Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) and TransUnion (NYSE:TRU) are two of the three big credit bureaus, oligopoly toll booths that get paid whenever a lender checks someone’s credit. That is exactly why they have been hammered: high interest rates froze mortgages and slowed borrowing, so fewer credit checks happen. Here is what Jim Cramer thinks the housing slump is doing to companies. Both sit near 52-week lows with more than 45% of upside to analyst targets if lending recovers. But they are priced differently, EFX near 28 times earnings and TRU near 19. And does this gap reflect real differences in quality? Here is what each offers.
Equifax: The Higher-Quality, Mortgage-Levered One
Equifax is the premium franchise, for two reasons. First, it is the most exposed to US mortgages, so it has the most to gain when rates fall and home lending picks up. Second, and more important, it owns Workforce Solutions and The Work Number, a proprietary database of income and employment records that lenders pay to verify. That business earns large margins above 50% and keeps growing even while mortgages are frozen. This gives Equifax a non-cyclical engine beneath the cyclical one. Additionally, Equifax has largely completed its massive, multi-year $3 billion cloud migration, and it is set to lift margins and cash flow further. The catch: the stock is down more than 40%, which signals a mortgage trough that could run longer than hoped.
TransUnion: The Cheaper, More International One
TransUnion is the value option. At about 19 times earnings, it is the cheapest of the bureaus, and it offers more growth outside the US, with international revenue rising and India reaccelerating. It is also running a self-help plan: cutting costs and paying down debt, with leverage coming down toward more comfortable levels. If US lending recovers while its international and cost programs keep working, the earnings rebound could incur a strong turn from its low base. The trade-offs are quality and balance sheet. TransUnion carries more debt than Equifax, and its revenue mix is more cyclical and competitive.
The Trade-Off
Equifax gives you the best data moat in the group and the most torque to a mortgage recovery, plus a cloud-driven margin story. But for this you must pay a premium and bet the trough is nearby. TransUnion gives you a cheaper multiple and international growth, plus a self-help turnaround, with more debt and a lower-quality revenue mix. Both are depressed oligopolists that should benefit when lending thaws. The real question is when and whether you can wait.
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Institutional Positioning
Large investors leaned toward Equifax Inc. last quarter. Insider Monkey data shows 57 hedge funds held EFX at the end of the second quarter of 2026, up from 45 the quarter before, while TransUnion held steady at 35, though the value of those TRU stakes rose. The jump in Equifax holders suggests the smart money favored the higher-quality name while both sat near their lows.
While hedge funds were adding to EFX, billionaires were also loading up elsewhere: see the 10 Best Growth Stocks To Buy Now According To Billionaires.
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This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
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