Fair Isaac, which rebranded as Fico last week, led the gainers on the Finextra50 Financial Technology Index, as the index closed Friday up 8.6% to 56.02. Only one company, Ffastfill, dropped more than 5%, but it was Fico, EXLServices and Pegasystems that led the many gainers.
Fair Isaac shares ended up 30.03% to $13.12 in a week that saw the company rebrand to assume the name of its widely used credit scoring system. Particularly in the US, the term Fico had become widely used as a generic name for a credit score - regardless of the actual provider. The company's move could be viewed as a move to reclaim and protect that strong brand.
The firm also last week announced a new product designed to improve mortgage lenders’ ability to predict whether a borrower can repay a home loan. Over the past 18 months the company has suffered from its association with the US sub-prime mortgage crisis, and this news coupled with the re-branding have obviously improved investor sentiment towards it - at least for now.
EXLServices Holdings rose 23.61% to $8.22, despite on Wednesday issuing revenue guidance for fiscal 2009 that was below analyst estimates. It says it expects revenue of between $170 million to $175 million, but according to Reuters Estimates, analysts are expecting the firm to hit $184 million.
Pegasystems was the real earnings story of the week, however. Its shares rose to a nine-year high on Tuesday after it reported its fourth-quarter net income doubled and forecast increasing gains in 2009.
The business process management software vendor ended Friday up 22.37% to $17.23. It reported that net income doubled to $2.83 million, or 8 cents a share, from $1.42 million, or 4 cents a share, a year earlier.
Revenue leapt 27% to $59.4 million as sales of software licenses rose by 70% and maintenance sales rose 22%. Professional services revenue rose slightly to $22.9 million from $22.8 million.
Other companies to see significant rises include:
Losers
Only one company in the index saw a significant fall in share price last week. UK-listed derivatives software vendor Ffastfill ended Friday down 8.18% on the previous week to 5.05p
Index comparison
Methodology
More information on the Finextra50 Financial Technology Index methodology and constituent stocks can be found here.