Experian PLC (EXPN), the world’s largest credit data and analytics provider, delivered another steady year of expansion in FY2025, though the pace of growth is beginning to show the weight of rising costs. For the 12 months ended March 31, 2025, revenue climbed 6% to US$7.52 billion, reflecting continued demand across its B2B data services and consumer credit monitoring platforms.
Yet net income slipped 2.8% to US$1.17 billion, and earnings per share declined 2% to US$1.28, missing analyst forecasts by roughly 9%. The company’s profit margin also narrowed to 16%, down from 17% a year earlier, signaling that while Experian’s growth remains intact, profitability is under mild pressure.
CEO Brian Cassin described the year as one of “strong progress,” underscoring double-digit growth in Latin America and mid-single-digit gains in the UK, EMEA, and North America. The company’s Benchmark EBIT rose 8% to US$1.94 billion, while Benchmark EPS increased 7% to US¢145.5, showing resilience in core operations despite inflation-driven wage and technology expenses.
Experian’s leadership attributed the margin compression to accelerated investment in artificial intelligence, cloud migration, and data infrastructure, moves designed to secure future scalability rather than short-term earnings.
Despite the softer bottom line, Experian’s strategic positioning remains enviable. The company now serves more than 180 million active consumers globally through its credit and financial health platforms and continues to expand its business analytics services for enterprise clients. Its consistent growth in both developed and emerging markets provides stability amid uneven consumer credit conditions. Investors appear to recognize this balance, with shares up modestly year-to-date, but sentiment has cooled as management guides toward another year of investment before operating leverage improves.
Financial Story: A Reset Year With Glimmers of Recovery
Experian’s FY25 financial story is also one of consistency amid reinvestment. Top-line growth met expectations, rising 6% year over year, with organic growth reaching 7% at constant exchange rates. That momentum was driven by steady performance in B2B analytics and renewed strength in Consumer Services, particularly in Brazil and North America.
However, earnings failed to keep pace with revenue as operating costs rose faster than inflation, cutting into margins and pushing EPS below estimates. For management, this tradeoff reflects a deliberate strategy: spending more now to position the business for greater efficiency and data leadership in the years ahead.
| Metric | FY2025 | FY2024 | YoY Change | Commentary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $7.52B | $7.10B | ▲ 6% | Broad-based regional growth, strongest in Latin America |
| Operating Profit | $1.70B | $1.69B | ▲ 1% | Flat margin as expenses offset revenue gains |
| Profit Before Tax | $1.55B | $1.55B | — | Held steady amid investment in tech and AI |
| Net Income | $1.17B | $1.20B | ▼ 3% | Slight dip from higher operating and interest costs |
| Basic EPS | $1.28 | $1.31 | ▼ 2% | 9% below consensus due to expense growth |
| Benchmark EBIT | $1.94B | $1.79B | ▲ 8% | Solid organic EBIT momentum |
| Benchmark EBIT Margin | 27.6% | 27.5% | ▲ 10 bps | Margins held firm despite heavier spend |
| Organic Revenue Growth | 7% | 6% | ▲ 1 pt | Near the top end of the guidance range |
| Dividend (Full Year) | 58.5¢ | 54.5¢ | ▲ 7% | Consistent capital return growth |
A closer look at regional and segment trends shows that Experian’s diversification continues to pay dividends. Latin America led the way with 13% organic growth, followed by EMEA and Asia Pacific at 7% and North America at 5%. Consumer Services revenue expanded 7%, supported by higher engagement through the Experian Boost and Smart Money platforms.
On the B2B side, fraud prevention, identity verification, and credit decisioning tools all saw healthy adoption, while the Ascend Platform and cloud-native products contributed to productivity gains. This steady multi-segment performance helped offset weaker consumer credit conditions in mature markets such as the U.S. and the UK.
See Burberry’s full financial results & estimates (It’s free) >>>
Still, the message from management was clear: FY25 was another step in a longer investment cycle. Experian has been accelerating its cloud transition, aiming to have 85–90% of non-health processing capacity in North America and Brazil be cloud-based by FY27. That modernization push, alongside expanded AI capabilities, drove capital expenditure to roughly 9% of revenue.
While this has temporarily restrained EPS growth, it also lays the groundwork for future cost savings and scalability. With operating cash flow holding at $1.9 billion, Experian can afford to invest aggressively without jeopardizing returns to shareholders.
1. B2B Momentum and Cloud Transition
Experian’s B2B business continues to anchor its growth engine. Revenue from business clients grew about 5% organically, reflecting both new client wins and deeper integrations of analytics and fraud prevention solutions. The company’s push into AI-assisted data delivery, particularly through its GenAI platform, is reshaping its enterprise model, enhancing automation and speed for financial services, telecom, and public-sector customers. Management expects productivity benefits to accelerate as its cloud migration nears completion in major markets.
The tradeoff is that dual-running costs will persist through FY26 as legacy systems wind down. However, Experian remains confident this short-term drag will yield longer-term leverage once operations fully transition to the cloud. Looking ahead, management guided to 6–8% organic revenue growth in FY26 and modest margin expansion of 30–50 basis points, with cloud efficiencies expected to begin showing in the second half of the year.
2. Consumer Services and Regional Expansion
Experian’s Consumer Services division continues to demonstrate strong engagement, adding millions of new users across North America, the UK, and Latin America. Products like Experian Boost, Smart Money, and its integrated financial health tools have been instrumental in expanding membership, now exceeding 200 million users worldwide. Latin America once again led the pack with double-digit revenue growth, while U.S. consumer credit monitoring and financial marketplace products posted mid-single-digit gains.
This global scale has allowed Experian to remain resilient even as credit demand softens in parts of Europe. The diversification between mature and emerging markets, along with a growing ecosystem of partner integrations, continues to provide stability. Management highlighted ongoing success in Brazil’s credit adoption programs, a bright spot that has helped offset slower performance in the UK consumer segment. With its data-driven financial health products gaining traction globally, Experian remains one of the few consumer finance companies successfully blending social utility with commercial scale.
Value stocks in less than 60 seconds with TIKR’s new Valuation Model (It’s free) >>>
3. Investing Through a Transition Year
FY25 underscored Experian’s dual identity: a mature cash generator and an ambitious tech investor. Capital expenditures reached roughly $675 million, reflecting ongoing modernization and automation projects. The company continued to deliver strong cash conversion, converting 97% of Benchmark EBIT into operating cash flow, demonstrating the underlying resilience of its model. Meanwhile, net debt to EBITDA stayed conservative at 1.7x, well within the company’s targeted range of 2.0–2.5x, giving Experian ample flexibility for continued buybacks and dividends.
Despite the near-term EPS miss, Experian’s reinvestment strategy appears sustainable. The company returned over $529 million to shareholders through buybacks and dividends, including a 7% increase in its full-year payout. Management has guided for continued shareholder distributions while maintaining its investment trajectory in AI, automation, and data infrastructure. For now, Experian seems comfortable trading short-term earnings stability for longer-term operating leverage, a decision that, if executed well, could reward patient investors in FY26 and beyond.
The TIKR Takeaway
Experian’s FY25 results highlight a company in motion rather than one at rest. Growth remains consistent, its balance sheet is strong, and its product suite is increasingly cloud-driven and AI-enabled. But profitability is temporarily taking a back seat as management doubles down on infrastructure and technology upgrades. Investors looking for quick gains may find the current pace underwhelming, yet those focused on steady, compounding returns could see FY25 as a necessary investment year rather than a setback.
In many ways, Experian is doing precisely what a dominant market leader should: reinvesting its stable cash flows into the next phase of scalable, automated growth. With global consumer adoption still rising and B2B demand healthy, the long-term picture remains intact. Execution on cost control and cloud transition efficiency will be the key watchpoints in FY26.
Should You Buy, Sell, or Hold Experian Stock in 2025?
At current levels, Experian is widely considered a good investment, with a steady long-term outlook. Its fundamentals remain robust, but with EPS momentum slowing and margins still under pressure, the near-term upside looks limited. Investors may need patience as the company completes its modernization phase and begins to reap the efficiency gains expected in FY26 and FY27.
That said, Experian’s franchise quality, spanning global data assets, AI-driven analytics, and an expanding consumer platform, makes it a rare combination of defensiveness and growth. FY25 may not have offered fireworks, but it reinforced Experian’s consistency and discipline, qualities that often prove their value over time.
Quickly value any stock with TIKR’s powerful new Valuation Model (It’s free!) >>>
AI Compounders With Massive Upside That Wall Street Is Overlooking
Everyone wants to cash in on AI. But while the crowd chases the obvious names benefiting from AI like NVIDIA, AMD, or Taiwan Semiconductor, the real opportunity may lie in the AI application layer, where a handful of compounders are quietly embedding AI into products people already use every day.
TIKR just released a new free report on 5 undervalued compounders that analysts believe could deliver years of outperformance as AI adoption accelerates.
Inside the report, you’ll find:
- Businesses already turning AI into revenue and earnings growth
- Stocks trading below fair value despite strong analyst forecasts
- Unique picks most investors haven’t even considered
If you want to catch the next wave of AI winners, this report is a must-read.
Click here to sign up for TIKR and get your free copy of TIKR’s 5 AI Compounders report today.
Looking for New Opportunities?
- See what stocks billionaire investors are buying so you can follow the smart money.
- Analyze stocks in as little as 5 minutes with TIKR’s all-in-one, easy-to-use platform.
- The more rocks you overturn… the more opportunities you’ll uncover. Search 100K+ global stocks, global top investor holdings, and more with TIKR.
Disclaimer:
Please note that the articles on TIKR are not intended to serve as investment or financial advice from TIKR or our content team, nor are they recommendations to buy or sell any stocks. We create our content based on TIKR Terminal’s investment data and analysts’ estimates. Our analysis might not include recent company news or important updates. TIKR has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading, and happy investing!