Lafayette Investments Inc. Invests $541,000 in Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE:FI)

Lafayette Investments Inc. bought a new position in Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE:FI) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 4,074 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $541,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of FI. Hollencrest Capital Management boosted its position in shares of Fiserv by 75.8% during the third quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management now owns 232 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. West Oak Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fiserv during the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Fiserv during the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Atlas Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Fiserv by 71.9% during the second quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 306 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PCA Investment Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Fiserv during the second quarter valued at $27,000. 90.98% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fiserv Price Performance

FI traded up $0.60 on Friday, hitting $147.51. 713,495 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,487,859. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $151.72 and its 200-day simple moving average is $136.10. The firm has a market cap of $86.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.91. Fiserv, Inc. has a one year low of $109.11 and a one year high of $159.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73.

Fiserv (NYSE:FI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The business services provider reported $2.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $4.92 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.68 billion. Fiserv had a return on equity of 15.16% and a net margin of 16.07%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.91 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Fiserv, Inc. will post 8.63 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Fiserv

In other Fiserv news, COO Guy Chiarello sold 24,000 shares of Fiserv stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.53, for a total value of $3,588,720.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 163,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,477,911.47. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 111,575 shares of company stock valued at $17,022,387. 0.75% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on FI. Oppenheimer raised Fiserv from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $168.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. StockNews.com began coverage on Fiserv in a research report on Saturday, February 3rd. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Fiserv from $152.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Barclays raised their target price on Fiserv from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Finally, Evercore ISI reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $185.00 target price on shares of Fiserv in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fiserv has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $158.21.

Fiserv Profile

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.