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The call presented strong operational and financial performance: double-digit revenue growth, meaningful EBITDA and EPS expansion, record product vitality, robust cash generation and active share repurchases/dividend increase. These positives were balanced against short-term macro and geopolitical uncertainty (Iran conflict) that pressured mortgage volumes late in the quarter, timing and budget headwinds in government contracts, WOTC expiration impact on Employer Services, and some USIS/diversified-market variability. Management remained conservative with full-year guidance but highlighted multiple secular growth levers (TWN indicators, EFX.AI, proprietary data, cloud) that support upside beyond the current guidance.
Equifax held its 2026 guidance while updating several line items: reported revenue midpoint was raised by $25M to $6.745B (FX ~+90 bps) and adjusted EPS midpoint was nudged to $8.54 (+$0.04); on a constant‑currency basis diversified markets are expected to grow high single digits and U.S. mortgage revenue is expected to be up >20% (mortgage originations down low single digits), with mortgage ex‑FICO growth at high single digits; excluding FICO mortgage royalties management expects full‑year growth of 7–9% and EBITDA (midpoint ~ $2.1B) with ex‑FICO EBITDA margin expansion of 75 bps (vs. a 50 bps long‑term target); EWS is expected to grow high single digits with EBITDA margins ~51.2–51.7%; full‑year free cash flow is expected to exceed $1.0B with cash conversion ≥100% and roughly $1.5B capacity for M&A and returns; Q2 guidance is $1.680–1.710B revenue (midpoint +10.3% reported / +9.4% constant‑dollar), ex‑FICO revenue ~+6.5% at midpoint, EPS $2.15–2.25, and EBITDA $537–554M (midpoint ~32.2% margin; ex‑FICO 34.3–34.7%, >80 bps y/y); management conservatively assumes only FICO scoring in 2026 (no vintage conversion), noting a ~$35M annual margin upside if full Vantage conversion occurs.
Reported revenue of $1.649B in Q1, up 14% year-over-year and $37M above the midpoint of February guidance; organic constant-currency revenue growth of 13% (200 bps above the February midpoint), and ex-FICO revenue growth ~10% (near the top of the 7%-10% long-term framework).
Q1 adjusted EBITDA of $477M, up 13% YoY; EBITDA margin excluding FICO of 31.2%, expanding 80 bps YoY and ~110 bps above the February midpoint; reported EBITDA margin 29%.
Reported EPS of $1.86 in Q1, up 22% year-over-year and $0.18 above the midpoint of February guidance.
Returned $327M to shareholders in Q1 (including $260M for 1.3M share repurchases, ~1% of shares outstanding) and paid $67M in dividends; increased quarterly dividend 12% to $0.56; reaffirmed expectation of >$1B free cash flow and cash conversion >100% for 2026 with ~$1.5B capacity for M&A and shareholder returns.
U.S. mortgage revenue outperformed, with EFX noting U.S. mortgage up 38% in Q1; USIS mortgage revenue up 60% (24% excluding FICO), driving significant contribution to overall growth and meaningful share gains in pre-approval/soft-pull products via TWN Indicator.
Workforce Solutions revenue grew over 10% with Verifier up 14% and Talent Solutions nearly 10%; EWS mortgage revenue up 14%; Workforce Solutions EBITDA margin at 52.3%, up 200 bps YoY.
Vitality Index reached a record 17%; added 10 AI-based patents in Q1 (400 pending or granted AI-based patents total); 100% of new models/scores in 2025 built with EFX.AI; new AI products (Ignite AI adviser) and expansion of EFX.AI-driven offerings.
TWN active records 211M, up 11%; total current records 120M, up 9% (105M unique SSNs); TWN Indicator rolled out to mortgage, and launched for auto and personal loans to drive prequalification and share gains; TWN attributes offered at no cost in mortgage to accelerate adoption.
International revenue up 4% in constant currency with EBITDA margin at 25% (up 80 bps YoY); diversified markets constant revenue dollar growth almost 6% in Q1 driven by Workforce Solutions execution.
Maintained full-year 2026 guidance given macro uncertainty but increased reported revenue midpoint by $25M to $6.745B and adjusted EPS by $0.04 to $8.54 due to favorable FX (~90 bps benefit).
Greetings, and welcome to the Equifax Q1 2026 Earnings Conference Call Webcast. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Trevor Burns, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Trevor, please go ahead.
Thanks, and good morning. Welcome to today's conference call. I'm Trevor Burns, with me today are Mark Begor, Chief Executive Officer; and John Gamble, Chief Financial Officer. Today's call is being recorded and an archive of the recording will be available later today in the IR calendar section of the News and Events tab at our Investor Relations website. During the call, we will be making reference to certain materials that can be found in the Presentations section of the News & Events tab at our IR website. These materials are labeled 1Q 2026 earnings conference call. Also, we will be making certain forward-looking statements, including second quarter and full year 2026 guidance to help you understand Equifax and its business environment. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations.
Certain risk factors that may impact our business are set forth in filings with the SEC, including our 2025 Form 10-K and subsequent filings. During this call, we will be referencing certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EPS, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margins and cash conversion which are adjusted for certain items that affect the comparability of our underlying ...