Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) Stock Price & How to Invest
Last updated July 2026
Short answer
FICO (Fair Isaac Corporation) is the company behind the FICO Score, the dominant U.S. consumer credit score, plus a growing enterprise decisioning software business. It is a high-margin, quasi-monopoly franchise whose stock has re-rated sharply lower in 2026 as new mortgage-scoring competition and a pricing shakeup cloud the once-untouchable Scores story.
FICO stock price
As of 2026-07-20, Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) last closed at $1,263.83, down 17.5% over the past year. Over the past 52 weeks it has traded between $922.37 and $1,879.55.
Prices are daily closing prices from Yahoo Finance and may be delayed. For the live quote, check your broker or Fair Isaac Corporation's investor relations page. Walnut is informational, not investment advice.
What does Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) do?
Fair Isaac Corporation, known by its ticker FICO, is best known for the FICO Score, the credit score most U.S. lenders use to gauge consumer credit risk. The business splits into two segments: Scores, which licenses the FICO Score to lenders and the three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) at extraordinarily high margins (the Scores segment operating margin has run around 91%), and Software, which sells the FICO Platform and analytic decisioning tools to banks, insurers, and other enterprises on a recurring-revenue model. Scores is the profit engine, while Software is the growth-and-stickiness story as customers migrate onto the platform.
The investment picture in 2026 is a story of a wide moat meeting new friction. Revenue and earnings have grown rapidly (trailing-twelve-month revenue around $2.25 billion, up more than 20% year over year, with fiscal 2026 revenue guided near $2.45 billion), driven by aggressive Scores price increases and a mortgage-origination rebound. But the stock has fallen sharply during the year (down roughly a third or more from its peak) after FHFA and the government-sponsored enterprises opened the door to VantageScore 4.0 alongside Classic FICO for mortgages, and after FICO restructured mortgage-score pricing (the FICO 10T model priced around $0.99 per score plus a funding fee). The debate is whether these moves protect or erode FICO's long-run pricing power.
What's driving Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO)?
1. Scores pricing power
The Scores segment is FICO's crown jewel, carrying operating margins around 91% because the score is embedded in lending workflows and costs little to reproduce. Years of B2B price increases, especially in mortgage, drove Scores revenue up sharply (segment revenue in the mid-hundreds of millions per quarter). How much room remains to raise prices without inviting substitution is the central bull-bear question.
2. Software platform shift
FICO is steering its Software segment toward the FICO Platform, a modular decisioning offering sold on recurring contracts. Platform annual recurring revenue has grown around 17% year over year (roughly $235 million and climbing toward 40% of total software ARR), while legacy non-platform ARR shrinks. Success here would give FICO a more scalable, SaaS-like growth curve alongside the score annuity.
3. Mortgage-score adoption
The GSEs are moving toward accepting FICO Score 10T and VantageScore 4.0, and in mid-2026 published historical data for both to enable lender adoption. If 10T becomes the mortgage standard, per-score economics change but volume and stickiness could persist; the transition itself is a multi-year swing factor for the mortgage-linked portion of Scores.
4. Credit-cycle sensitivity
Scores volume tracks lending activity, especially mortgage originations, credit-card issuance, and auto lending. A rebound in mortgage originations lifted results in fiscal 2026, but the same lever cuts both ways: a slowdown in consumer borrowing would pressure the highest-margin part of the business.
What are the risks to Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO)?
The biggest 2026 risk is competitive and regulatory: FHFA and the GSEs now allow VantageScore 4.0 (a joint venture of the three credit bureaus) alongside FICO for mortgages, threatening FICO's long-held mortgage-scoring monopoly and inviting pricing pressure. FICO's own move to a roughly $0.99-per-score-plus-fee mortgage model sharply cut average per-score fees, and investors are debating whether that defends share or signals eroding pricing power. The stock also remains richly valued relative to broad software peers, so any disappointment in Scores growth or platform adoption can drive large drawdowns (as seen in 2026). Concentration is a further concern: an outsized share of profit comes from one high-margin Scores franchise, and the three bureaus are simultaneously distribution partners and backers of the competing VantageScore. Political and public scrutiny of credit-score pricing adds ongoing headline risk.
How is Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) valued? (approximate, July 2026)
A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see Fair Isaac Corporation's investor relations page or your broker.
- Revenue (TTM): ~$2.25B
- FY2026 revenue guidance: ~$2.45B (up ~23% YoY)
- Q2 FY2026 revenue: ~$692M
- Q2 FY2026 GAAP EPS: ~$11.14
- FY2026 GAAP EPS guidance: ~$35.60
- Forward P/E: ~24x
FICO grew fiscal 2026 revenue and EPS more than 20% and 30% respectively, powered by Scores price increases and a mortgage-origination rebound. Despite that growth the shares fell sharply during 2026 (down roughly a third or more from their peak) as competition and pricing changes compressed the multiple from a trailing P/E near 40x toward a forward P/E around 24x, still a premium to the broader software group.
Who competes with Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO)?
Credit-score models
VantageScore Solutions is the direct rival in consumer credit scoring; it is a joint venture of the three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) and its VantageScore 4.0 model is now permitted alongside FICO for GSE mortgages, the most direct competitive threat to FICO's Scores moat.
Credit bureaus and data
Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion hold the underlying credit-file data, distribute FICO Scores, and back VantageScore, making them simultaneously FICO's largest partners and its competitors' owners, a structural tension at the heart of the business.
Decisioning and analytics software
In the Software segment FICO competes with enterprise analytics and decisioning vendors such as SAS, Experian's decisioning tools, Pegasystems, and a range of fraud, risk, and machine-learning platform providers serving banks and insurers.
How to invest in Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO)
There are three common ways to get FICO exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it, which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic basket, so FICO sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.
Walnut takes the basket route. Describe a thesis where FICO fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.
The bottom line on Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO)
FICO pairs a wide-moat credit-score franchise with a scaling software platform, but 2026 has introduced real questions about pricing power and mortgage-score competition that the market is still digesting.
More on Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO)
Whether FICO is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is FICO a buy?, and where the stock could go from here in the FICO stock forecast.
For income investors, whether FICO pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does FICO pay a dividend?
Build a basket around FICO with Walnut
Use Fair Isaac Corporation as one constituent in a thematic basket Walnut's AI helps you assemble. Describe a thesis you believe in, the AI proposes the holdings and weights, and you approve before any broker order.
FAQ
What does Fair Isaac (FICO) actually do?
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It builds and licenses the FICO Score, the most widely used U.S. consumer credit score, and sells enterprise decisioning software (the FICO Platform) to banks, lenders, and insurers. Scores generate most of the profit; Software is the recurring-revenue growth engine.
Why did FICO stock fall in 2026?
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The GSEs and FHFA opened mortgage lending to VantageScore 4.0 alongside Classic FICO, and FICO restructured mortgage-score pricing to roughly $0.99 per score plus a fee. Investors feared these changes could erode FICO's mortgage-scoring monopoly and pricing power, compressing the valuation multiple.
How does FICO make so much money on scores?
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The FICO Score is embedded in lending workflows and costs little to reproduce once built, so the Scores segment runs operating margins around 91%. Years of business-to-business price increases, especially in mortgage, amplified that profitability.
What is the difference between FICO and VantageScore?
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FICO is Fair Isaac's proprietary score and the long-standing mortgage standard. VantageScore is a competing model owned jointly by the three credit bureaus. In 2026 the GSEs began allowing VantageScore 4.0 for mortgages, introducing direct competition where FICO was previously dominant.
How fast is FICO growing?
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Trailing-twelve-month revenue is around $2.25 billion, up more than 20% year over year, with fiscal 2026 revenue guided near $2.45 billion. Growth has been driven by Scores price increases, a mortgage-origination rebound, and rising platform ARR.
Is FICO expensive?
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Even after a large 2026 decline, FICO trades at a forward P/E around 24x, a premium to the broader software industry. The valuation reflects its wide moat and high margins, but leaves limited room for disappointment on Scores growth or pricing.
What is the FICO Platform?
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It is FICO's modular decisioning software sold to enterprises on recurring contracts for use cases like fraud, credit decisioning, and analytics. Platform annual recurring revenue is growing around 17% and is becoming a larger share of total software ARR.
What are the biggest risks to FICO?
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Competition from VantageScore in mortgages, pressure on Scores pricing power, credit-cycle sensitivity tied to lending volumes, concentration in one high-margin franchise, and a premium valuation that magnifies downside if growth slows. Regulatory and political scrutiny of credit-score pricing adds headline risk.
Walnut is informational, not investment advice. Financial figures on this page are approximations; always verify current numbers with Fair Isaac Corporation's investor relations page or your broker before making investment decisions.