum is based on the price change of a stock over a specified period relative to all other stocks.

Typically, AAII looks at the weighted relative strength over the trailing four quarters. The weighted four-quarter relative strength rank is the relative price change for each of the past four quarters. The most recent quarterly price change is given a weight of 40% and each of the three previous quarters are given a weighting of 20%.

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. has a Momentum Score of 41, which is Average. FactSet Research Systems Inc. has a Momentum Score of 30, which is Weak.

The Momentum Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither LPL Financial Holdings Inc. or FactSet Research Systems Inc. has a strong enough Momentum Grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if LPL Financial Holdings Inc. or FactSet Research Systems Inc. is the better investment when it comes to momentum.

Other LPL Financial Holdings Inc. and FactSet Research Systems Inc. Grades

In addition to Growth, Momentum and Value, A+ Investor also provides grades for Estimate Revisions and Quality.

Earnings estimate revisions scores take into account the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, surprises beget further surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the ranking of key metrics. Specifically, the quality grade is the percentile rank of the composite of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and F-Score.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether LPL Financial Holdings Inc. and FactSet Research Systems Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, LPL Financial Holdings Inc. or FactSet Research Systems Inc. Stock?

Overall, LPL Financial Holdings Inc. stock has a Value Score of 23, Growth Score of 40 and Momentum Score of 41.

FactSet Research Systems Inc. stock has a Value Score of 43, Growth Score of 100 and Momentum Score of 30.

Comparing LPL Financial Holdings Inc. and FactSet Research Systems Inc.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.