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Here's How Much You'd Have If You Invested $1000 in Fair Isaac a Decade Ago

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For most investors, how much a stock's price changes over time is important. This factor can impact your investment portfolio as well as help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.

Another thing that can drive investing is the fear of missing out, or FOMO. This particularly applies to tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in Fair Isaac (FICO - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to FICO for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

Fair Isaac's Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at Fair Isaac's main business drivers.

Fair Isaac Corporation, better known as FICO, offers analytical tools, software and solutions that help in making informed decisions.

Bozeman, MT-based FICO serves a diversified end-market that includes the likes of banks, credit card issuers, insurers, retailers, telecommunication providers, automotive lenders, consumer reporting agencies and public agencies.

Through FICO’s online services consumers can access and understand their FICO Scores, which is a standard measure of consumer credit risk in the United States. The FICO Score, which is a three-digit number ranging from 300-850, helps consumers manage their financial health.

FICO reported revenues of $1.51 billion in fiscal 2023. It has two operating segments, Scores and Software.

The Scores segment includes business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) scoring solutions. While B2B Scores are distributed through major consumer reporting agencies globally, B2C is sold directly to consumers through myFICO.com and other direct-to-consumer channels.

FICO Scores are generated by using FICO’s proprietary analytic algorithms on credit data collected and maintained by the three U.S. national consumer reporting agencies, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. This score is then used across the credit lifecycle. Users of the Scores generally pay the consumer reporting agencies a fee, while the consumer reporting agencies pay an associate fee to FICO.

FICO launched its updated Scores, FICO Score 10 and 10T, in January 2020. FICO Score 9 and FICO Score 8 remain the most distributed scores currently.

The Software segment addresses business consumer needs in terms of customer engagement, including acquisition and pricing, onboarding, servicing and management, and fraud protections in more than 100 countries. FICO Software can be deployed in the cloud using third-party cloud services or on-premise using clients’ IT infrastructure.

Most of FICO’s solutions run on the FICO Platform, which offers an analytic and decisioning environment and is based on a modular cloud architecture. Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) from FICO Platform-based products was $173.2 million as of Sep 30, 2023, which accounted for 26% of FICO’s total software ARR.

Bottom Line

While anyone can invest, building a lucrative investment portfolio takes research, patience, and a little bit of risk. If you had invested in Fair Isaac ten years ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.

According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in October 2014 would be worth $36,018.12, or a gain of 3,501.81%, as of October 23, 2024, and this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.

Compare this to the S&P 500's rally of 203.63% and gold's return of 111.96% over the same time frame.

Looking ahead, analysts are expecting more upside for FICO.

FICO’s third-quarter performance benefited from a robust portfolio and an expanding clientele. Strong growth in Scores and Software segments was a plus. Strong adoption of FICO Scores in the consumer credit scoring market, which is used for asset-backed securitizations across major collateral classes, including student loans, consumer finance and credit cards, contributed well to top-line growth. For non-conforming mortgages, FICO Score 10T gained solid traction. FICO expanded its reach to mortgage-backed securities, which was a major positive. The company is also benefiting from strong demand for the FICO platform. Its strategy of adding new features frequently is helping win new customers. Despite a leveraged balance sheet, the company’s free cash flow generating ability is noteworthy.

The stock is up 5.79% over the past four weeks, and no earnings estimate has gone lower in the past two months, compared to 2 higher, for fiscal 2024. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.

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