At a glance
ExlService Holdings Inc is worth $6.14B, about 26 times its fiscal 2025 earnings. Revenue grew 13.6% to $2.09B in fiscal 2025, with 12.0% kept as profit; over 5 years it has grown 16.8% a year. It pays no dividend; it spent $859.3M buying back its shares over FY2021–FY2025. The stock returned −1.8% over the past year with dividends reinvested and +10.7% a year over five years, against +11.5% and +11.7% for the S&P 500. At its worst it fell 46.2% in the 2020 crash (S&P 500: 33.7%) and 21.6% in the 2022 bear market (S&P 500: 24.5%), and was back at its earlier high 8 months and 1 month after the lows.
The business in plain English
ExlService Holdings, known as EXL, sells data, analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and outsourced operations services to large companies. Its clients include property, casualty and life insurers; health insurers, healthcare providers and pharmacy benefit managers; life sciences firms; banks; and companies in retail, media and energy. EXL was founded in 1999 and is based in New York. It has over 65,000 employees and operations centers in India, the Philippines, the United States, Latin America and Europe.
EXL makes money from client fees in two ways. Data and AI-led services made up 55.3% of its $2.09 billion revenue in fiscal 2025. This work covers data management, software development and AI tools. One example is an insurance-specific large language model (the kind of AI behind chatbots) that helps with claims and underwriting. Digital operations made up the other 44.7%. Here EXL runs day-to-day work for clients, such as claims handling, billing, collections and customer service. EXL also runs its own software, including Subrosource, which helps property and casualty insurers recover claim payments from the party at fault.
By industry unit, Insurance brought in about 40% of fiscal 2025 revenue. Banking, Capital Markets and Diversified Industries brought in about 35%, and Healthcare and Life Sciences about 26%. By region, North America supplied 82.7%, the United Kingdom and Europe 14.7%, and the rest of the world 2.6%.
Price history
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EXLS -1.8% over the year to Oct 28, 2026, total return with dividends reinvested.
How it makes money
By product or service
| Data and AI-led | $1.16B | 55.3% |
| Digital operations | $932.3M | 44.7% |
By business segment
| Insurance | $829.9M | 39.8% |
| Banking, Capital Markets and Diversified Industries | $724.2M | 34.7% |
| Healthcare and Life Sciences | $533.5M | 25.6% |
By geography
| North America | $1.73B | 82.7% |
| United Kingdom & Europe | $307.3M | 14.7% |
| Rest of World | $54.8M | 2.6% |
Latest results
- In Q3 FY2026 (ended Sep 30, 2026), revenue was $634.0M, up 19.7% from a year earlier, and net income was $68.8M (+18.2%).
- For fiscal 2025, revenue was $2.09B (+13.6% year over year; +16.8% a year from FY2020 to FY2025) with a 12% net margin.
Financial health check
| Revenue growth a year (FY2020–FY2025) | +16.8% good |
|---|---|
| Operating margin | 15% good |
| Free cash flow margin | 14.3% good |
| Return on equity (FY2025) | 27.5% good |
| Return on assets (FY2025) | 14.7% good |
| Net cash (cash minus debt) | $-171.9M watch |
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2020 | $958.4M | $89.5M | $160.7M |
| FY2021 | $1.12B | $114.8M | $147.1M |
| FY2022 | $1.41B | $143.0M | $121.3M |
| FY2023 | $1.63B | $184.6M | $158.4M |
| FY2024 | $1.84B | $198.3M | $222.3M |
| FY2025 | $2.09B | $251.0M | $298.1M |
Valuation snapshot
| Market value | $6.14B |
|---|---|
| P/E ratio | 26.4 |
| Dividend yield | None |
Rank among 1514 US companies
Market value at each year end
ExlService Holdings’s market value went from $1.69B at the end of 2016 to $6.14B on Oct 28, 2026, about 3.6 times as much; since the end of 2025 it is down 9%.
Show as a table
| Year end | Market value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 28, 2026 | $6.14B | -8.8% |
| 2025 | $6.74B | -5.7% |
| 2024 | $7.14B | +40.3% |
| 2023 | $5.09B | -9.2% |
| 2022 | $5.60B | +16.2% |
| 2021 | $4.82B | +67.5% |
| 2020 | $2.88B | +21.5% |
| 2019 | $2.37B | +31.4% |
| 2018 | $1.80B | -12.0% |
| 2017 | $2.05B | +21.2% |
| 2016 | $1.69B |
Price behavior
| YTD | 1 yr | 3 yr | 5 yr | 10 yr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EXLS price data to Oct 28, 2026 | -4.1% | -1.8% | +16.7% | +10.7% | +16.4% |
Show as a table
| Year | Price data |
|---|---|
| 2026 (to date) | -4.0% |
| 2025 | -4.4% |
| 2024 | +43.9% |
| 2023 | -9.0% |
| 2022 | +17.0% |
| 2021 | +70.1% |
| 2020 | +22.6% |
| 2019 | +32.0% |
| 2018 | -12.8% |
| 2017 | +19.6% |
| 2016 | +12.3% |
| 2015 | +56.5% |
| 2014 | +4.0% |
| 2013 | +4.2% |
| 2012 | +18.5% |
| 2011 | +4.1% |
| 2010 | +18.4% |
| 2009 | +111.8% |
| 2008 | -62.9% |
| 2007 | +9.7% |
| 2008 financial crisis stocks fell Oct 9, 2007 – Mar 9, 2009 | Lost 73.2% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 80.9%, back to its old high 47.3 months after the low |
|---|---|
| 2020 COVID crash stocks fell Feb 19, 2020 – Mar 23, 2020 | Lost 45.4% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 46.2%, back to its old high 7.6 months after the low |
| 2022 bear market stocks fell Jan 3, 2022 – Oct 12, 2022 | Gained 6.3% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 21.6%, back to its old high 1.2 months after the low |
Insider activity
Form 4 filings from 2025-10-29 to 2026-10-29 (25 read): 0 open-market purchases and 8 sales ($2.2M), 7 of them under pre-arranged 10b5-1 trading plans.
| Date | Insider | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 1, 2026 | Vikas Bhalla President of EXL | sell (plan) | $389K |
| Aug 3, 2026 | Vikas Bhalla President of EXL | sell (plan) | $385K |
| Sep 1, 2026 | Vikas Bhalla President of EXL | sell (plan) | $382K |
| Jun 4, 2026 | Vikas Bhalla President of EXL | sell (plan) | $363K |
| Jul 1, 2026 | Vikas Bhalla President of EXL | sell (plan) | $318K |
Who owns it
Large shareholders (13G filings)
| FMR LLC | 12% | Sep 30, 2026 |
| BlackRock, Inc. | 9.5% | Jun 30, 2025 |
| Vanguard Capital Management | 5.07% | Mar 31, 2026 |
| AQR Capital Management, LLC | 4.46% | Jun 30, 2026 |
ETFs with the most weight in EXLS
| NEWZ StockSnips AI-Powered Sentiment US All Cap ETF | 3.25% |
| RWLC Rayliant NxtGen Multifactor US Equity ETF | 2.08% |
| PRN Invesco Dorsey Wright Industrials Momentum ETF | 1.99% |
| OMFS Invesco Russell 2000 Dynamic Multifactor ETF | 1.58% |
| RFG Invesco S&P MidCap 400® Pure Growth ETF | 1.43% |
| SEIS SEI Select Small Cap ETF | 1.3% |
| SCDS JPMorgan Fundamental Data Science Small Core ETF | 1.21% |
| FSGS First Trust SMID Growth Strength ETF | 1.09% |
What could go wrong
- AI may shrink the work clients pay for. EXL says AI and other new technology have already reduced and replaced some of its older services. Clients may pause or stop existing work while they switch to newer tools.
- Clients could bring the work in-house. EXL's own clients are also competitors. They can build their own AI tools or set up in-house service hubs, called global capability centers, to do work they would otherwise outsource.
- Heavy reliance on a few US clients. A large share of revenue comes from a small number of clients, mainly in the United States. North America supplied 82.7% of fiscal 2025 revenue, so losing one large client could hurt results.
- Most contracts can be cancelled without cause. Clients can end most contracts without giving a reason, and the contracts do not guarantee a set amount of work. A missed expectation or a client's new strategy can mean lost or smaller contracts.
- Sensitive client data makes breaches costly. EXL handles confidential client and employee data. A breach could bring costly lawsuits, damage its reputation and cost it clients. The company says its growing use of AI adds privacy risks.
- Rising wages and staff shortages. EXL needs enough trained staff and capable leaders to deliver its services. Wage increases may weaken its competitive edge and reduce profit margins, and rivals may hire away key talent.
Recent events
- Quarterly results released
- Executive or board change
- Major agreement signed; Major agreement ended; New debt or financial obligation; Investor presentation or announcement
- Quarterly results released
- Executive or board change; Other company announcement
- Other company announcement
- Shareholder vote results
- Executive or board change; Other company announcement
- Quarterly results released
- Major agreement signed; Executive or board change
For income and retirement investors
ExlService pays no dividend, and its 10-K says it does not plan to pay one in the foreseeable future. For an income investor, this means the shares produce no cash. All returns come from price changes, so the only way to raise cash is to sell shares. EXL uses its cash to repurchase its own shares instead. It spent about $859 million on buybacks over fiscal 2021 to 2025, including $328 million in fiscal 2025. That was more than its $298 million of free cash flow that year (cash left after running and investing in the business). Shares outstanding fell 9.4% from October 2021 to October 2026.
The stock has fallen hard in past downturns. It dropped 80.9% between November 2007 and October 2008 and did not recover until September 2012. In the 2020 COVID crash it fell 46.2% but was back at its peak by November 2020. In 2022 it fell 21.6% by February and recovered by April. Across the market's January-to-October 2022 decline, it gained 6.3%. Single stocks carry more risk than diversified funds.
Questions investors ask
How does ExlService (EXL) make money?
EXL charges large companies fees for data, AI and outsourced operations work. Revenue was $2.09 billion in fiscal 2025, the year ended December 31, 2025. Data and AI-led services, such as analytics, data management and AI tools, made up 55.3%. Digital operations made up 44.7%. In this work EXL runs tasks like claims processing, billing and customer service for clients. Insurance clients were the biggest group, at about 40% of revenue.
Does EXLS pay a dividend?
No. ExlService paid no dividends in fiscal 2020 through 2025, and its 10-K says it does not plan to pay any in the foreseeable future. Instead, it returns cash through share buybacks (repurchasing its own stock). It spent about $859 million on buybacks over fiscal 2021 to 2025. Shares outstanding fell 9.4% between October 2021 and October 2026. This gives each remaining share a bigger slice of profits but no regular income.
Is AI a threat to ExlService's business?
AI is both a risk for EXL and the center of its strategy. EXL's 10-K says AI and other new technology have already reduced and replaced some of its older services, and clients may build their own AI tools instead. At the same time, EXL calls itself a global data and AI company. Data and AI-led work made up 55.3% of fiscal 2025 revenue. Its tools include an insurance-specific large language model (a type of AI trained on text) for claims and underwriting.
Is ExlService still growing?
Yes. Revenue rose every year from fiscal 2020 through 2025, from $958 million to $2.09 billion. That works out to 16.8% a year. In fiscal 2025, revenue grew 13.6% and net income grew 26.6%, to $251 million. Growth was faster in the quarter ended September 30, 2026, when revenue rose 19.7% from a year earlier to $634 million. On that date EXL had $511 million of debt and $339 million of cash and investments.
How has EXLS stock performed?
The stock has done well over 10 years, but the shares slipped over the past year. As of October 28, 2026, the share price had gained 16.4% a year over 10 years (358% in total) and 10.7% a year over five years. It was down 1.8% over one year and 4.1% year to date. The ride has been rough. Over the three years to that date, the stock fell as much as 51.3% from a high. It traded at 26.4 times fiscal 2025 earnings per share (its price-to-earnings, or P/E, ratio).