Hawley call for DOJ investigation a negative for FICO, says Baird

Baird notes that Senator Josh Hawley has made public a letter sent to the DOJ requesting an investigation of FICO for “anticompetitive practices,” which the firm calls a negative, especially in light of what it considers high expectations and crowded positioning. Significant B2B Scores price increases with an outsized contribution from mortgage scores pricing is “a lynchpin of the FICO bull thesis” and mortgage scores pricing was a focus of the Hawley letter, notes the analyst, who maintains a Neutral rating and $1,264 price target on FICO shares as this risk comes into greater investor focus. However, the firm adds that it does not know “the legal thresholds/defenses for the pricing actions.”