Fair Isaac (NYSE:FICO) Hits New 12-Month High Following Analyst Upgrade

Fair Isaac Co. (NYSE:FICO) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday after Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on the stock from $1,850.00 to $2,500.00. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the stock. Fair Isaac traded as high as $2,173.84 and last traded at $2,079.09, with a volume of 21458 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $2,090.63.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Fair Isaac from $2,200.00 to $2,400.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Fair Isaac from $2,130.00 to $2,374.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Fair Isaac from $2,150.00 to $2,350.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Fair Isaac from $1,967.00 to $2,109.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Fair Isaac from $1,700.00 to $2,000.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,964.92.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fair Isaac news, Director Joanna Rees sold 3,961 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,750.00, for a total transaction of $6,931,750.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Fair Isaac news, Director Joanna Rees sold 3,961 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,750.00, for a total transaction of $6,931,750.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Thomas A. Bowers sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,715.27, for a total transaction of $5,145,810.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 5,769 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,895,392.63. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fair Isaac

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Swedbank AB increased its holdings in shares of Fair Isaac by 11.5% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,822 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $19,089,000 after purchasing an additional 1,013 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Fair Isaac by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,855,775 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,568,605,000 after purchasing an additional 35,263 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Fair Isaac by 25.4% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 861,283 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,076,268,000 after acquiring an additional 174,397 shares in the last quarter. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Fair Isaac in the 2nd quarter worth $529,000. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC increased its holdings in Fair Isaac by 327.1% in the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 9,985 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $12,477,000 after acquiring an additional 7,647 shares in the last quarter. 85.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fair Isaac Trading Up 7.1 %

The company has a market cap of $57.13 billion, a PE ratio of 122.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.35. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $1,947.74 and its 200 day moving average is $1,641.34.

Fair Isaac (NYSE:FICO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The technology company reported $5.34 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $5.44 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $453.81 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $454.78 million. Fair Isaac had a negative return on equity of 60.67% and a net margin of 28.94%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fair Isaac Co. will post 19.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fair Isaac announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, July 30th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the technology company to buy up to 2.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

About Fair Isaac

Fair Isaac Corporation develops analytic, software, and digital decisioning technologies and services that enable businesses to automate, enhance, and connect decisions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates in two segments, Scores and Software. The Software segment provides pre-configured analytic and decision management solution designed for various business needs or processes, such as account origination, customer management, customer engagement, fraud detection, financial crimes compliance, and marketing, as well as associated professional services.