Topic: Growth Stocks

FAIR ISAAC CORP. $39 – New York symbol FICO

FAIR ISAAC CORP. $39 (New York symbol FICO; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 35.7 million; Market cap: $1.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 0.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.fico.com) sells products and services that help businesses around the world make better decisions on customer creditworthiness.

Fair Isaac is starting to see the benefits of its recent restructuring plan, which included cutting 9% of its workforce and combining facilities.

In its 2011 fiscal year, which ended September 30, 2011, Fair Isaac’s earnings rose 22.4%, to $80.2 million from $65.6 million in fiscal 2010. The company spent $96.3 million in 2011 on share buybacks. Because of a 9.7% drop in the number of shares outstanding, earnings per share jumped 38.6%, to $2.01 from $1.45. Revenue rose 2.3%, to $619.7 million from $605.6 million. Lower loan demand pushed down sales of credit scores to lenders. However, higher sales of fraud-detection products more than offset this drop.

Due to its restructuring, Fair Isaac’s research spending fell 15.6%, to $62.1 million (or 10.0% of revenue) from $73.6 million (or 12.1% of revenue) in fiscal 2010.

The company holds cash and securities of $245.7 million, or $6.63 a share. Its long-term debt of $504 million is a manageable 36% of its market cap. The stock trades at a reasonable 15.8 times Fair Isaac’s likely 2012 earnings of $2.47 a share.

Fair Isaac is a buy.

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