CluenexFair Isaac Corporation FICO
Fair Isaac Corporation scores excellent on business quality (7.8 of 10). Here is why, in plain words, and what our sealed record shows.
Why it matters
- What Fair Isaac Corporation does
Fair Isaac Corp sells the standard credit scoring system used across consumer finance, making money every time a lender checks a borrower's credit profile.
- What it does best
FICO controls a structural scoring monopoly backed by deep banking integration. With a gross margin of 85.1%, it extracts software-like rent from nearly every US mortgage, auto loan, and credit card issued.
- The main risk
Regulatory shifts pose an existential threat. A recent mortgage rule change triggered its worst stock drop since 1989, proving that shifts in government-mandated lending standards can instantly compress its core volume.
Quality, check by check
Scored against its own industry, from company filings.
Operating margin sits at 51.6% with an FCF margin near 40%. This software-like profitability expands rapidly with scale, backed by a staggering ROE of 145.7%. Scale brings near-frictionless profit growth.
The regulatory mandate creates an unassailable ecosystem lock-in for lenders and consumers. Its gross margin ranks in the top decile of its sector at 94th percentile, locking out rivals.
Revenue reached $2.4 billion, growing at 15.9%. History annual summary shows steady top-line acceleration from $1.3 billion in 2020, driven largely by pricing power in the Scores segment.
Debt stands at $3.1 billion against just $134 million in cash, yielding an interest coverage of 6.6x. Free cash flow reached $961 million, leaving the balance sheet softer due to heavy leverage.
Insiders
Executives and directors, from SEC Form 4 filings we read ourselves. Open market trades only; grants, option exercises and pre-planned sales left out.
No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Our sealed record on FICO
Verdicts appear here 30 days after we publish them; members see today's. Each one is in the nightly ledger, fingerprinted the night it was made.
The first sealed verdicts appear here on Oct 11, 2026.
Questions
Fair Isaac Corporation scores excellent on the Cluenex quality check (7.8 of 10), measured against its own industry. Profitability is strong, moat strong, growth fast and financial health fair.
In the last 90 days of SEC Form 4 filings: No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Nov 3, 2026, after the close.
See FICO today
- Today's verdict on FICO, and why
- Fair value with cautious, base and optimistic cases
- The exact price that would change the verdict
- Which stocks each signal names, the night it fires
Cite this page: Cluenex, “Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO)”, https://cluenex.com/stocks/fico/, data as of Oct 10, 2026.