Fiserv (NASDAQ:FISV) & Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) Head to Head Analysis

Fiserv (NASDAQ:FISV – Get Rating) and Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR – Get Rating) are both business services companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, risk, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Volatility and Risk

Fiserv has a beta of 0.85, suggesting that its stock price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Shift4 Payments has a beta of 1.24, suggesting that its stock price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Fiserv and Shift4 Payments’ revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Fiserv	$17.74 billion	4.23	$2.53 billion	$3.79	31.54
Shift4 Payments	$1.99 billion	2.72	$75.10 million	$1.45	44.99

Fiserv has higher revenue and earnings than Shift4 Payments. Fiserv is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Shift4 Payments, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Fiserv and Shift4 Payments, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fiserv	1	4	12	0	2.65
Shift4 Payments	1	0	10	0	2.82

Fiserv presently has a consensus target price of $132.16, indicating a potential upside of 10.56%. Shift4 Payments has a consensus target price of $76.92, indicating a potential upside of 17.93%. Given Shift4 Payments’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Shift4 Payments is more favorable than Fiserv.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

88.8% of Fiserv shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 66.9% of Shift4 Payments shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Fiserv shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 36.6% of Shift4 Payments shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Fiserv and Shift4 Payments’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fiserv	13.36%	13.68%	5.47%
Shift4 Payments	4.55%	18.30%	3.12%

Summary

Fiserv beats Shift4 Payments on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Fiserv

(Get Rating)

Fiserv, Inc. engages in the provision of financial services technology. It operates through the following segments: Merchant Acceptance, Financial Technology, and Payments and Network. The Merchant Acceptance segment provides commerce enabling solutions and serves merchants of all sizes around the world. The Financial Technology segment offers technology solutions needed to run operations, including products and services that enable financial institutions to process customer deposit and loan accounts. The Payments and Network segment includes the provision of services to financial institutions and corporate clients with products and services required to process digital payment transactions. The company was founded by Leslie M. Muma and George D. Dalton on July 31, 1984 and is headquartered in Brookfield, WI.

About Shift4 Payments

(Get Rating)

Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE FOUR) provides integrated payment processing and technology solutions in the United States. Its payments platform provides omni-channel card acceptance and processing solutions, including end-to-end payment processing for various payment types; merchant acquiring; proprietary omni-channel gateway; complementary software integrations; integrated and mobile point-of-sale (POS) solutions; security and risk management solutions; and reporting and analytical tools, as well as tokenization, risk management/underwriting, payment device and chargeback management, fraud prevention, and gift card solutions. The company also offers suite of technology solutions, such as Lighthouse, a cloud-based business intelligence tool that includes customer engagement, social media management, online reputation management, scheduling, and product pricing, as well as reporting and analytics; integrated POS for merchants business; and Skytab, a mobile payment solution. In addition, it provides marketplace technology that enable seamless integrations into third-party applications, which includes online delivery services, payroll, timekeeping, and other human resource services. Further, the company offers merchant management, training and education, marketing management, and incentives tracking solutions. Additionally, it provides merchant underwriting, onboarding and activation, training, risk management, and support services; and software integrations and compliance management, and partner support and services. The company was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania.