Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FICO) Stock Now Rated "Hold" by Sell-Side Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts have a consensus “Hold” rating on FICO: of 17 firms, nine recommend buying, six holding and two selling; the average 12-month price target is $967.12.
• Fiscal Q4 results beat expectations, with EPS of $11.10 and revenue of $657.05 million, up 27.4% year over year. Several lenders also adopted FICO scoring products.
• FICO gave no guidance amid a shift to customer-specific mortgage pricing, leaving uncertainty about revenue impact; the stock has fallen sharply, and some analysts have cut price targets.

Shares of Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FICO - Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus rating of "Hold" from the seventeen research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have issued a hold recommendation and nine have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $967.12.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on FICO. Bank of America downgraded shares of Fair Isaac from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $1,400.00 to $700.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 30th. Raymond James Financial cut their price target on shares of Fair Isaac from $1,750.00 to $1,230.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 13th. Huber Research downgraded Fair Isaac to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 29th. Credit Suisse Group set a $1,150.00 price objective on Fair Isaac in a report on Wednesday, September 30th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on Fair Isaac from $1,100.00 to $942.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 26th.

More Fair Isaac News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Fiscal Q4 earnings were $11.10 per share, above consensus estimates, while revenue of $657.05 million also topped expectations and rose 27.4% year over year. Fair Isaac Surpasses Q4 Earnings and Revenue Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Several lenders joined FICO’s Preferred Program, and a regional lender upgraded to Auto Score 10—signs of continued adoption of its scoring products. Lenders Join FICO Preferred Program
• Negative Sentiment: FICO declined to issue guidance as it moves mortgage-originations pricing from a flat fee to customer-specific pricing. The lack of an outlook and uncertainty about how the new structure will affect revenue likely tempered the positive earnings news. FICO Declines to Share Guidance Amid Price Structure Change
• Negative Sentiment: Jefferies sharply lowered its price target to $925 from $1,675, adding to concerns about the stock’s outlook. Other coverage has also highlighted pricing and competitive pressure. Jefferies Adjusts Price Target

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fair Isaac

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Fair Isaac in the second quarter valued at $2,491,517,000. Primecap Management Co. CA acquired a new position in shares of Fair Isaac in the second quarter worth about $433,508,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in shares of Fair Isaac by 95.0% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 223,798 shares of the technology company's stock worth $267,389,000 after acquiring an additional 109,027 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in shares of Fair Isaac by 9.2% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 175,917 shares of the technology company's stock worth $187,798,000 after acquiring an additional 14,792 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in shares of Fair Isaac during the 2nd quarter worth about $173,157,000. 85.75% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fair Isaac Trading Down 3.0%

FICO opened at $702.52 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $15.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.29, a PEG ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.36. Fair Isaac has a 12 month low of $586.05 and a 12 month high of $1,858.91. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $845.21 and a 200-day moving average price of $1,115.37.

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

About Fair Isaac

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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