FICO

Business profile & competitive position

Fair Isaac Corporation, commonly known as FICO, sits in the Technology sector under the Software - Infrastructure industry. The company is a global analytics software provider serving thousands of businesses in more than 80 countries, including most leading banks, credit card issuers, insurers, retailers, automotive lenders, and public agencies. It operates two segments. The Scores segment is best known for the FICO Score, the standard measure of U.S. consumer credit risk. The Software segment offers pre-configured and platform-based analytic and decisioning tools delivered as SaaS or on-premises. FICO also reaches consumers directly through myFICO.com and other channels, selling access to FICO Scores, credit reports, credit monitoring, and identity-theft monitoring products.

The business model is tightly coupled to financial services. In fiscal 2025, financial services represented 92% of revenue, and the Americas accounted for 87%. Customer concentration is also notable: agreements with Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax collectively accounted for 51% of total revenues in fiscal 2025, up from 45% in fiscal 2024 and 41% in fiscal 2023. A 34.1% net margin supports the idea that the FICO Score and the company’s analytical software command real pricing power and high incremental economics. However, ROE is reported at -33.4%, a striking contrast to the margin profile. Because ROE is net income divided by shareholders’ equity, a deeply negative reading typically signals that equity has been pushed below zero, often through aggressive share repurchases or liability-funded capital structure decisions, rather than a collapse in profitability. Investors should treat the negative ROE as a balance-sheet structure signal, not an operational one.

Financial posture

FICO carries a market capitalization of $23.0 billion and trades at a P/E ratio of 30.6. The 34.1% net margin is well above most software peers, reflecting the recurring, high-attribution nature of scoring and decisioning products. Yet the -33.4% ROE means traditional return-on-equity valuation screens can mislead; the ratio is mathematically negative because the denominator has turned negative, not because the numerator is absent. A beta of 1.32 indicates the stock has historically moved more than the broad market, so volatility expectations are elevated. Combined, the numbers paint a picture of a highly profitable, premium-valued business whose accounting equity structure no longer reflects traditional book-value metrics.

Strategic priorities & outlook

According to FICO’s most recent 10-K, the company’s central operational focus is migrating substantially all of its current software products onto FICO Platform. It plans to continue investing significant development resources to enable substantially all software to run on that platform. Growth is also expected to come from follow-on “land and expand” sales to existing FICO Platform customers and from expanding into medium-sized businesses through value-added resellers and systems integrators. Management also says it will invest significant resources to develop indirect channel relationships as more capabilities become available on FICO Platform.

The platform transition already has scale. As of September 30, 2025, FICO Platform-based products had annual recurring revenue of $263.6 million, representing 35% of total software ARR. That figure is the most concrete benchmark for tracking how quickly FICO is converting its installed base from legacy delivery models to a unified platform architecture.

Macro & geopolitical exposure

As a Software - Infrastructure provider embedded in the financial services ecosystem, FICO is exposed to several macro and policy vectors. Regulation of consumer credit scoring and fair lending can affect how lenders use FICO products; changes in banking capital requirements or mortgage underwriting rules can raise or lower demand for scoring and decisioning tools. The company also faces exposure to the credit cycle: when loan origination volumes fall, usage of credit-risk tools typically follows. Because the Americas generated 87% of fiscal 2025 revenue, U.S. monetary policy, interest rates, and domestic consumer credit trends carry outsized weight. Data privacy and cybersecurity regulation are additional factors, given FICO handles consumer credit information. Trade and currency impacts are comparatively small because of the Americas-heavy revenue mix, but regulatory developments in the U.S. alone are enough to move the needle.

Recent developments

FICO has generated a steady stream of headline activity in mid-August 2026. On August 16, defenseworld.net reported that Empowered Funds LLC grew its holdings in Fair Isaac Corporation. On August 13, businesswire.com announced that Informative Research joined FICO’s Mortgage Direct License Program, expanding distribution reach in the mortgage origination market. On August 5, gurufocus.com published a valuation-focused piece noting that FICO had rallied 4.3% and that GuruFocus’ GF Value model labeled the stock undervalued. The same day, prnewswire.com reported that FICO partnered with Marsai Martin’s Foundation and Seeds of Fortune Inc. to expand a national financial empowerment initiative for families and college students. None of these headlines constitute material operational resets, but they do illustrate ongoing institutional accumulation, indirect-channel expansion, and consumer-facing brand work.

Earnings behavior & post-earnings drift

FICO has beaten expectations in seven of its last eight reported quarters, an 88% beat rate, with an average earnings surprise of 5.1%. The pattern looks strong until you look at what happens after the report. Across those same eight quarters, the average five-day price move following earnings has been -3.74%, classified as a downward post-earnings drift.

The most recent four quarters show the disconnect clearly. On July 29, 2026, FICO reported EPS of $12.18 against a $11.76 estimate, a 3.6% beat, but the stock fell 17.01% the next day and 20.5% over the following five sessions. On April 28, 2026, EPS came in at $12.50 versus $10.89, a 14.8% surprise, and the stock rose 3.27% the next day and 5.52% over five days. On January 28, 2026, a $7.33 print against a $7.08 estimate, a 3.5% beat, produced a -1.57% next-day move and a -9.1% five-day drift. On November 5, 2025, EPS of $7.74 beat the $7.32 estimate by 5.7%, with the stock rising 2.8% the next day and 9.13% over five sessions.

The takeaway is that beats have not reliably translated into sustained upward moves. Sometimes the market focuses on guidance, valuation, or the tone around platform transition rather than the headline EPS number. FICO is scheduled to report next on November 4, 2026, after the close, with the current consensus EPS estimate at $11.08.

For a deeper dive into the full institutional view, consult the complete collection of analyst ratings, price targets, and earnings revisions for FICO available on the platform.