Financial services company Fiserv reported underwhelming earnings a week ago, on April 24, and its stock fell. But it immediately reversed and rose the next three days in heavy volume, amid an executive shift and continued strong double-digit sales and profit growth.
On Thursday, the Relative Strength Rating for Fiserv stock improved from 67 to 72. The upgraded RS rating shows that Fiserv tops 72% of all other stocks for price performance this past year. It's a decent rating but the Milwaukee-based company's other key ratings are better.
Fiserv Other Ratings Shine Even Brighter
Fiserv has a terrific 91 Composite Rating out of 99. The Composite score combines five separate proprietary ratings into one. The best growth stocks have a Composite Rating of 90 or better. Additionally it carries a 93 EPS Rating and a best-possible SMR Rating (sales + profit margins + return on equity) of A.
One yellow flag is Fiserv's D+ Accumulation/Distribution Rating, indicating funds are selling slightly more of its shares than buying. However, the number of funds holding its stock has risen over the past three quarters, from 3,066 to 3,201 to 3,228 for the March-ended quarter.
Fiserv in January named Michael P. Lyons president and co-CEO elect. He reports to CEO Frank Bisignano, who will continue in his current roles as chairman and CEO until June, when Lyons will move into the CEO position. Lyons most recently served as president of The PNC Financial Services Group.
Can You Really Time The Stock Market?
Fiserv provides payment and financial services technology to companies around the globe.
Steady Eddie Stock Has Performed Well For Decades
FI stock has been a steady climber for decades. More recently it traded at 87.03 in June 2022. FI stock closed at 182.99 Thursday afternoon, up more than 100% in the last three years. It traded even higher on March 3 when it hit an all-time high at 238.59 before consolidating in sync with the market correction.
Fiserv posted 14% earnings growth last quarter, to $2.14 per share. Sales grew 5% to $5.13 billion. Analyst consensus is that it will continue to report double-digit EPS growth this year, according to FactSet.
Fiserv earns the No. 14 rank among its peers in the 74-stock Financial Services-Specialty industry group. X Financial, Marex Group and Tradeweb Markets are among the top five highly rated stocks in the group.
This article was created automatically with Stats Perform's Wordsmith software using data and article templates supplied by Investor's Business Daily. An IBD journalist may have edited the article.
Please follow James DeTar on Twitter @JimDeTar
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