Viad (NYSE:VVI) versus Fiserv (NYSE:FI) Head-To-Head Review

Viad (NYSE:VVI) and Fiserv (NYSE:FI) are both business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability, risk and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

89.9% of Viad shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.0% of Fiserv shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.1% of Viad shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of Fiserv shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Viad and Fiserv’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Viad	0.61%	12.70%	1.29%
Fiserv	16.68%	15.73%	5.50%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Viad and Fiserv’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Viad	$1.24 billion	0.66	$16.02 million	($0.38)	-102.11
Fiserv	$19.09 billion	4.82	$3.07 billion	$5.35	29.37

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Viad and Fiserv, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Viad	0	0	2	0	3.00
Fiserv	0	6	19	0	2.76

Viad currently has a consensus price target of $46.50, indicating a potential upside of 19.85%. Fiserv has a consensus price target of $165.44, indicating a potential upside of 5.28%. Given Viad’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Viad is more favorable than Fiserv.

Risk and Volatility

Viad has a beta of 2.04, meaning that its share price is 104% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Fiserv has a beta of 0.92, meaning that its share price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Fiserv beats Viad on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Viad

Viad Corp provides hospitality, leisure activities, experiential marketing, and live events in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It operates in three segments: Pursuit, Spiro, and GES Exhibitions. The Pursuit segment offers recreational attractions, hotels and lodges, food and beverage, retail, sightseeing, and ground transportation services. This segment consists of Banff Jasper Collection, the Alaska Collection, the Glacier Park Collection, FlyOver, and Sky Lagoon. The Spiro segment operates as an experiential marketing agency that partners with brands around the world to manage and elevate their global experiential marketing activities. The GES Exhibition segment engages as an exhibition services company that partners with exhibition and conference organizers as a full-service provider of strategic and logistics solutions to manage the complexity of their shows. It serves event organizers and corporate brand marketers; and tour operators, tour wholesalers, destination management companies, and retail travel agencies. Viad Corp was founded in 1926 and is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona.

About Fiserv

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. The Merchant Acceptance segment provides merchant acquiring and digital commerce services; mobile payment services; security and fraud protection products; Clover, a cloud based POS and integrated commerce operating system for small and mid-sized businesses and independent software vendors; and Carat, an integrated operating system for large businesses. This segment distributes through various channels, including direct sales teams, strategic partnerships with agent sales forces, independent software vendors, financial institutions, and other strategic partners in the form of joint venture alliances, revenue sharing alliances, and referral agreement. The Financial Technology segment offers customer deposit and loan accounts, as well as manages an institution's general ledger and central information files. This segment also provides digital banking, financial and risk management, professional services and consulting, check processing, and other products and services. The Payments and Network segment offers card transactions, such as debit, credit, and prepaid card processing and services; funds access, debit payments, cardless ATM access, and surcharge-free ATM network; security and fraud protection products; card production; print services; and various network services, as well as non-card digital payment software and services, including bill payment, account-to-account transfers, person-to-person payments, electronic billing, and security and fraud protection products. It serves merchants, banks, credit unions, other financial institutions, and corporate clients. Fiserv, Inc. was incorporated in 1984 and is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.