Americas Business & Information Services What's Powering Your Services Recap 8 21 26

Equity Research 21 August 2026 | 6:13AM PDT

AMERICAS BUSINESS & INFORMATION SERVICES

What’s Powering Your Services Recap - 8/21/26

George K. Tong, CFA | Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC

Sami Nasir, CFA | Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC

Alex Lakritz This week in Business & Information Services, we published takeaways from our 3rd | Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC annual Silicon Valley AI Field Trip, which reinforced that AI is progressing from assistance toward workflow execution. The strongest businesses combine proprietary data, domain expertise, customer context, workflow ownership, distribution, the ability to verify outputs and authorization to act within customer workflows. For Business & Information Services, AI should increase the value of differentiated information assets and help platforms capture more customer spending through embedded workflows, supporting our preferred AI-leveraged ideas IRM, MCO, MSCI, SPGI and TRI. We also hosted a webinar with McGraw Hill CEO Philip Moyer, highlighting MH’s opportunity to distribute and monetize agentic AI across more than 100mn paid curriculum licenses using trusted content, pedagogy and assessment data. Beyond AI, MH benefits from Higher Education share gains, medical education and international growth opportunities. Investor conversations we had this week leaned positive on MCO and SPGI, as differentiated data, trusted brands and embedded workflows strengthen their AI moats. Feedback was also favorable on IRM given robust data center demand and broader growth portfolio trends. Views on TRI were positive given its proprietary content, workflow integration and growing AI monetization, though more debated given increasing AI competition. In contrast, investors leaned modestly negative on FICO due to concerns that broader VantageScore adoption could drive mortgage scores market share losses.

GS Business & Information Services Coverage Information Services: CLVT, CSGP, EFX, FDS, FICO, IT, MCO, MH, MSCI, SPGI, TRI/TRI.TO, TRU, VRSK

Business Services: ADT, BCO, BFAM, BV, CTAS, HRB, IRM, KFY, KLC, MAN, NATL, PBI, PXED, RHI, ROL, ULS, VSTS

Goldman Sachs does and seeks to do business with companies covered in its research reports. As a result, investors should be aware that the firm may have a conflict of interest that could affect the objectivity of this report. Investors should consider this report as only a single factor in making their investment decision. For Reg AC certification and other important disclosures, see the Disclosure Appendix, or go to Analysts employed by non-US affiliates are not registered/qualified as research analysts with FINRA in the U.S.

Goldman Sachs Americas Business & Information Services

Price Changes as of 8/20/26 Information Services: +4% average this week / -18% YTD | Top movers this week: +7% CLVT, +7% IT, +6% EFX, +6% FICO, +6% FDS

Business Services: 0% average this week / +18% YTD | Top movers this week: +7% KLC, +4% MAN, -4% VSTS, -5% IRM, -5% BV

S&P 500: -2% this week / +12% YTD

Valuation Multiples as of 8/20/26 Information Services: Average NTM EV/EBITDA: 13.3x | Average NTM P/E: 18.5x

Business Services: Average NTM EV/EBITDA: 10.1x | Average NTM P/E: 18.6x

S&P 500: NTM EV/EBITDA: 14.0x | NTM P/E: 19.9x

Top Inbounds IRM, MCO, SPGI, TRI, FICO

Relevant Macro Developments n Initial jobless claims decreased to 206k for the week ending 8/15 from 212k the week prior and came below FactSet consensus of 210k. A tightening labor market is incrementally positive for temp staffers MAN and RHI.

Business & Information Services News Flow n TRI launched the next generation of CoCounsel Legal, a fully agentic AI solution designed to reason, plan and execute at the level of a senior associate. The enhanced experience brings together legal research, drafting, legal intelligence, verification and matter-centric workflows in one connected environment. n KFY entered into a credit agreement that provides an aggregate amount of $600mn subject to a secured net leverage of 3.25x. On 6/29, KFY announced it will acquire AMS for ~$1.1bn, funded with ~$881mn in cash and ~$255mn in stock. n VRSK filed an appeal with the Delaware Supreme Court in AccuLynx ruling where a judge ordered VRSK to complete its purchase…