Fair Isaac (NYSE:FICO) Upgraded to “Hold” at Zacks Research

Zacks Research upgraded shares of Fair Isaac (NYSE:FICO) from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a report published on Thursday,Zacks reports.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on FICO. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Fair Isaac from $1,549.00 to $1,070.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 2nd. Mizuho set a $901.00 price target on Fair Isaac in a research report on Friday, November 6th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Fair Isaac from $1,150.00 to $897.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 26th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Fair Isaac in a report on Thursday, November 5th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Fair Isaac in a research note on Tuesday, October 27th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $917.44.

Fair Isaac Price Performance

FICO stock traded up $2.12 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $719.50. The stock had a trading volume of 502,183 shares, compared to its average volume of 796,096. The firm has a market cap of $15.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.36. The business has a 50-day moving average of $787.56 and a two-hundred day moving average of $1,086.55. Fair Isaac has a 52-week low of $586.05 and a 52-week high of $1,858.91.

Fair Isaac (NYSE:FICO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 4th. The technology company reported $11.10 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.69 by $0.41. The firm had revenue of $657.05 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $651.73 million. Fair Isaac had a net margin of 32.94% and a negative return on equity of 28.19%. The company’s revenue was up 27.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $7.74 EPS. Research analysts predict that Fair Isaac will post 40.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO William Lansing sold 10,683 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $721.30, for a total transaction of $7,705,647.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $180,325. This trade represents a 97.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 20,715 shares of company stock worth $14,986,239 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 3.02% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fair Isaac

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. XXEC Inc. bought a new position in shares of Fair Isaac during the 2nd quarter valued at $33,189,000. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Fair Isaac during the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,491,517,000. Primecap Management Co. CA bought a new position in shares of Fair Isaac in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $433,508,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in Fair Isaac in the second quarter worth approximately $173,157,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in shares of Fair Isaac during the 2nd quarter worth $152,357,000. Institutional investors own 85.75% of the company’s stock.

About Fair Isaac

Fair Isaac Corporation, commonly known as FICO, develops analytics software and data-driven decision tools for businesses and consumers. Founded in 1956 by engineer Bill Fair and mathematician Earl Isaac, the company was formerly known as Fair, Isaac and Company. FICO is best known for its FICO Score, which lenders use to help assess consumer credit risk. The company also provides software for managing customer decisions and optimizing processes such as lending, fraud detection, identity verification, and collections.