Fiserv finding support at its 50-day moving average

Financial services firm Fiserv (Nasdaq: FISV) has performed very well in recent years, both as a company and as an investment. The electronic bill payment provider has seen earnings and sales grow at a consistent pace while its management efficiency measurements are really strong.

The company has seen its earnings grow by 17% per year over the last three years while sales grew by 3%. In the most recent quarterly report, earnings increased by 9% while sales were up by 6%. Analysts expect earnings to increase by 24% for 2019 as a whole while sales are expected to increase by 160%.

Fiserv boasts a return on equity of 50.7% which is well above average and the profit margin is at 27.6%, also well above average.

Collectively these indicators help Fiserv get a 28 rating from the Tickeron SMR rating. This indicates very strong sales and a profitable business model. SMR (Sales, Margin, Return on Equity) rating is based on comparative analysis of weighted Sales, Income Margin and Return on Equity values compared against S&P 500 index constituents.

It also gives the company a PE Growth Rating of 10 from Tickeron. This points to outstanding earnings growth. The PE Growth rating is based on a comparative analysis of stock PE ratio increase over the last 12 months compared against S&P 500 index constituents. A rating of 1 indicates highest PE growth while a rating of 100 indicates lowest PE growth.

The Tickeron Profit vs. Risk Rating for Fiserv is 2, indicating low risk on high returns. The average Profit vs. Risk Rating for the industry is 61, placing this stock better than average.

In addition to the fundamental strength, Fiserv’s stock has been performing extremely well. The Tickeron Price Growth Rating is 14, indicating outstanding price growth. FISV’s price grows at a higher rate over the last 12 months as compared to S&P 500 index constituents. A rating of 1 points to highest price growth (largest percent return), while a rating of 100 points to lowest price growth (smallest percent return).

The relative strength rating from Investor’s Business Daily is a 92 and that means that the price performance over the past year has been better than 91% of the companies in IBD’s database.

Looking at the daily chart for Fiserv we see that a small pullback in the last few weeks has brought the stock down to its 50-day moving average and now the stock appears to be using the trend line as support.

The stock has also been moving higher within a trend channel since the beginning of the year. The stock didn’t drop down to the lower rail of the channel this time. The daily stochastic readings dropped to oversold territory before making a bullish crossover on September 16.

The Tickeron Technical Analysis Overview points out that the stock dropped below the lower Bollinger Band on September 10. This price move signals that Fiserv may jump back above the lower band and head toward the middle band. In 29 of 39 cases where the stock price broke its lower Bollinger Band, its price rose further in the following month. The odds of a continued uptrend are 74%.

If there is a concern for Fiserv it is the fact that investors and analysts are pretty bullish on the stock. There are 28 analysts covering the stock with 23 “buy” ratings, four “hold” ratings, and one “sell” rating. That puts the buy percentage at 82.1% which is higher than the average stock.

The short interest ratio is at 2.9 and that is right at the average for all stocks.