Reasons Why Investors Should Hold Equifax Stock in Their Portfolio

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Reasons Why Investors Should Hold Equifax Stock in Their Portfolio

Equifax EFX is benefiting from sustainable demand for its diverse offerings. Strong performance across segments, buyouts and expanding artificial intelligence (AI)-powered innovations in analytical tools and solutions support long-term growth.

EFX has a Growth Score of B. This style score condenses key financial metrics to reflect a fair sense of the quality and sustainability of its growth.

The company’s second-quarter 2026 earnings are expected to increase 11.5% year over year. Its 2026 and 2027 earnings are projected to rise 12% and 19.9%, respectively. Revenues are expected to grow 10.9% in 2026 and 9.3% in 2027.

Factors That Bode Well for EFX

Equifax generates stable revenue streams from its diversified global data, analytics and technology services. These offerings leverage comprehensive consumer and business databases to serve a diverse client base and mitigate sector-specific challenges. The company’s total revenues have grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 4.3% in the last five years (2021-2025). EFX reported its first-quarter 2026 revenues of $1.65 billion, which increased 14% year over year.

Equifax, Inc. Revenue (TTM)

Equifax, Inc. Revenue (TTM)

Equifax, Inc. revenue-ttm | Equifax, Inc. Quote

The company’s U.S. Information Solutions mortgage revenues have been a key catalyst to its overall growth lately. EFX reported the segment’s growth of 38% year over year in the first quarter of 2026, driven by stronger market demand and growing customer adoption of Equifax’s The Work Number Indicator product. The tool alerts lenders upfront if an applicant’s income and employment records are already available in the Equifax database.

EFX’s Workforce Solutions segment has been another significant contributor to its growth. Segment revenues increased more than 10% year over year in the first quarter of 2026 due to strong performance across government services and consumer lending markets.

The company’s consistent approach to leveraging its cloud-native infrastructure and AI capabilities improves operational efficiency and long-term growth opportunities. It is transforming its services into advanced and robust AI-driven solutions. EFX developed an Agentic AI platform to accelerate and standardize the development, deployment, monitoring and governance of AI agents across Equifax. Its recently launched Ignite AI Advisor includes new AI-driven conversational analytics, offering customers deeper insights and personalized recommendations.

Risks to Watch

EFX had a current ratio (a measure of liquidity) of 0.61, below the industry average of 1.15 at the end of the first quarter of 2026. A current ratio below 1 often suggests that a company may not be well-positioned to meet its short-term obligations.

The company operates with enormous amounts of sensitive personal data from clients across the globe, making it highly susceptible to cybersecurity threats. The company suffered a cybersecurity breach in 2017, resulting in the theft of highly sensitive personal data belonging to approximately 143 million consumers. Repetition of such incidents will affect its brand image, reputation and credibility.

EFX’s Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Equifax currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here

Some better-ranked stocks in the Business Services are FactSet Research Systems Inc. FDS and Verisk Analytics VRSK.

FactSet carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. It has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 6.8%.

FDS beat earnings estimates in two of the last four reported quarters and missed twice, delivering an average earnings surprise of 0.4%.

Verisk Analytics also has a Zacks Rank of 2 at present. It has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 11.7%.

VRSK beat earnings estimates in each of the last four quarters, with the earnings surprise being 6.3%, on average.

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Equifax, Inc. (EFX): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
FactSet Research Systems Inc. (FDS): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Verisk Analytics, Inc. (VRSK): Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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