NEW YORK (TheStreet) - Shares of Dun & Bradstreet  (DNB) have done well in the past year, up 30.4%. Net income fell in the most recent quarter, though, which CEO Bob Carrigan said was the result of the company's recent investments.

Dun & Bradstreet is a data and analytics firm with a market capitalization of $4.5 billion. It has information on 240 million businesses in its databases.

Net income fell 2% in the fourth quarter, but that was mostly because of the company's recent $80 million technology investment. It's all part of the long-term growth plan, Carrigan said. 

The company is also factoring in a 2% decline to profits because of the rising U.S. dollar. 

Dun & Bradstreet DNB data by YCharts

However, that's not scaring the company out of its international business, as Carrigan said there are still plenty of great opportunities outside the U.S. 

The company is also involved in some "pretty successful partnerships," he said, referring to its current arrangements with Salesforce.com (CRM) - Get Report and Oracle (ORCL) - Get Report. 

The relationship with Oracle is relatively new, and its partnership with Salesforce.com has done well, Carrigan said. 

Salesforce has "best-in-class software," and when it's combined with Dun & Bradstreet's data, it forms an impressive one-two punch, he added. 

Companies will continue to rely on large amounts of data, a trend that should continue to work in Dun & Bradstreet's favor, Carrigan said.

This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.