Needham & Company LLC Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Fair Isaac (NYSE:FICO) Stock Price

Key Points

• Needham cut its FICO price target to $925 from $1,100 but maintained a Buy rating, implying about 31.7% upside from the stock’s current price.
• FICO shares opened at $702.52 and were down 3%; the analyst consensus was Hold with an average target of $933.69. Several firms have recently lowered targets, though most cited targets remain above the share price.
• Quarterly results beat estimates: EPS was $11.10 and revenue was $657.05 million, up 27.4% year over year. However, FICO withheld guidance amid a shift in mortgage-origination pricing.

Fair Isaac (NYSE:FICO - Get Free Report) had its target price decreased by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC from $1,100.00 to $925.00 in a report released on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has a "buy" rating on the technology company's stock. Needham & Company LLC's price target would suggest a potential upside of 31.67% from the company's current price.

FICO has been the subject of several other research reports. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Fair Isaac from $1,675.00 to $925.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Bank of America downgraded shares of Fair Isaac from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $1,400.00 to $700.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 30th. Griffin Securities set a $897.00 price objective on shares of Fair Isaac in a report on Monday, October 26th. Huber Research cut shares of Fair Isaac to a "strong sell" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 29th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group set a $1,150.00 target price on shares of Fair Isaac in a research report on Wednesday, September 30th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fair Isaac presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $933.69.

Fair Isaac Stock Down 3.0%

Shares of FICO stock opened at $702.52 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $845.21 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $1,115.37. Fair Isaac has a 12-month low of $586.05 and a 12-month high of $1,858.91. The firm has a market cap of $15.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.36.

Fair Isaac (NYSE:FICO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 4th. The technology company reported $11.10 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.69 by $0.41. The firm had revenue of $657.05 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $651.73 million. Fair Isaac had a negative return on equity of 32.51% and a net margin of 34.05%. The company's revenue was up 27.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $7.74 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Fair Isaac will post 36.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FICO. XXEC Inc. bought a new position in Fair Isaac during the second quarter valued at approximately $33,189,000. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Fair Isaac in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,491,517,000. Primecap Management Co. CA bought a new stake in Fair Isaac in the 2nd quarter valued at $433,508,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in shares of Fair Isaac in the second quarter worth about $173,157,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in Fair Isaac during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $152,357,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.75% of the company's stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Fair Isaac

Here are the key news stories impacting Fair Isaac this week:

• Positive Sentiment: FICO reported quarterly EPS of $11.10, ahead of estimates, and revenue of $657.05 million, also above consensus. Revenue rose 27.4% year over year, while EPS increased from $7.74 a year earlier. Zacks earnings article
• Positive Sentiment: Commercial momentum also received support from new lenders joining FICO’s Preferred Program and a regional lender upgrading to its Auto Score 10. Preferred Program lenders announcement
• Negative Sentiment: FICO declined to provide guidance as it transitions mortgage-origination pricing from a flat fee to a customer-specific structure. Investors may be concerned about how the change affects revenue visibility and customer response. Wall Street Journal article on guidance and pricing
• Negative Sentiment: Barclays cut its price target to $800 from $875, and JPMorgan lowered its target to $800 from $900. The reductions add a cautious signal, even though both targets remain above FICO’s $702.53 Thursday opening price. Barclays price-target update JPMorgan price-target update

Fair Isaac Company Profile

Fair Isaac Corporation, commonly known as FICO, develops analytics and decision-management software used by businesses to assess risk, detect fraud and make customer-related decisions. The company is best known for the FICO Score, a credit-risk scoring system used by lenders and other financial institutions to evaluate consumer creditworthiness.

FICO's offerings include credit scoring solutions, decisioning platforms, fraud-detection tools, customer management software and predictive analytics.

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