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FICO seems to be favorite amongst value investors looking for margins, growth, competitive advantage, pricing power.
The revenue mix is \~60% from the score business, and 40% from the software segment. But the score business has the high margins, with gross margins at 95%, operating margins 88%, net margins 70%. This is absolutely amazing, way above all the mag7. Share buybacks since 2005 to 2025 have contributed to shares outstanding to drop nearly 2/3, from 64.2m to just 23.7m. That's nearly 5% drop per year, with buybacks happening every single year, seemingly regardless of the stock price. Revenue, net income, EPS, and free cash flow all grow at a CAGR that is over 10% year over year. 90% of the industry uses FICO scores. It's one of Dev Kautesaria at Valley Forge Capital's key holdings. The issue now, reflected in the stock price drop since December 2024, is the government looking into the monopoly, and the excessive price increases. And now vantage score is being pushed in the industry, with prices that undercut FICO, and being now accepted as an acceptable industry standard alongside FICO scores, effectively leading to a duopoly instead of a monopoly. If that's the case, what do you think is the long term effect on FICO, it's margins, revenue growth, network effect? How does that affect its business quality and your potential buy price and expected return?