Topic: Growth Stocks

FAIR ISAAC CORP. $84 – New York symbol FICO

FAIR ISAAC CORP. $84 (New York symbol FICO; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 31.4 million; Market cap: $2.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.3; Dividend yield: 0.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.fico.com) makes FICO Scores, a computer program that helps businesses make better decisions about customer creditworthiness. FICO Scores dominates this niche market. Fair Isaac also sells software that helps credit card issuers cut fraud and analyze cardholders’ spending patterns.

In its fiscal 2015 first quarter, which ended December 31, 2014, Fair Isaac’s revenue rose 2.8%, to $189.6 million from $184.3 million a year earlier.

The company saw higher sales at its applications division (66% of revenue) on increased licensing revenue from software that detects bank fraud. Sales of credit-scoring software and programs for analyzing large amounts of a business’s data were lower, mostly due to a big order in the year-ago quarter.

Fair Isaac earned $22.6 million, down 13.7% from $26.2 million. Earnings per share fell 6.8%, to $0.68 from $0.73, on fewer shares outstanding. Fair Isaac spent more on research and marketing, and that hurt its profits.

The company spends around 12% of its revenue on research, which lets it produce innovative products that keep it ahead of the competition.

Fair Isaac expects to earn $2.78 to $2.88 a share for all of fiscal 2015, and it trades at a high 29.7 times the midpoint of that range. As well, the banking industry supplies 75% of its revenue, and the likelihood of rising interest rates later this year could slow loan demand and hurt sales of its credit-scoring software.

Fair Isaac is a hold.

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