Fiserv (FI) Competitors

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) and Fiserv (NYSE:FI) are both large-cap business services companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, earnings, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, community ranking, institutional ownership and media sentiment.

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, MA or FI?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mastercard	$27.23B	17.90	$11.20B	$13.22	40.17
Fiserv	$383.42M	324.15	$3.07B	$5.20	42.01

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in MA or FI?

Mastercard received 750 more outperform votes than Fiserv when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 72.93% of users gave Mastercard an outperform vote while only 63.26% of users gave Fiserv an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Mastercard	Outperform Votes 1530 72.93%	Underperform Votes 568 27.07%
Fiserv	Outperform Votes 780 63.26%	Underperform Votes 453 36.74%

Is MA or FI a better dividend stock?

Mastercard pays an annual dividend of $2.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Fiserv pays an annual dividend of $0.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.1%. Mastercard pays out 20.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Fiserv pays out 5.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Mastercard has raised its dividend for 12 consecutive years. Mastercard is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of MA or FI?

97.3% of Mastercard shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.0% of Fiserv shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Mastercard shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of Fiserv shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is MA or FI more profitable?

Mastercard has a net margin of 45.26% compared to Fiserv's net margin of 15.22%. Mastercard's return on equity of 178.27% beat Fiserv's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mastercard	45.26%	178.27%	29.81%
Fiserv	15.22%	17.10%	5.61%

Does the media prefer MA or FI?

In the previous week, Mastercard had 29 more articles in the media than Fiserv. MarketBeat recorded 61 mentions for Mastercard and 32 mentions for Fiserv. Fiserv's average media sentiment score of 1.03 beat Mastercard's score of 0.99 indicating that Fiserv is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Mastercard	43 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	11 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Fiserv	22 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts rate MA or FI?

Mastercard presently has a consensus price target of $549.16, indicating a potential upside of 3.40%. Fiserv has a consensus price target of $214.29, indicating a potential downside of 1.91%. Given Mastercard's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Mastercard is more favorable than Fiserv.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mastercard	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	22 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.93
Fiserv	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	20 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.92

Which has more risk and volatility, MA or FI?

Mastercard has a beta of 1.1, indicating that its stock price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Fiserv has a beta of 0.92, indicating that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Mastercard beats Fiserv on 16 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.