Equifax‘s results showed that the pandemic has boosted demand for online data and services – particularly verification services, which soared 70 percent year on year. In terms of headline data, the company’s adjusted earnings per share came in at $2, which beat the consensus of about $1.83, and where revenues of $1.1 billion were 3 percent better than consensus, according to Zacks.
Drilling down a bit, revenues from the U.S. Information Solutions division were up 17 percent from last year, at $387.5 million. Within that unit, online information sales were up 18 percent year over year to nearly $268 million. Supplemental materials released by the company show that mortgage-related revenue was up 60 percent in the latest quarter, while non-mortgage activity was flat. U.S. B2B online revenues were up 43 percent.
Mortgage solutions revenue was $50.4 million, an increase of 55 percent from the fourth quarter of 2019. Workforce solutions showed fourth-quarter revenue gains of 62 percent to $406.2 million, where verification services gained 70 percent to $330 million year over year. Management said on the conference call with analysts that the workforce solutions segment would see among the highest growth rates for the company, with double-digit percentage point growth likely moving forward (management said on the call that it had added 10 million records in the past year and that the firm’s databases contain 360 million records).
Financial marketing services revenues declined 2 percent to $69.6 million. Revenues in the international division totaled $247.5 million, up 3 percent on a local currency basis.
Cloud Transformation On Track
The company said that its transformation to the cloud remains on track, and management indicated that the cloud remains a fundamental part of the firm’s growth strategy, as Equifax is able to get new products and services to market more quickly. In updating some cloud-focused activities, the company said it had taken 10 data centers offline, and that 25 markets were undergoing cloud migrations.
Looking ahead, the company sees mid-single-digit percentage point increases in revenues year on year, driven in part by the cloud initiatives. Acquisitions, including that of Kount (the digital ID firm Equifax bought earlier this year for $640 million) will add about 1.2 percentage points to that rate. As reported by PYMNTS, in further detail on that announcement, Kount had more than $60 million in annualized revenues, marked by annual growth rates in excess of 20 percent.
The growth comes as eCommerce activity was up more than 20 percent in 2020 and online banking soared more than 67 percent. Mark W. Begor, Equifax CEO, said in a statement accompanying earnings that “we are increasing our focus on acquisitions that will accelerate our growth” in 2021 and beyond.
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