Reviewing Fiserv (FISV) & Its Peers

Fiserv (NASDAQ:FISV) is one of 341 public companies in the “Financial Services” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Fiserv to similar businesses based on the strength of its institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, earnings and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Fiserv and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fiserv	13.42%	15.80%	5.12%
Fiserv Competitors	-409.42%	-15.09%	-6.08%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Fiserv and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fiserv	5	19	6	0	2.03
Fiserv Competitors	1974	6896	11644	443	2.50

Fiserv presently has a consensus target price of $62.48, indicating a potential upside of 0.63%. As a group, “Financial Services” companies have a potential downside of 7.82%. Given Fiserv’s higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Fiserv is more favorable than its peers.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

91.0% of Fiserv shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 43.2% of shares of all “Financial Services” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Fiserv shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 21.9% of shares of all “Financial Services” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Fiserv and its peers revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Fiserv	$21.19 billion	$3.48 billion	11.92
Fiserv Competitors	$6.69 billion	$1.09 billion	9.14

Fiserv has higher revenue and earnings than its peers. Fiserv is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Volatility & Risk

Fiserv has a beta of 0.85, indicating that its share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Fiserv’s peers have a beta of 2.33, indicating that their average share price is 133% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Fiserv beats its peers on 8 of the 13 factors compared.

Fiserv Company Profile

Fiserv, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides payments and financial services technology services in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Latin America, the Asia-Pacific, and internationally. It operates through Merchant Acceptance, Financial Technology, and Payments and Network segments. The Merchant Acceptance segment provides merchant acquiring and digital commerce services; mobile payment services; security and fraud protection products; Clover, a cloud based POS and integrated commerce operating system for small and mid-sized businesses and independent software vendors; and Carat, an integrated operating system for large businesses. This segment distributes through various channels, including direct sales teams, strategic partnerships with agent sales forces, independent software vendors, financial institutions, and other strategic partners in the form of joint venture alliances, revenue sharing alliances, and referral agreement. The Financial Technology segment offers customer deposit and loan accounts, as well as manages an institution's general ledger and central information files. This segment also provides digital banking, financial and risk management, professional services and consulting, check processing, and other products and services. The Payments and Network segment offers card transactions, such as debit, credit, and prepaid card processing and services; funds access, debit payments, cardless ATM access, and surcharge-free ATM network; security and fraud protection products; card production; print services; and various network services, as well as non-card digital payment software and services, including bill payment, account-to-account transfers, person-to-person payments, electronic billing, and security and fraud protection products. It serves merchants, banks, credit unions, other financial institutions, and corporate clients. Fiserv, Inc. was incorporated in 1984 and is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.