FICO Announces Earnings of $0.35 per Share for Fourth Quarter 2009

MINNEAPOLIS—November 4, 2009 - FICO (NYSE:FICO), the leading provider of analytics and decision management technology, today announced financial results for its fourth fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2009.

Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2009 Results
Net income for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 totaled $17.1 million, or $0.35 per share, versus $23.8 million, or $0.49 per share, reported in the prior year period, which included $0.07 per share of net favorable adjustments related to income tax adjustments and restructuring costs.

“Unwavering focus on our core strategy, combined with our ongoing expense discipline, has yielded strong operating leverage for FICO over the past 12 months,” said Mark Greene, chief executive officer. “We’ve used that leverage to bring to market new Decision Management products that our customers urgently need to compete effectively. Our approach has led to consistent earnings, and now, a significant increase in bookings during the fourth quarter. And thanks to our strong balance sheet and substantial free cash flow, we remain in a position to invest in products whose value is prized by our clients – the key to meaningful revenue growth for FICO over the longer term.”

Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2009 Revenue
The company reported fourth quarter revenues of $151.9 million in fiscal 2009 versus $178.2 million reported in the prior year period. Revenues for fourth quarter fiscal 2009 across each of the company’s four operating segments were as follows:

• Strategy Machine^® Solutions revenues were $82.9 million in the fourth quarter compared to $94.5 million in the prior year quarter, or a decrease of 12%, primarily due to the divestiture of our telecom product lines. Fourth quarter 2008 included $5.9 million of revenue associated with the divested telecom product lines. The remaining decrease was due to declines in our consumer solutions and customer management solutions, which were partially offset by an increase in our fraud solutions and marketing solutions.
• Scoring Solutions revenues were $31.8 million in the fourth quarter compared to $37.3 million in the prior year quarter, or a decrease of 15%, primarily due to a decrease in revenues derived from our credit bureau risk scores.
• Professional Services revenues were $25.0 million in the fourth quarter compared to $33.2 million in the prior year quarter, or a decrease of 25%, primarily due to the general decline in license sales, resulting in a corresponding decline in implementation services. This decline is also the result of a practice of discontinuing certain lower margin consulting service engagements that was started in early fiscal 2009.
• Analytic Software Tools revenues decreased to $12.2 million in the fourth quarter compared to $13.2 million in the prior year quarter, or a decrease of 8%, primarily due to decreases associated with the sale of the Blaze Advisor^® product.

Bookings
The bookings for the fourth quarter were $85.9 million compared to $71.2 million in the same period last year. The company defines a “new booking” as estimated future contractual revenues, including agreements with perpetual, multi-year and annual terms. Management regards the volume of new bookings achieved as one indicator of future revenues, but they are not comparable to, nor should they be substituted for, an analysis of the company’s revenues.

Balance Sheet and Cash Flow
Cash and cash equivalents, and investments were $390.3 million at September 30, 2009, as compared to $271.2 million at September 30, 2008. Significant changes in cash and cash equivalents from September 30, 2008 include cash provided by operations of $151.6 million, $4.0 million received from the sale of product line assets, and $3.3 million received from the exercise of stock options and stock issued under an employee stock purchase plan. Cash used during the year includes $18.5 million to repurchase common stock, $14.0 million related to purchases of property and equipment and $3.9 million of dividends paid.

Outlook
In light of the continuing uncertainty in the global financial markets and the limited visibility into our clients’ spending intentions, the company is not providing specific quarterly guidance. However, the company expects to grow year-over-year GAAP earnings per share by a high single-digit percentage in fiscal 2010 compared to fiscal 2009, with relatively flat results in the first half of the year compared to the prior year, and stronger performance in the latter half of fiscal 2010.

Company to Host Conference Call
The company will host a webcast today at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (4:00 p.m. Central Time/2:00 p.m. Pacific Time) to report its fourth quarter fiscal 2009 results and provide various strategic and operational updates. The call can be accessed at FICO's Web site at www.FICO.com (follow the instructions on the Investor Relations page). A replay of the webcast will be available through December 4, 2009.

The webcast will also be distributed through the Thomson StreetEvents Network to both institutional and individual investors. Individual investors can listen to the call at www.fulldisclosure.com, Thomson/CCBN's individual investor portal, powered by StreetEvents. Institutional investors can access the call via Thomson's password-protected event management site, StreetEvents (www.streetevents.com).

About FICO
FICO (NYSE:FICO; www.FICO.com) is the leader in decision management, transforming business by making every decision count. FICO combines trusted advice, world-class analytics, and innovative applications to help businesses automate, improve, and connect decisions over customer lifecycles and across the enterprise. Clients in 80 countries work with FICO to increase customer loyalty and profitability, reduce fraud losses, manage credit risk, meet regulatory and competitive demands, and rapidly build market share. FICO also helps millions of individuals manage their credit health through its consumer website, www.myFICO.com.

Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Information
Except for historical information contained herein, the statements contained in this news release that relate to FICO or its business are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially, including the success of the Company’s Decision Management strategy and reengineering plan, the maintenance of its existing relationships and ability to create new relationships with customers and key alliance partners, its ability to continue to develop new and enhanced products and services, its ability to recruit and retain key technical and managerial personnel, competition, regulatory changes applicable to the use of consumer credit and other data, the failure to realize the anticipated benefits of any acquisitions, continuing material adverse developments in global economic conditions, and other risks described from time to time in FICO’s SEC reports, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2008, and its last quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2009. If any of these risks or uncertainties materializes, FICO’s results could differ materially from its expectations. FICO disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

FICO, Strategy Machine, and Blaze Advisor are all trademarks or registered trademarks of Fair Isaac Corporation in the United States and in other countries.

Q4 2009 Financial tables in pdf format