For most investors, how much a stock's price changes over time is important. Not only can it impact your investment portfolio, but it can also help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.
Another factor that can influence investors is FOMO, or the fear of missing out, especially with tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.
What if you'd invested in Fair Isaac (FICO) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to FICO for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?
Fair Isaac's Business In-Depth
With that in mind, let's take a look at Fair Isaac's main business drivers.
Fair Isaac Corporation, better known as FICO, offers analytical tools, software and solutions that help in making informed decisions.
Bozeman, MT-based FICO serves a diversified end-market that includes the likes of banks, credit card issuers, insurers, retailers, telecommunication providers, automotive lenders, consumer reporting agencies and public agencies.
Through FICO’s online services consumers can access and understand their FICO Scores, which is a standard measure of consumer credit risk in the United States. The FICO Score, which is a three-digit number ranging from 300-850, helps consumers manage their financial health.
FICO reported revenues of $1.9 billion in fiscal 2025. It has two operating segments, Scores and Software.
The Scores segment includes business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) scoring solutions. While B2B Scores are distributed through major consumer reporting agencies globally, B2C is sold directly to consumers through myFICO.com and other direct-to-consumer channels.
FICO Scores are generated by using FICO’s proprietary analytic algorithms on credit data collected and maintained by the three U.S. national consumer reporting agencies, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. This score is then used across the credit lifecycle. Users of the Scores generally pay the consumer reporting agencies a fee, while the consumer reporting agencies pay an associate fee to FICO.
FICO launched its updated Scores, FICO Score 10 and 10T, in January 2020. FICO Score 9 and FICO Score 8 remain the most distributed scores currently.
The Software segment addresses business consumer needs in terms of customer engagement, including acquisition and pricing, onboarding, servicing and management, and fraud protections in more than 100 countries. FICO Software can be deployed in the cloud using third-party cloud services or on-premise using clients’ IT infrastructure.
Most of FICO’s solutions run on the FICO Platform, which offers an analytic and decisioning environment and is based on a modular cloud architecture. Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) from FICO Platform-based products was $227 million as of Sep 30, 2024, which accounted for 31% of FICO’s total software ARR.
Bottom Line
Anyone can invest, but building a successful investment portfolio requires research, patience, and a little bit of risk. So, if you had invested in Fair Isaac, ten years ago, you're likely feeling pretty good about your investment today.
According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in March 2016 would be worth $14,171.27, or a gain of 1,317.13%, as of March 4, 2026, and this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.
The S&P 500 rose 241.96% and the price of gold increased 294.46% over the same time frame in comparison.
Analysts are anticipating more upside for FICO.
FICO is benefiting from strong growth in its Scores segment, driven by increased mortgage originations revenue, higher unit prices, and growing demand for B2B and B2C Scores. Its expanding portfolio has been a major growth driver. FICO's innovations in credit scoring models, particularly the FICO Score 10T, have also been a major contributor to its success. The launch of the FICO mortgage direct license program further enhanced its market position by promoting competition and offering cost savings to lenders. However, the company faces challenges with declining non-platform revenue and lower professional services income, which have impacted overall software revenue growth. Rising debt levels also remain a concern. The company's shares have also underperformed the industry in the trailing twelve-month period.
The stock is up 9.03% over the past four weeks, and no earnings estimate has gone lower in the past two months, compared to 4 higher, for fiscal 2026. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.
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Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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