Head to Head Analysis: Fiserv (FISV) versus Its Competitors

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

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 rivals have a beta of 2.50, indicating that their average share price is 150% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

91.0% of Fiserv shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 43.0% of shares of all “Financial Services” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Fiserv shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 21.8% of shares of all “Financial Services” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

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

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fiserv	4	20	6	0	2.07
Fiserv Competitors	1988	6946	11713	446	2.50

Fiserv currently has a consensus target price of $63.11, suggesting a potential upside of 0.37%. As a group, “Financial Services” companies have a potential downside of 6.28%. Given Fiserv’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Fiserv is more favorable than its rivals.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Fiserv and its rivals gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Fiserv	$20.80 billion	$3.48 billion	-8.47
Fiserv Competitors	$9.22 billion	$1.09 billion	10.06

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fiserv	-18.91%	15.76%	5.02%
Fiserv Competitors	-338.89%	-39.94%	-5.83%

Summary

Fiserv beats its rivals on 7 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.