Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE:FI) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE:FI) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest during the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 8,240,000 shares, a decline of 10.8% from the October 15th total of 9,240,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,400,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.4 days. Approximately 1.5% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fiserv

In related news, CAO Kenneth Best sold 20,821 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $214.61, for a total transaction of $4,468,394.81. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 38,771 shares in the company, valued at $8,320,644.31. This represents a 34.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Frank Bisignano sold 145,000 shares of Fiserv stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.37, for a total value of $25,718,650.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,965,084 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $525,916,949.08. The trade was a 4.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 254,711 shares of company stock worth $47,477,232 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FI. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC acquired a new position in Fiserv during the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new position in Fiserv in the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Clean Yield Group raised its holdings in Fiserv by 431.3% in the 3rd quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 170 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 138 shares during the period. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Fiserv by 42.5% in the 3rd quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 191 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. Finally, Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Fiserv by 95.5% during the second quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 260 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 127 shares during the period. 90.98% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on FI. KeyCorp raised their target price on Fiserv from $180.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Fiserv from $186.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Fiserv from $177.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on Fiserv from $190.00 to $244.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their target price on Fiserv from $190.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $211.52.

Fiserv Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:FI traded up $1.82 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $212.74. 1,746,627 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,475,094. The company has a market capitalization of $121.03 billion, a PE ratio of 40.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 0.92. Fiserv has a 52-week low of $121.86 and a 52-week high of $215.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.07. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $191.36 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $168.67.

Fiserv (NYSE:FI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $2.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.26 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $5.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.90 billion. Fiserv had a return on equity of 17.10% and a net margin of 15.22%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.96 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Fiserv will post 8.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Fiserv

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.