Fiserv Inc (FISV) stock analysis
Fiserv Inc (FISV) clears 4 of this site's 8 mechanical value filters, 4 of 8 Buffett-style checks and 2 of 5 Lynch-style checks. A free-cash-flow DCF does not fit financial services companies, so no margin of safety is shown. Its earnings quality rates Strong and it returns −1.3% to shareholders net of dilution. Figures are as of October 23, 2026, from SEC filings and market data refreshed weekly; this is educational analysis, not investment advice.
Data as of October 23, 2026. Refreshed weekly from SEC filings and market data.
What does Fiserv do?
Fiserv provides payment processing, merchant services and core banking software to banks, credit unions and businesses, including the Clover point-of-sale system.
Brands and businesses it owns
- Clover
- Fiserv
- First Data
What stands out about Fiserv?
- Misses 2 of the 8 value filters. It fails PEG Ratio < 1.5 (2.73) and EPS Growth YoY > -5% (-36.7%); the other 4 pass and 2 were not evaluated. See every filter.
- Insiders have been buying. 1 open-market purchase was reported in SEC Form 4 filings in the last 90 days, about $1.4 million in all. See the Insider Buying Tracker.
- Short interest is elevated. 5.8% of the float is sold short, 4.2 days to cover, above this site's 5% flag. See the figures.
- Owners are being diluted. Its net shareholder yield is −1.3%: more stock is issued than is bought back or paid out. See Shareholder Yield Leaders.
How has Fiserv's share price moved?
The interactive price chart needs JavaScript.
Is Fiserv undervalued? The value diligence check
Every value-investing signal this site computes for this stock, gathered in one place: the same real numbers from the tools below, not a new score.
- Margin of safety (DCF) n/a (Financial Services)
- P/E vs. its own history 9.5x · at/below its cheapest point Real range: 10.6x–52.3x over 5 years (net income per diluted share from each fiscal year's 10-K, paired with the real closing price at that fiscal year-end).
- Wall St. analyst rating Hold · 3.36/5 44 analysts this month: 4 strong buy, 10 buy, 28 hold, 2 sell, 0 strong sell (Finnhub). Down from 3.37 last month.
- Altman Z″-Score (bankruptcy risk) n/a (Financial Services)
- Earnings quality (is the profit real?) Strong · all 5 checks clean Beneish M-score −2.58 · accruals −3.3% of assets · 184% of profit arrived as cash · stock comp 1.7% of revenue · share count −5.6% a year. From the latest 10-K (year to Dec 2025) - see the Earnings Quality Screener for how each check is scored.
- Shareholder yield (cash back to owners) −1.3% net Latest fiscal year (2025): dividends 0.0% + buybacks 0.0% − stock comp 1.3%, as a share of today's market cap. Stock comp outruns what comes back in cash. Over 14 years its split-adjusted share count fell 5%. See Shareholder Yield Leaders.
- Capital needed to grow (See's test) $10.91 per $1 of new profit · Capital-hungry · but only 11% return on capital Operating profit $1.6B → $5.6B, capital needed $8.0B → $52B, 2016–2025 (3-year averages); return on capital now 11% before tax. Buffett's See's Candies needed $0.42 per $1 of new profit, FlightSafety $3.20, a typical grower about $5. See Capital-Light Compounders.
- PEG (growth at a reasonable price) 2.73 · Well above fair P/E 9.5× ÷ 3.5% a year of growth behind it. 310th lowest of 447 stocks with a usable PEG. Lynch's fair value is a PEG of 1; a very high PEG usually means almost no growth, a very low one a profit spike. See PEG Ratio Ranking.
- Compounder lenses (4) 1 of 4 · misses capital-light, cash back, price Capital-light growth: not cleared (only 11% return on capital); Profit is real: cleared; Cash to owners: not cleared (−1.3% a year net); Fair price (PEG): not cleared (PEG 2.73, over 1.5). See Compounders at a Fair Price, which also lets you move the PEG bar.
- Munger's Inversion Check 1 flag
- Standing vs. sector peers 1 of 3 measures above the median Compared with the 39 other financial services stocks this site tracks: 1 in the top third, 2 in the bottom third.
How does Fiserv compare with its peers?
1 of 3 measure sits above the median of the 39 other financial services stocks tracked here, 1 in the top third and 2 in the bottom third.
- P/E ratiolower is cheaper · peer median 21.7× 9.5× ✓4th of 37
- Return on equityhigher is better · peer median 18% 11% ✕32nd of 40
- Net marginhigher is better · peer median 20.2% 13.4% ✕31st of 40
Peers are the stocks this site tracks in the same sector group, not every listed competitor. The bar runs from the weakest peer (left) to the strongest (right); the tick is the middle. Measures that don't apply to a sector (cash-flow yield for banks, debt for financials) are left out.
What would Buffett & Lynch say?
Buffett's checklist is built around durable, profitable businesses bought at sensible prices, and FISV doesn't clear enough of it yet. In its favor: FISV converts sales into profit at healthy margins, has grown earnings per share at a solid clip over five years, is trading below what a conservative discounted-cash-flow estimate says it's worth - his own "price is what you pay, value is what you get" test, not a fixed multiple ceiling, and trades at a reasonable multiple of owner earnings, his own term for the real cash a business could pay out. Where it comes up short: FISV isn't clearing the return-on-equity bar he'd want to see right now, and its five-year average return on equity falls short too, so this isn't just a one-off dip, carries more debt relative to equity than he typically tolerates, and doesn't cover its interest expense as comfortably as he'd want.
- ROE (TTM) > 11% ✕
- ROE (5yr avg) > 11% ✕
- Debt/Equity < 0.5 ✕
- Pretax margin > 15% ✓
- EPS growth (5yr) > 7% ✓
- Interest coverage > 5x ✕
- Trading below intrinsic value (DCF) ✓
- Price vs. owner earnings < 25x ✓
Lynch looked for growth stories that weren't overpriced for that growth, and FISV falls short of his bar. In its favor: FISV is cheap enough for a business with limited growth ahead of it, and converts earnings into real cash at a reasonable price. Where it comes up short: FISV doesn't pay much of a dividend, which is the main reason to own a slow grower in the first place, isn't even growing at the modest pace he'd expect from a slow grower, and carries more debt than he liked to see, even allowing for the extra room a large, stable business gets.
- Dividend yield > 2.5% ✕
- EPS growth 0%-10% ✕
- Debt/Equity < 0.6 ✕
- P/E < 20 ✓
- Price/FCF < 25 ✓
- Bonus: insiders buying (90d) 1 buy, ~$1.4M
Quantitative approximations of each investor's documented approach, not endorsed by either investor or their estates - commentary, not this site's actual ranking criteria. Buffett never published a numeric checklist: only 2 of his 8 checks here trace to his own documented concepts ("owner earnings," from his 1986 shareholder letter, and "price is what you pay, value is what you get," his case against fixed P/E/P/B ceilings) - the other 6 (ROE, debt, margins, growth, interest coverage) use commonly-cited thresholds that are not numbers he himself published. The 8 hard filters below (plus the Munger check and Graham margin of safety) are this site's real, mechanical screen and are computed completely independently of the checklists above.
Berkshire Hathaway's own filing
Which of the 8 value filters does Fiserv pass?
- Market Cap > $25B $26.6B
- Trailing P/E < 25 9.51
- PEG Ratio < 1.5 2.73
- Price/Book < 8 0.99
- Price/Sales < 7 1.28
- EPS Growth YoY > -5% -36.7%
- vs 50-day MA (±12%) Not evaluated †
- vs 200-day MA (±12%) Not evaluated †
What is Fiserv's margin of safety?
A standard free-cash-flow DCF doesn't fit how financial services companies report cash flow.
Where is Fiserv in its 52-week range?
What is the short interest in Fiserv?
30,835,501 shares short as of 2026-09-30 (FINRA settlement date). Reported twice a month, so this only changes roughly every two weeks, not daily.
What could go wrong with Fiserv? Munger's inversion check
"Invert, always invert." Instead of reasons to buy, these are reasons to hesitate, not a verdict, and not everything worth knowing about a business.
- Margin of safety, even in the bull case n/a (Financial Services)
- Short interest under 5% of float 5.8%
- Passes most of the 6 fundamental filters 4/6 passed
Doesn't cover circle of competence, management quality, or accounting concerns: those need judgment, not data.
How much have Fiserv shareholders gained per year?
Earnings growth per share plus dividend.
An earnings-based proxy, not a stock-price total return - it doesn't capture multiple expansion/contraction or reinvested dividends. EPS from FISV's own 10-K filings; dividend yield is the current trailing yield on today's price, from the same weekly fetch as the rest of this site.
What do Fiserv's 10-year financials show?
From FISV's own 10-K filings (SEC EDGAR): up to the last 10 fiscal years. Press any year's bars for the exact figures.
Frequently asked questions about Fiserv
What kind of company is Fiserv?
Fiserv provides payment processing, merchant services and core banking software to banks, credit unions and businesses, including the Clover point-of-sale system. Brands and businesses it owns include Clover, Fiserv and First Data. This site groups it with Financial Services stocks.
Why does Fiserv have no margin of safety on this site?
This site's DCF values a company from its free cash flow, and that does not fit financial companies, whose operating cash flow swings with client money, loans and trading rather than with what is left over for owners. So FISV gets no margin of safety; judge it on the other checks on this page, such as its filters, shareholder yield and ranking against its peers. The method is in the Intrinsic Value Calculator.
How many of this site's 8 value filters does Fiserv pass?
FISV passes 4 of 8. It passes Market Cap > $25B ($26.6B), Trailing P/E < 25 (9.51), Price/Book < 8 (0.99) and Price/Sales < 7 (1.28). It misses PEG Ratio < 1.5 (2.73) and EPS Growth YoY > -5% (-36.7%). vs 50-day MA (±12%) and vs 200-day MA (±12%) were not evaluated, because the moving-average checks only run on stocks that clear the fundamentals first. The 8-filter list shows every stock that passes all of them.
Are Fiserv's insiders buying its shares?
Yes: 1 open-market insider purchase of Fiserv shares, worth about $1.4 million in total, was reported in SEC Form 4 filings in the 90 days up to this page's last update. Only open-market purchases count here, not option exercises or stock awards. See the Insider Buying Tracker.
When does Fiserv report earnings next?
Fiserv's next earnings report is expected on November 3, 2026 before the market opens, with analysts expecting earnings of $1.75 per share. Dates come from the Finnhub earnings calendar and can move. In its last 4 quarters it beat the estimate 2 times, by an average of −3.8%.
How heavily is Fiserv stock sold short?
As of September 30, 2026, 5.8% of FISV's float was sold short (30,835,501 shares, 4.2 days to cover), up 2.7% from the prior reporting period. FINRA publishes short interest twice a month, so it changes about every two weeks; this site flags anything above 5% of the float.
Where do these numbers come from?
- Financial statements: Fiserv's 10-K annual report for the year ended Dec 31, 2025, filed Feb 19, 2026 (filing index). Every earlier year in the 10-year financials comes from the company's older 10-K filings, all listed on SEC EDGAR.
- Prices and market data: quotes, P/E and analyst ratings from Finnhub; daily price history and the 52-week range from Twelve Data, both refreshed weekly. Short interest comes from FINRA, reported twice a month.
- How to check a figure: click any number in the card above to see its exact source, and read the Editorial Standards for every rule behind the checks.
About this Fiserv Inc analysis
This page shows every value-investing check the site runs on Fiserv Inc (FISV) in one place: the 8 mechanical filters, the Buffett and Lynch checklists, a margin of safety from a disclosed DCF, earnings quality, shareholder yield and how it ranks against its sector peers. The numbers come from SEC filings and public market data, refreshed weekly, and the same rules apply to every stock on the stock list. See Editorial Standards for the sources and the rules, or run your own filters in the stock screener.