Why Fiserv Inc (NASDAQ: FISV) stock is soaring

Fiserv Inc (NASDAQ: FISV) stock delivered an outstanding performance of 49.2% in this year to date and continued its bullish momentum post the third quarter of FY 19.

FISV in the third quarter of FY 19 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of $1.02, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of $1.00, according to figures compiled by Thomson Reuters. Analysts’ estimates. The company had reported the adjusted revenue growth of 122 percent to $3.13 billion in the third quarter of FY 19. The increase includes $1.61 billion from First Data, which is the New York financial technology company it acquired this year. The internal revenue growth in the quarter up more than 6%, on the back of a very strong 10% in the GBS merchant business. The adjusted operating income grew 10% to $1.1 billion in the third quarter, and is up 8% to $3.1 billion through the first nine months of the year. The company’s adjusted operating margin in the third quarter was 29.8%, up 130 basis points versus the prior year.

Moreover, in the First Data segment, the adjusted revenue rose up by 3% to $2.2 billion for the quarter and up 2% through September 30th to $6.4 billion. The First Data segment’s internal revenue growth was at 7% in both the quarter and year-to-date and is up more than 100 basis points compared to last year.

Fiserv expects internal revenue growth to be of 6% for its full 2019 and adjusted earnings per share to be in a range of $3.98 to $4.02.

The company has very recently signed a global agreement with grocery chain Aldi to provide digital commerce technology to the Germany-based retailer, which operates more than 10,000 stores worldwide.

Meanwhile, the company has already signed more than 20 core account processing clients with about half being competitive takeaways. Of the competitive wins, five had assets that range from $1 billion to $6 billion, and there are more than 200 financial institutions in the pipeline, which enable the clients to enhance the relationship with their most important clients while delivering much-needed fee revenue is resonating as a very compelling value proposition. Based on the market reaction, the company now expects to exceed the $200 million revenue synergy opportunity the company has originally identified for this initiative.

Additionally, in late September, FISV had started repurchasing shares in line with the long-standing capital deployment strategy. The company repurchased 341,000 shares for about $35 million in the quarter and 2 million shares for approximately $156 million year-to-date. The company now have 24 million shares remaining authorized for repurchase at the end of the quarter.