SSNC SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc
$89.54
SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc Q3 F2026 Earnings Call Transcript
AI Conference Call Analysis
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Conference Operator
Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the SS&C Technologies Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question, please press star 1-1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Justine Stone, Head of Investor Relations.
Justine Stone
Head of Investor Relations
Hi, everyone. Welcome and thank you for joining us for our third quarter 2026 earnings call. I'm Justine Stone, Head of IR for SS&C. With me today is Bill Stone, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Rahul Kanwar, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Brian Schell, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, we need to review the Safe Harbor Statement. Please note the various remarks we make today about future expectations, plans, and prospects, including the financial outlook we provide constitute forward-looking statements for the purposes of the Safe Harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in the risk factor section of our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, which is on file at the SEC and can also be accessed on our website. These forward-looking statements represent our expectations only as of today, October 22nd, 2026. While the company may elect to update these forward-looking statements, it specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. During today's call, we will be referring to certain non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to comparable GAAP financial measures is included in today's earnings release which is located from the Investor Relations section of our website at www.ssctech.com. I will now turn the call over to Bill.
Bill Stone
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Justine, and welcome everyone. I'm happy to report another strong quarter for SS&C with growth in revenues, earnings, and margin expansion. We have momentum to finish the year strong. Our third quarter results were adjusted to revenues of $1.691 billion, up 7.8%, and adjusted diluted earnings per share of $1.78, at 14.8% increase. We delivered record adjusted consolidated EBITDA of 674,800,000, up 9%, and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 39.9%, 40 basis points improvement. Adjusted organic revenue growth was 5.2% with continued performance by our largest businesses. Throughout the quarter, we had strong sales to both new and existing customers, achieved implementation milestones and benefited from market tailwinds. Our pipelines continue to grow, and we are bullish on several large mandates as we look into 2027. For the nine months ended September 30, 2026, cash from operating activities were $1.216 billion, up 10.4% year over year. This quarter, we returned $225 million to shareholders, which included 1.9 million shares, repurchased for $154.8 million, and $70.5 million in dividends. In August, we increased our common stock dividend 11.1% to $1.20 per share annually, which reflects the strength and consistency of our cash flow. Our business keeps generating strong, recurring free cash flow. and that gives us real flexibility in how we put capital to work. We can raise our dividend, keep buying back shares, pay down debt and pursue high quality acquisitions all at once. We don't have to choose. On M&A, the opportunity set is growing as private equity firms look to exit some of their holdings. We continue to pursue the right deals aggressively but we'll stay disciplined on price. Financial Services Technology and Services M&A continue to command high valuations, making our own stock one of the most attractive investments we can make. Last month, more than 1,000 leaders from financial services and healthcare clients joined us in Orlando for SS&C Deliver, our annual client conference. The message from that room was clear. Our clients are no longer asking whether to transform. They're asking how, how fast, and with whom. At Deliver, we unveiled a portfolio of next-generation solutions built on two SS&C platforms, AI Gateway, our AI governance platform, and WorkHQ, our award-winning agentic orchestration platform. Together, they let our clients put AI agents to work on their most complex, highly regulated workflows. These agents work securely with governance built in from day one. Agentic AI is moving quickly from experimentation into production. We see it inside SSSE where our Customer Zero program is driving innovation and efficiency across all operations. To date, over 900 agentic workflows, 200 AI agents, and over 60 digital workers have been built in the WorkHQ development environment as our business units explore dozens of use cases. We're bringing the same approach to tokenization as traditional and digital assets come together. Our clients need infrastructure that handles both, and SSSE already sits at the center of that infrastructure. Across all of this, our clients are rethinking their operating models end to end. That's a transformation, not a single technology purchase. It takes a partner with deep domain expertise, global scale, and a proven track record of executions. Few companies can bring all three. SS&C can, and we're doing it today. I'll now turn the call over to Rahul to discuss the quarter in more detail. Rahul Kanwar Thanks, Bill.
Rahul Kanwar
President and Chief Operating Officer
As you noted, we delivered strong third quarter results with 5.2% organic revenue growth and 39.9% EBITDA margins. These results are driven by deep customer relationships and the critical role our products and services play. Our clients keep growing with us, and the multiple ways we deliver broad and deep solutions, including outsourcing, co-sourcing, and lift-outs, are a competitive advantage. In our technology businesses, we see a steady rate of multi-year renewals, reflecting our customers' confidence in the enduring benefit they will receive from our applications. We also see sustained interest in our new products and services, reinforcing that as a technology provider and outsourcer with scale, We are uniquely positioned to deliver the next generation of AI-enhanced applications. We handle huge volumes of trades, reconciliations, NAV calculations, investor transactions, regulatory filings, and hundreds of other functions that require expertise. Our intelligent automation and analytics business built around the Blue Prism acquisition in 2022 is at the center of how we capture the opportunities new technologies bring. As Bill mentioned, We have hundreds of AI-enhanced processes and agents in production, many more in development. These make us faster and more accurate and expand our capacity to take on new business as our clients grow. Externally, our new products are gaining traction. We're also bringing AI directly to clients through collaborations with frontier model companies, integrations with the leading AI platforms, and new features built into our applications. Our global footprint is growing and remains a competitive advantage. We are expanding our presence in the Middle East, Australia, and Europe, and have recently expanded our operations in Luxembourg and Thailand. With that, I'll turn it over to Brian to walk through the financials.
Brian Schell
Chief Financial Officer
Thanks, Rahul, and good day, everyone. Unless noted otherwise, the quarterly comparisons are to Q3 2025. As disclosed in our press release, our Q3 2026 GAAP results reflect revenues of $1.69 billion, net income of $199 million, and diluted earnings per share of 83 cents. Our adjusted non-GAAP results include revenues of $1.691 billion, an increase of 7.8%, and adjusted diluted EPS of $1.78, a 14.8% increase. The adjusted revenue increase of $122 million included acquisitions of $39 million, and a small favorable impact from foreign exchange of approximately $1.7 million. As a result, adjusted organic revenue growth on a constant currency basis was 5.2% and our core expenses increased 4.3% of $42 million, which also includes acquisitions and impact of FX. Adjusted consolidated EBITDA was $675 million, reflecting an increase of $56 million, or 9%, A margin of 39.9%, the 40 basis point expansion. Net interest expense for the third quarter was $107 million, an increase of $3 million compared to last year. Adjusted net income was $429 million, up 9.6%, resulting in the adjusted diluted EPS of $1.78. Our effective non-GAAP tax rate was 22.5% this quarter. Note for comparison purposes, we have recast the 2025 adjusted net income to reflect the full year effect of tax rate of 22%. The diluted share count is down nearly 5% to 20.46 million from 252.6 million shares year over year, primarily due to the continued impact of treasury share purchases. Cash flow from operating activities grew 10%, largely driven by growth and earnings. SSSE ended the third quarter with $525 million in cash and cash equivalents and $7.5 billion in gross debt. SSSE's net debt was $7 billion and our last 12 months consolidated EBITDA was $2.7 billion. The resulting net leverage ratio is 2.63. We are currently in the process of refinancing our $2 billion of notes due next year and will provide an update when that has been completed. As we look forward to the fourth quarter and full year 2026, with respect to guidance, we will continue to focus on client service and expect that retention rates will be in the range of our most recent results. We will continue to manage our business to support our long-term growth and manage our expenses by controlling and aligning variable expenses, increasing productivity and leveraging technology and AI tools to improve our operating margins, and strategically investing in the business, especially with respect to R&D and sales and marketing. Specifically, we have assumed short-term interest rates to remain at current levels, an effective tax rate of approximately 22.5% on an adjusted basis, capital expenditures to be 4.4% to 4.8% of revenues and a stronger weighting to share repurchases versus debt reduction. For the fourth quarter of 26, we expect revenue to be in the range of 1.7 to 1.74 billion dollars and 4% organic revenue growth at the midpoint. Adjusted net income in the range of 454 to 470 million dollars. Interest expense excluding amortization of deferred financing costs and original issue discount in the range of 103 to 105 million dollars and adjusted diluted EPS in the range of $1.88 to $1.94. For the full year 2026, We increased several revenue and earnings expectations as follows. Revenue to be in the range of $6.736 to $6.776 billion and 5.5% organic revenue growth at the midpoint. Adjusted net income in the range of $1.726 to $1.742 billion. Adjusted dilute EPS in the range of $7.11 to $7.17 reflecting approximately 16.3% growth at the midpoint. We are now targeting EBITDA growth of 10%, EBITDA margin expansion of 90 basis points for the year and exiting the year with 41% EBITDA margins. And now, back to Bill.
Bill Stone
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Brian. We're pleased with our third quarter and the momentum we're carrying into the rest of the year. We exceeded expectations on revenue and margins and we are raising Our outlook for the full year. Our clients continue to invest in SS&C and expand their relationships with us, and our pipelines are healthy across our businesses and region. As we look ahead to 2027, we're excited about the opportunities in front of us. Demand for our outsourcing solutions remains strong, our technology keeps getting better, and the capabilities we're building are changing how we serve clients. As always, We'll stay disciplined on how we operate, invest, and allocate capital to create long-term shareholder value. And with that, we'll start taking questions.
Operator
Conference Operator
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 1-1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up, and then you may rejoin the queue. One moment for questions. Our first question comes from Dan Perlin with RBC Capital Markets. He may proceed.
Dan Perlin
Analyst, RBC Capital Markets
Thanks. Good evening. I had a question on the kind of midpoint of the organic growth assumptions for 4Q. Obviously, you had big renewals in the second quarter. This quarter at 5.2 seemed like more normalized. And so I'm just trying to make sure I understand kind of what's the gating factor to get this to decelerate. I know that there's the anniversary partially of insignia. that probably plays into that. But everything else seems to be going fairly well. So any details around what would be the key drivers that would be helpful?
Bill Stone
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Oh, Ben, I think in general, right, it's, again, that we have a lot of pretty big mandates in our pipelines. And while we're getting buy signals all over the place, you know, we prefer ink on contracts, you know. And so that's the thing that changes, you know, organic revenue growth, you know, 100, 150 basis points, 200 basis points. That's just the nature of large-scale contracts. And so our contracts now could be $25, $50 million and up. And so there's a lot of lawyers out there. They haven't gone away. And so it's getting that down and negotiated and signed and then getting them live. Got it.
Dan Perlin
Analyst, RBC Capital Markets
Nope, that makes total sense.
Rahul Kanwar
President and Chief Operating Officer
Hey, Dean, very quickly, if I could just add to the back of that. You know, the other thing is, as you will note, absolute revenue is actually up in Q4 relative to Q3, right? And very much in line with kind of, I'd say, ahead of where we thought we were going to be for the year. So most of this is really just quarter over quarter timing. So if you look back at Q3 and Q4 last year, that's probably part of the explanation.
Brian Schell
Chief Financial Officer
That was one of the largest growth quarters we had last year, fourth quarter of last year, as you recall, too. Yep, that's a very good point.
Dan Perlin
Analyst, RBC Capital Markets
Just a quick follow-up, Bill, on the M&A commentary looking more interesting, I guess, as PE firms are kind of looking to exit their portfolios. I'm just wondering, what are the areas that you're most interested in looking to expand as you think about these opportunities that are facing the company in 27 and ultimately 28. Thank you.
Bill Stone
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Well, as you see, right, I mean, there's been a lot of fintech M&A in the last, you know, 90 days even, and the multiples are pretty eye-popping. You know, so we think we have very valuable businesses. You know, a number of our businesses are bigger in those areas than, and some of the M&A that's going on and more profitable. So, you know, we have big successful businesses and, you know, we'll probably expand and, you know, if we could find stuff in fund administration, we would. But, you know, we've probably bought 20 fund administration companies, you know, over the last 20 years and, you know, we were kind of the pioneer in that and now they drive prices to points where, you know, you wonder if that's where we should go. And we've also done really a great job of transforming our global investor and distribution services that we acquired with DST. And that's now got great momentum with Insignia. That's still a very large client with a lot of work for us to do. But on what we've done for them so far, outsourcing their business as usual to us has been a very big success. and I believe that's what's going to happen with a number of other large institutions that become somewhat constricted in what they can do and how fast they can do it. We move a little faster, we're a little more decisive in what we do and as I've said many times, we don't dabble. As Rahul said earlier, we bought Blue Prism in 2022 for about $1.6 billion. Last year we bought Callistone which gives us a real leg up in tokenization, and they also run about a 7,000 funds network. So we don't dabble. We get in, we get the expertise, and we distribute it on a global scale.
Dan Perlin
Analyst, RBC Capital Markets
Excellent. Thank you.
Operator
Conference Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Kevin McVey with UBS. You may proceed.
Kevin McVey
Analyst, UBS
Thank you so much. Congratulations on the results. I mean, just really continue to execute at a super high level. I guess the margins continue to really, really be impressive. Bill is absorbing these ever larger engagements. Maybe talk to that a little bit and where you are on the AI journey. And I guess related to all of that, does that change the acquisition strategy in terms of willing to even size up something more just given how strong you are operationally at this point?
Bill Stone
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Kevin, you've been around us for a while, and you kind of understand the process we go through to kind of validate what acquisitions we want and what areas we want to get larger in. We would do a big acquisition, and there's a lot of companies out there that ever since the mass scare on SaaS businesses, some of them haven't recovered nearly like we have. I don't I don't believe they have as strong a business as we do, but that's somewhat in the eye of the beholder. But we continue, like earnings are up 14.8%, and we generate $1.216 billion in cash flow in nine months. And as we said in our prepared remarks, we don't have to choose what we want to do. We can do all of them. We can fund them ourselves. We can execute. The capital markets are very friendly to us. They know we borrow money and we pay it back. And we work hard for our shareholders. And that's a constant theme with anyone you talk to at SS&C. So we're pretty focused, we're pretty ambitious, and we're also pretty judicious. So I think that's kind of what we're looking at at M&A. I'm pretty certain there's some really big places that are for sale. and we just have to make sure that if we were to buy one, we got it at the right price.
Kevin McVey
Analyst, UBS
Super helpful. And then just real quick, the AUA just continues to move ahead despite the volatility and concern about private equity, so on and so forth. Anything to call out in terms of just the sequential build because it's just that the pacing of it is just really, really impressive. Is that just and many more.
Bill Stone
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
You know, whether that's Abu Dhabi or that's private markets, you know, so it's something that we invest a lot of money and it has proven, as you've seen on how big those assets grow every quarter, to have been a pretty successful strategy. And I think, you know, Rahul's really close to that business.
Rahul Kanwar
President and Chief Operating Officer
Yeah, so in addition to, you know, our big clients having a lot of success and getting bigger, the other thing that's happening is with all the focus on technology, folks are starting to realize that ownership of the entire technology stack that runs the fund administration business is a huge advantage, right? And gives us the opportunity to deploy AI and new functionality at a very, very quick pace. And so that's helped us, it's helped us in the win rate.
Bill Stone
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, and it gives us, you know, we talk about across the entire fund administration tech stack. You know, we have very powerful trading systems We have a very powerful network that's in 60, 70 countries. So we have a big fixed network. So there's not many things that we don't do. We have models that will value fixed income. We have tons of different strategies across all the different fund-type companies. So we're pretty optimistic about where we sit, and we remain very competitive. That's terrific. Congrats again.
Kevin McVey
Analyst, UBS
Thank you.
Operator
Conference Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Jeff Schmidt with William Blair. You may proceed.
Jeff Schmidt
Analyst, William Blair
Hi. Thank you. So debt leverage is low compared with historical levels with interest rates rising and then you have debt refinancing coming up next year. How are you thinking about capital allocation in 27, especially if the Fed keeps hiking?
Bill Stone
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Well, you know, again, like right now, if you look at our stock trade in the mid-80s, that, you know, we're going to generate, you know, $7.25 in cash or something like that, and we pay $1.20 dividend, so that gets you up to, say, $8.50 maybe. So $8.50 on an $85 stock is 10%. So we think buying back our stock where we save that that 850 on every share is a little more attractive than paying down six and a half, seven percent debt. Know whose interest is tax deductible. So that's kind of the math we do, but we still pay down some debt all the time and we buy back shares all the time and we look at acquisitions all the time and we raise our dividend most of the time. So I think that's kind of how we look at at the capital allocation. And people say, so why do you talk to your debt holders? Because we might want to do a big acquisition, and we're going to have to borrow money, right? So it's making sure that we have constant communications with the banks. We have constant communications with our clients, as well as with, obviously, our workforce. And that's something that I think we really pride ourselves on.
Jeff Schmidt
Analyst, William Blair
OK, great. And then for the intelligent automation and analytics, organic growth declined 4.5% in the quarter. Just curious how much of that reflects kind of continued pressure and blue prism, and could newer offerings like WorkHQ return that business to growth?
Rahul Kanwar
President and Chief Operating Officer
I think it's two things. One, you know, the second part of what you said there is what we think. There's a fair amount of product development, new product bring into market, in that process, right? And so I think there's probably a natural lag that is somewhat reflected in the numbers. But I think the other thing that I would highlight is that business is at the center of all the AI-related commentary that you've heard us make in our prepared remarks and really the new products, the new services, the strength in our fund administration business, the strength in our technology businesses. A lot of that is driven out of that. So sometimes the growth and the success we have is reflected in different places as opposed to just in that business.
Bill Stone
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Great. Okay. Thank you. As you well know, it's kind of a crossover. We think some of our smarter clients recognize that RPA works very well for them in some large sections of what they do. And ripping out your infrastructure is long, painful, Breaking Rocks in the Desert. But if you can keep your RPA bots working for you and then add agentic agents, you get the best of both worlds because you get to transition at your speed and you still are automating and automating and automating. And that's something that we think is very attractive and we're attracting some Very big clients to our platform.
Jeff Schmidt
Analyst, William Blair
Got it. That's helpful. Thank you.
Operator
Conference Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Pete Heckman with DA Davidson. You may proceed.
Dan Perlin
Analyst, RBC Capital Markets
Hey, good afternoon. I had a similar question on that. Let me get back in the queue and look at my list. Sorry.
Operator
Conference Operator
Thank you. And as a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 1-1 on your telephone. Our next question comes from Alexey Gogolev with J.B. Morgan. You may proceed.
Bella Camajon
Analyst, J.P. Morgan (for Alexey Gogolev)
Hi, this is Bella Camajon for Alexey. Thanks so much for taking our questions. So for the first one, looking at the WITS segment's organic growth deceleration after much stronger, nearly 10% growth last quarter, Could you help us dig a little more into what drove that change and whether investors should view that as mainly timing-related or possibly indicative of a more normalized demand environment?
Bill Stone
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Well, you know, we had a very large renewal in the last quarter in WIT, and, you know, those things with 606, you're going to get spikes in revenue, and so there's no way around that, and You know, I would say that, you know, what they're doing is extending their contracts, you know, for multiple years, you know, five to ten years. And that's a great big flush to earnings, or to revenue, which also goes to earnings pretty much. So I would say it's not, you know, our demand and width is high, remains high, it remains widespread, global. And so I don't think that the reduction in organic revenue in Q3 compared to Q2 is anything other than that really big renewal.
Bella Camajon
Analyst, J.P. Morgan (for Alexey Gogolev)
Got it. That makes sense. And as a quick follow-up, you mentioned being bullish on several large mandates as you look into 2027. Maybe broadly speaking, can you help us understand what areas of the business those opportunities are concentrated in and maybe whether they reflect traditional outsourcing demand or some newer AI and transformation-related initiatives, especially with WorkHQ on the horizon?
Bill Stone
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, well, I think, you know, I think we really believe that, you know, the large-scale financial institutions around the world, you know, need... need to have a partner that can understand their business and then platform them away from where they are now so that they get a chance to improve their business, right? So, you know, when you think about a large-scale system going into a large-scale institution, sometimes the institution doesn't stay up with the releases and they can get multiple releases behind. And then it becomes almost impossible to catch up and that means they sacrifice all the improvements in those applications when companies like us come out with new releases. So that's what's driving that. I don't think it's going to change. I think more and more institutions are going to recognize that, you know, SS&C is a specialist firm, right? We have thousands and thousands of CPAs and chartered accountants and and MBAs and CFAs and mathematicians. So it's specialized. We're not investment bankers. We're not investment professionals from the standpoint of which sector or which area of the world that you should be investing in. But wherever you're investing, we're expert in how to process them, how to make sure the regulators are satisfied, how to get information back to you very quickly and have it in a format that you want.
Bella Camajon
Analyst, J.P. Morgan (for Alexey Gogolev)
Got it. That's very helpful. Thanks again and congrats on the quarter.
Bill Stone
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Conference Operator
Thank you. And as a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 1 1 on your telephone. Our next question comes from James Fawcett with Morgan Stanley. You may proceed.
James Fawcett
Analyst, Morgan Stanley
Thanks. A couple of, I guess, strategic and development questions here. Just wondering how, and you've talked about AI and how that's starting to provide some benefits, wondering how and if that's been impacting customer pricing dynamics. I mean, as you've had more conversations with customers around AI and agentic automation, how's that influencing the commercial part of the negotiations? Are customers demonstrating a willingness to pay more for the enhanced automation, or are they increasingly viewing AI-driven productivity as a reason to push back on pricing and and just wondering how we should think about the net impact on your long-term organic growth opportunities.
Bill Stone
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Well, you know, of course, you know, really smart organizations are pushing back on price all the time. You know, this is just one more, you know, kind of arrow in their quiver about, you know, where to come at. You know, technology companies such as us, you know, what we have to do is make sure that our offering is differentiated. You know, you really can't Thank you for joining us. Peace of mind for senior executives is pretty important. And that's what we strive to do is to give, you know, whether it's Ted Pick or Jamie Dimon, the feeling that, hey, we're there. We're not going anywhere. And we can process volume. And we can process it globally.
James Fawcett
Analyst, Morgan Stanley
Got it. Got it. I appreciate that perspective. It's a good one. And then, Wanted to ask about tokenization and just what you're seeing there. We've seen a lot of headlines and we ourselves have done quite a bit of research on how we're seeing some assets come on chain, but that could end up being widespread. How should we think about the impact of the Calstone business and what the opportunities slash challenges may be there? Thank you.
Bill Stone
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Well, you know, we talked about it a little bit before, and, you know, Rahul's done a lot of work in this area, too. I just learned how to spell its organization. But, you know, we really believe that, you know, the concept that, you know, the token is like a poker chip, so it becomes very portable. And it also isn't something that you have to go do a 10Q and a 10K and everything in order to get some liquidity. So we think it's going to continue to be attractive in all kinds of different markets, and Calistone continues to grow handsomely in the double digits.
Rahul Kanwar
President and Chief Operating Officer
I think maybe the one thing that I would add is What we've always tried to do across all of our services and capabilities is be ready for what our customers might need us for. This is a perfect example of that, right? So we've got customers at every end of the spectrum, some that are embracing it wholeheartedly, some that are experimenting, some that want to learn more. And the fact that we have this capability is yet another differentiator.
James Fawcett
Analyst, Morgan Stanley
Thanks for the input there, guys.
Operator
Conference Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Patrick O'Shaughnessy with Raymond James. You may proceed.
Patrick O'Shaughnessy
Analyst, Raymond James
Hey, good afternoon. Is there anywhere in your business where you're seeing signs of competitive disruption from AI-native startups or clients looking to take activities in-house by leveraging AI capabilities themselves?
Bill Stone
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
You know, Patrick, I think that there's a lot of noise, and I think there's a lot of companies that are trying things, you know, and you get Some of the people that are on the front office side of asset managers and different funds that basically say, look, I can get my kid with AI and in two weeks we could rewrite Geneva. Yeah, good luck. I would suggest you get well provisioned for those two weeks because at the end of the two weeks, you'll go, wow, where should we get started? The complexity, the scale, all of that comes into being able to deploy. As you know, you're highly regulated. As soon as something comes out and a genetic didn't do it right and something got duped or something like that, the brakes come on so fast that you can't get it released again. I think that's what we've tried to be as a is a trusted partner that can show you, come into our offices, we process trades to the millions every day, all kinds of transactions all over the world in every currency. Come see how we do it. Come see how we do work HQ. Come see how our governance and AI gateway protects us and just how we can deliver to you so it protects you. So that's what we're doing and we think it's a very, very Sound Strategy. Your assets are at DTC, right? And this is just an accounting system. So it is something where we need to continue to teach and educate and have people be comfortable with what they're doing and how they can use AI and all the different models, which you know are coming out every week or every day, and try to make it so that you succeed with the technology. You don't drown in it. and I think we've been doing this for a long time, whether it's when they first came out with Excel or Dbase and then Novell Networks and then everything's client-server. We always tried to be true client-server. I never quite knew what that meant. We weren't ever a false client-server that I knew of. And so that's how technology goes. You were around when the internet Thank you. And then getting back to the wealth and investment technologies business.
Patrick O'Shaughnessy
Analyst, Raymond James
Is there an opportunity for that business to consistently kind of get to mid-single digit or better revenue growth? Or is it just kind of structurally more mature competitive end market?
Rahul Kanwar
President and Chief Operating Officer
I think if you normalize the growth rates, it probably is at mid-single digits now, right? You just got to, it's what Bill said earlier, is you really do have to strip out the, you know, and normalize the 606 related spikes and things like that. But if you, you know, we had a really big Q2 as one example. In general, when we think about that business and we look at it in terms of annual recurring revenue and correct for some of those kinds of things, we're seeing a business pretty close to mid-single digits.
Bill Stone
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Right, with certain of their assets growing at quite a bit higher than that. So like Black Diamond, which is our primary wealth platform, is growing at double digits and continues to show strength against all the other wealth platforms that are out there and with We think that will continue.
Patrick O'Shaughnessy
Analyst, Raymond James
All right, terrific. Thank you.
Operator
Conference Operator
Thank you. I would now like to turn the call back over to Bill Stone for any closing remarks.
Bill Stone
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
You know, once again, we really appreciate everybody being on our third quarter conference call, and, you know, we're working hard in the fourth quarter, and, you know, we hope to talk to you in Thank you. Thank you. This concludes the conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.