Mar Vista’s U.S. Quality Strategy Divested Its Stake in Equifax (EFX)

Mar Vista Investment Partners, LLC, an investment management company, released its “Mar Vista U.S. Quality Strategy” fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. US equities experienced a strong momentum in 2025 and marked their second consecutive year of double-digit gains. The market witnessed one of the fastest recoveries following its dip into bear territory in April. Market leadership continued to narrow as Mega-cap stocks and AI-driven companies dominated the landscape. Against this backdrop, The Mar Vista’s U.S. Quality strategy reported +0.20% net-of-fees gains in Q4 2025 vs. the Russell 1000® Index’s +2.41% return and the S&P 500® Index’s +2.65% return. Stock selection in the communication services, consumer discretionary, and financials sectors was favorable to its performance, while stock selection in information technology, materials, and healthcare detracted from its performance. The letter also shared that, in 2026, markets will need to strike a balance between strong fundamentals and increasing economic uncertainties. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter, Mar Vista U.S. Quality Strategy highlighted stocks such as Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX). Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) is a data, analytics, and technology company that operates through Workforce Solutions, U.S. Information Solutions (USIS), and International segments. The one-month return of Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) was 0.83%, and its shares lost 12.68% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 12, 2026, Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) stock closed at $221.63 per share with a market capitalization of $27.248 billion.

Mar Vista U.S. Quality Strategy stated the following regarding Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:

“We divested our position in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) during the quarter following a strategic shift by FICO, a leading provider of credit scores to the mortgage industry. FICO announced plans to sell its credit scores directly to mortgage underwriters, bypassing the credit bureaus and thereby pressuring the economics that EFX has historically captured in the credit-scoring value chain. This change increases uncertainty around the long-term distribution of economics within the mortgage credit ecosystem and widens the range of potential outcomes for EFX. Coupled with a slower-than expected recovery in the housing market, we believe this evolving industry dynamic has weakened the risk-reward profile of the investment. As a result, we chose to exit the position and redeploy capital into opportunities within the portfolio that offer more attractive return potential with greater visibility.”

Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. According to our database, 43 hedge fund portfolios held Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) at the end of the third quarter, compared to 50 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

In another article, we covered Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) and shared a bullish thesis on the company. Mar Vista U.S. Quality Select Strategy initiated a position in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) during Q4 2024. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.