Buy Broadridge, hold off on Fair Isaac

Article Excerpt

FAIR ISAAC CORP. $60.30 (New York symbol FICO; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (415-472-2211; www.fairisaac.com; Shares outstanding: 34.3 million; Market cap: $2.1 billion; Dividend yield: 0.1%) makes FICO Scores, the computer program that dominates the market for software that businesses use to evaluate customer creditworthiness. The company is also profiting by selling software that helps credit card issuers control fraud and analyze cardholders’ spending patterns. In its fiscal 2014 second quarter, which ended March 31, 2014, Fair Isaac’s earnings per share rose 15.7% from a year ago, to $0.59 from $0.51. Revenue gained 3.4%, to $185.5 million from $179.3 million. The company saw stronger sales of its credit-scoring software and customized programs for analyzing large amounts of a business’s data. However, sales at its main Applications division (62% of the total) fell 1.4% on weaker licensing revenue from software that detects bank fraud. Fair Isaac continues to spend around 10% of its revenue on research. That lets it keep producing innovative products that help it…