Equifax (EFX): A good credit

"We’re always ready to shift to an individual stock when we see an attractive investment opportunity like Equifax (NYSE: EFX)," says money manager and advisor Jim Stack, who incidentally, accurately called both the 2008 market top and the March bottom.

In his InvesTech Market Analyst, he explains, "The stock is attractively valued based on revenue, cash flow, and earnings power of the company." Here's his review of the credit reporting agency.

"Equifax is in the business of supplying clients with the power of information and is most commonly known as a credit reporting agency.

"The 'credit score' your banker looks at when you apply for a loan is derived from information supplied by Equifax and its competitors.

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"Historically, this line of business has been the bread and butter of the company, accounting for a large chunk of the firm’s revenue (~46% in 2008).  Nonetheless, credit statistics are just the tip of Equifax’s information iceberg.

"In addition to outstanding debt and payment history information, the firm maintains an extensive database of income, employment, and wealth data.

"Even more amazing than the breadth of the company’s data is the depth, with records available on a few hundred million individuals. The robustness of its database uniquely positions Equifax to solve evolving customer problems.

"By integrating the standard credit report details (payment history, debt levels, etc.) with its large database of employment history, wage information, and wealth data, management is now targeting markets such as: 

• •  Providing employment information and knowledge to human resource departments, government agencies, collections firms, and mortgage companies. Known as TALX, this segment accounts for 19% of revenues, up from 8% in the 2nd quarter of 2007 thanks to 56% annualized growth.
• • Mortgage settlement services – by combining its information database with a platform of appraisers and title companies, Equifax’s bundled settlement program has been proven to reduce mortgage closing times by 33%. This segment is on track to grow from zero to $200 million in annual revenues (10% of total) in just over 3 years.
• •  Bank deposit gathering – by leveraging its network of banking contacts, Equifax is now providing data to help banks gather key deposit relationships – a priority for banks in the post 2008 financial meltdown.  Although this product is still being developed, it’s a great example of the flexibility and depth of the Equifax data library. 

"Equifax’s business model is also extremely scalable, which provides high returns and competitive barriers to other firms entering the marketplace.

"Equifax’s data distribution method is transaction based – clients are charged on the number of data queries they perform. Once a database is built, each additional 'transaction' adds profit directly to the bottom line.

"By leveraging product scalability, Equifax has historically provided an average return on equity of 37% during the last 10 years. Scalability also affords management a wide competitive moat as the logistics and costs of recreating the database components already owned by Equifax are almost insurmountable. 

"The entire Equifax investment story comes together with a very attractive valuation. The shares are currently offered well below mean when compared to the revenue, cash flow, and earnings power of the company.

"The price to cash flow ratio is just off of its 10-year low, with significant upside potential back to more normalized levels.

"All in all, when we consider the company’s unmatched information database in combination with a valuation not seen in over 10 years, we are very excited about the long-term appreciation potential."