A brutal selloff, slashed forecasts, and shaken trust collide as traders debate whether FISV has finally hit rock bottom.
- The company’s shares tumbled more than 67% last year, marking its worst yearly decline in history.
- In October, Fiserv CEO Mike Lyons said that the company’s current performance is not where it wants it to be, nor where its stakeholders expect it to be.
- Last week, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Ramsey El-Assal initiated coverage of Fiserv with a ‘Neutral’ rating.
Shares of Fiserv, Inc. tumbled nearly 8% on Tuesday to a 10-month low, marking their worst session ever, as slowing growth in its core payments and merchant business have whacked investor sentiment. However, retail traders are still clinging onto some hope.
The company’s shares nosedived more than 67% last year, their worst annual decline on record, as consumer spending turned cautious and heightened competition in the fintech space stoked worries.
Fiserv’s Volatile 2025
In October, Fiserv CEO Mike Lyons said the company’s current performance is neither where it wants it to be nor where its stakeholders expect it to be. Wall Street had then said the relatively new CEO, Lyons, was in a difficult position to figure out what went wrong.
In October, the company named Paul Todd as its finance chief, succeeding Robert Hau. It had also forecast annual organic revenue growth of 3.5% to 4%, down from its prior forecast of about 10%. Fiserv also expects 2025 adjusted earnings per share to come between $8.50 and $8.60, down from the previous forecast of $10.15 to $10.30.
In November, Senators Ron Wyden and Elizabeth Warren, in a letter to Fiserv’s current CEO, requested more details regarding the company’s federal contracts and operations during Frank Bisignano’s tenure as Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer.
Bisignano had left the top job at Fiserv to join the Trump Administration. He is currently leading both the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service.
Both Wyden and Warren are on the Senate’s Finance and Banking committees and requested details of Bisignano’s financial projections for Fiserv’s performance, which Lyons indicated in an investor call “would have been objectively difficult to achieve even with the right investment and strong execution.”
Fiserv Could Make A Comeback
Last week, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Ramsey El-Assal initiated coverage of Fiserv with a ‘Neutral’ rating. The firm said that while recent developments have eroded trust between Fiserv and the investor community, it believes this once long-only darling can regain its footing with level-set expectations, though it "may take time."
The company's broad distribution and interconnectivity across business lines have made it an integral part of the financial ecosystem, a status unlikely to change, Cantor Fitzgerald said.
FISV Retail Traders Are Split — But Not Out Yet
A user on Stocktwits said that the ones who have invested in Fiserv are likely to lose “every penny in the pocket.”
Another user on the platform noted that the stock is being eaten through by every support.
One user, however, noted that the “stock is cheap.”
Another user said the stock could reach $85 next week, implying a 46% upside from current levels.
Retail sentiment on Fiserv, however, jumped to ‘bullish’ from ‘bearish’ territory a day ago, with message volumes at ‘extremely high’ levels, according to data from Stocktwits.
In the last 24 hours, retail message volume on Stocktwits jumped 925% for the stock.
Shares of Fiserv have declined 75% in the last 12 months.
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