(Reuters) -Credit bureau Equifax beat Street estimates for second-quarter profit on Tuesday, helped by a smaller-than-expected drop in inquiries for mortgage credit reports, and raised its annual revenue forecast marginally.
Mortgage inquiries buoyed Equifax's second-quarter results in an otherwise subdued mortgage market, with the 30-year mortgage rate — the interest rate for the most popular U.S. home loan — at lower levels than a year earlier when the Federal Reserve's benchmark interest rate was
at a record high.
U.S. mortgage inquiries fell 8% in the quarter from a year earlier, better than Equifax's expectation of an 11% decline. In the second quarter of 2024, the metric fell by 13%.
However, the U.S. mortgage market has seen suppressed loan demand amid rising Treasury yields and economic uncertainties, including fluctuating trade policies from President Donald Trump, and global political tensions.
Elevated mortgage rates have discouraged borrowers. That acted as a headwind for Equifax, which sells credit reports and data analytics to consumers and mortgage lenders, as per its earnings report.
The company now expects U.S. mortgage inquiries to decline by 11% in 2025, a slight upgrade from the 12% expected in the previous quarter.
This helped the company in revising its annual revenue guidance to the range of $5.97 billion to $6.04 billion, from $5.91 billion to $6.03 billion.
Analysts were expecting 2025 revenue of $6 billion, according to estimates compiled by LSEG.
On an adjusted basis, Equifax earned $249.7 million, or $2 per share, in the three months ended June 30, compared with $226.6 million or, $1.82 per share, in the year earlier.
Analysts had expected a profit of $1.92 apiece.
The company's shares, which have gained nearly 2% in 2025, were up marginally in trading before the bell.
(Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
