(Reuters) -Credit bureau Equifax beat Wall Street expectations for first-quarter profit on Tuesday, buoyed by a smaller-than-expected drop in inquiries for mortgage credit reports.
The company also kept its annual forecast unchanged despite economic uncertainties, sending its shares up 7.7% before the bell.
Wall Street had anticipated mortgage inquiries to be a source of positive surprise in the first quarter, given the slight dip in the 30-year mortgage rate — the interest rate for the most popular U.S. home loan — during February and March.
U.S. mortgage inquiries fell 9% in the quarter from a year earlier, better than Equifax’s expectation of a 13% decline.
CEO Mark Begor said Equifax was maintaining its full-year 2025 outlook despite the strong first-quarter results, due to “significant uncertainty in the global macroeconomic environment and direction of U.S. inflation and interest rates.”
Uncertainty around U.S. trade policy may lead financial institutions to tighten consumer lending standards.
This would result in less business for credit bureaus like Equifax, which sell credit reports and data analytics to consumer and mortgage lenders.
The Atlanta, Georgia-based company still forecasts annual revenue between $5.91 billion and $6.03 billion; adjusted profit per share is expected to be between $7.25 and $7.65.
On an adjusted basis, Equifax earned $1.53 per share in the first quarter, beating analysts’ expectation of $1.40 per share, according to estimates compiled by LSEG.
The company also unveiled a $3 billion buyback program that it expects to complete over about four years.
Equifax’s shares have fallen 15.5% so far this year, as of last close, compared with the benchmark S&P 500 index’s 12.3% fall.
(Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)
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