Calls
Source: S&P Capital IQ transcripts via Xpressfeed · latest indexed call 2026-05-05 · generated 2026-07-31.
Latest call digest
Fiserv, Inc., Q1 2026 Earnings Call, May 05, 2026 · 2026-05-05T12:00:00
Q1 2026 call, May 5, 2026. Adjusted revenue of $4.68 billion fell 2.4% and organic revenue fell 3.6%, with adjusted operating margin of 29.7% and adjusted EPS of $1.79. Management framed the quarter as in line with the February guide rather than as progress, and left the full-year frame untouched: organic and adjusted revenue growth of 1% to 3%, adjusted EPS of $8 to $8.30, adjusted operating margin of approximately 34%, and Q2 as the trough.
Prepared remarks and Q&A pointed in different directions. Lyons spent most of his time on execution proof points — Clover value-added services at 27% of Clover revenue and growing 18%, CommerceHub transaction growth up nearly 200%, Finxact accounts and positions up over 70%, time to resolve client inquiries down 27%, high-impact client incidents down nearly 60%, 27 new banks signed as Merchant Referral Partners and the Western Alliance Bank agent bank agreement. Todd's segment detail was the counterweight: Financial Solutions organic revenue down 6% with segment adjusted operating margin of 38.1% against 47.5% a year earlier, Merchant Solutions adjusted operating income down 23%, and core counts down 2% year-over-year.
Analysts pressed on that gap rather than on the strategy. The recurring question was when improved execution reaches the revenue line, and the answer was consistently the second half of 2026 for partial visibility and 2027 for a full year of it. A large share of the specifics analysts asked for — Clover Capital strategy, the non-Clover SMB decomposition, back-book conversion pace, Project Elevate's financial targets, the overall Clover and Merchant strategy — was deferred to the May 14 Investor Day, which left the call itself thin on new disclosure.
Guidance actually stated on the call: 2026 organic revenue growth of 1% to 3%, with Merchant Solutions in the mid-single digits and Financial Solutions flat to slightly down; Financial Solutions declining at the high end of mid-single digits in Q2; Clover revenue growth in the low double digits and Clover GPV growth of 10% to 15% ex the gateway conversion; first-half adjusted operating margin of approximately 31% to 32% and second-half margin of 35% to 36%; free cash flow conversion of approximately 90% of adjusted net income; a full-year adjusted tax rate of 19% to 19.5%; weighted average share count of approximately 530 million; and year-end leverage of approximately 3x.
Participant coverage from the latest call.
| Group | Participants | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Management | Operator; Walter Pritchard — Senior VP & Head of Investor Relations, Fiserv, Inc.; Michael Lyons — Former CEO & Director, Fiserv, Inc.; Paul Todd — Chief Financial Officer, Fiserv, Inc. | 4 |
| Analysts | Tien-Tsin Huang — Senior Analyst, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division; Andrew Schmidt — Research Analyst, KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc., Research Division; Dan Dolev — MD & Senior Equity Research Analyst, Mizuho Securities USA LLC, Research Division; Vasundhara Govil — Managing Director, Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods, Inc., Research Division; Bryan Bergin — MD & Analyst, TD Cowen, Research Division; William Nance — Research Analyst, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Research Division; P.C. Chen — Associate Equity Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division; James Friedman — Senior Analyst, Susquehanna Financial Group, LLLP, Research Division; Timothy Chiodo — Analyst, UBS Investment Bank, Research Division; James Faucette — MD & Equity Analyst, Morgan Stanley, Research Division; Ryan Campbell — Research Analyst, Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., Research Division; David Koning — Associate Director of Research & Senior Research Analyst, Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division | 12 |
Curated latest-call exchanges; one row per analyst topic.
| Analyst | Firm | Topic | What changed in Q&A |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tien-Tsin Huang | JPMorgan | Core banking retention and attrition | Opened the Q&A on visibility into bank retention. Lyons acknowledged core attrition remains above where the company wants it, attributed it to actions taken over the last several years, and described the fixes — client coverage, AI in call centers, supporting all cores, StoneCastle, a client health index. No attrition rate was quantified, and he conceded the progress is not visible in the results. |
| William Nance | Goldman Sachs | When the mid-single-digit algorithm becomes reality | Asked directly whether the company can reach its stated growth level exiting 2026 and into 2027, or whether lingering Financial Solutions attrition and margin investment delay it. Lyons pointed to 2027 as the first full year of clear visible growth and said the efforts are fully funded, but made no commitment on an exit-2026 run rate. |
| Bryan Bergin | TD Cowen | Sizing nonrecurring revenue headwinds in Financial Solutions | Asked for the nonrecurring headwinds by subsegment in Issuing and Banking and their relative size in Q2. Todd named Output Solutions as the biggest single Issuing driver, said there are others across Digital and Banking, then declined to size them and pointed back to the existing Q2 trough guidance. The specific sizing requested was not provided. |
| Timothy Chiodo | UBS | Non-Clover SMB, roughly 20% of company revenue | Asked for organic growth in non-Clover SMB this quarter and recent quarters, what is implied in guidance, and a US/international/ISV split. Todd gave the growth figures — down low single digits in Q1, similar expected in Q2, slight growth for the full year on ISV and international ramp — and deferred the decomposition to Investor Day. |
| Andrew Schmidt | KeyBanc Capital Markets | SMB back book and non-Clover to Clover conversion | Asked how the back book performed ex-Clover and what conversion testing showed. Todd said nothing unique happened in Q1 and expectations for the year are unchanged, with the low end of the GPV guide assuming very minimal back-book conversion. Lyons tied faster conversion to the new PracticePay and Professional Services verticals. |
| David Koning | Baird | Source of the implied second-half Merchant acceleration | Asked what drives the step-up from roughly mid-single digits in the first half to high single digits in the back half. Todd attributed the Clover portion largely to fourth-quarter comparatives — the prior-year pricing rollbacks and November volume weakness — rather than to new demand drivers, alongside ISV and international contribution in non-Clover SMB. |
| James Friedman | Susquehanna | Competitive landscape in Issuing and Banking | Framed the question around investor anxiety about a changing landscape. Lyons said he sees no major changes in the competitive landscape, pointed to Finxact's position in modern core, and redirected to Fiserv's own service and delivery execution as the variable that matters. |
Theme tracker
Themes are curator-classified across supplied calls.
| Theme | Status | Quarters mentioned | Read-through |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clover positioned as a small-business operating platform rather than a payments device | persisted | Q2 2023, Q3 2023, Q4 2023, Q1 2024, Q2 2024, Q3 2024, Q4 2024, Q1 2025, Q2 2025, Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026 | Clover has been the lead topic on every call in the window, but the framing shifted. Through 2024 it was a revenue-target story with hardware launches, VAS penetration and new countries. From Q3 2025 it became a pillar of the One Fiserv plan, with the emphasis moving to verticals, distribution and client experience. The consistency of the topic makes the change in supporting metrics — from revenue targets to GPV and attach rates — easier to miss. |
| Argentina, from transitory tailwind to disclosed headwind | persisted | Q2 2023, Q3 2023, Q4 2023, Q1 2024, Q2 2024, Q3 2024, Q4 2024, Q1 2025, Q2 2025, Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026 | Argentina appears on all twelve calls, but the sign flips. In 2024 it was quantified as a transitory benefit that management stripped out to show normalized growth. In Q3 2025 it was recast as one of four causes of the reset, with a holistic view of its historical contribution. By Q1 2026 lower Argentine inflation and interest rates were a revenue headwind, largely offset below the line. The topic never went away; the disclosure framing changed three times. |
| Converting the non-Clover SMB back book to Clover | persisted | Q2 2023, Q4 2023, Q2 2024, Q3 2024, Q4 2024, Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026 | Analysts have raised back-book conversion for roughly three years and the answer has stayed deliberately incremental. Q3 2025 promised thoughtful conversion starting in 2026; Q4 2025 described narrow targeting of select US merchants; Q1 2026 said nothing incremental happened and the low end of the GPV range assumes very minimal conversion. It is now embedded in guidance as an option rather than a plan, which is worth noting given how long it has been discussed. |
| Core banking attrition and client service failures | emerged | Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026 | Absent from the calls before the reset, though Q2 2025 flagged slower-than-expected banking implementations and greater pricing competition. Since Q3 2025 it has been a standing disclosure: lost share on the smaller credit union side, attrition above target, and a stated fix list. This is the clearest example of a problem that was invisible in the call record until the CEO's review surfaced it, which is itself information about the prior disclosure. |
| One Fiserv action plan and Project Elevate | emerged | Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026 | Introduced with the Q3 2025 reset and structured around five pillars, with Project Elevate as an AI-led transformation run alongside IBM. Costs have been disclosed before benefits — $73 million of expense in Q4 2025 with more to come in 2026 — and the financial targets have been deferred to the Investor Day across three consecutive calls. |
| Stablecoin and agentic commerce capabilities | emerged | Q2 2025, Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026 | FIUSD was introduced in Q2 2025, extended with the StoneCastle custody license, and by Q1 2026 the pilot was scheduled for the summer. Agentic commerce entered in Q3 2025 and now features on every call. Both are described in terms of capability and partnership rather than revenue, so they are not yet testable against results. |
| Clover's $3.5 billion 2025 and $4.5 billion 2026 revenue targets | dropped | Q2 2023, Q4 2023, Q1 2024, Q2 2024, Q3 2024, Q4 2024, Q1 2025, Q2 2025 | The $3.5 billion 2025 target was reaffirmed as late as Q2 2025 and the $4.5 billion 2026 target was still being defended on that same call. Q3 2025 reset Clover revenue to $3.3 billion against the original $3.5 billion guidance, and the $4.5 billion figure has not been mentioned since. Clover guidance is now expressed as a growth rate rather than a dollar milestone, which removes a marker investors had tracked for two years. |
| The consecutive-year double-digit adjusted EPS streak | dropped | Q3 2023, Q4 2023, Q1 2024, Q2 2024, Q4 2024, Q1 2025 | Under the prior CEO the streak was a recurring framing device, cited as recently as Q1 2025. It disappears entirely from Q2 2025 onward. Double-digit adjusted EPS growth is still the stated ambition, but it is now positioned as starting in 2027 rather than as an unbroken record, and 2025 adjusted EPS declined modestly year-over-year. |
Guidance ledger
Quotes, calls, and speakers are source-verified; outcomes are curator-classified.
| Verbatim guidance | Call | Speaker | Curator outcome | Outcome note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| “we're raising our adjusted earnings per share outlook to $8.65 to $8.80, an increase of $0.05 across the range” | Fiserv, Inc., Q2 2024 Earnings Call, Jul 24, 2024 · 2024-07-24T12:00:00 | Frank Bisignano | kept | The Q4 2024 call reported full-year adjusted earnings per share of $8.80, at the top of the range. |
| “we are raising organic revenue growth from 15% to 17% to 16% to 17% and raising our guidance for adjusted earnings per share to $8.73 to $8.80” | Fiserv, Inc., Q3 2024 Earnings Call, Oct 22, 2024 · 2024-10-22T12:00:00 | Frank Bisignano | kept | The Q4 2024 call reported 16% total company organic revenue growth and adjusted EPS of $8.80 for the year. |
| “For 2025, we are guiding the 10% to 12% organic revenue growth, greater than 125 basis points of adjusted operating margin expansion; 15% to 17% adjusted EPS growth; and roughly $5.5 billion of free cash flow.” | Fiserv, Inc., Q4 2024 Earnings Call, Feb 05, 2025 · 2025-02-05T13:00:00 | Frank Bisignano | missed | Cut to approximately 10% in Q2 2025 and then to 3.5% to 4% in Q3 2025; the Q4 2025 call reported 3.8% organic growth, adjusted EPS of $8.64 versus $8.80 in 2024, free cash flow of $4.44 billion and a 200 basis point decline in adjusted operating margin. |
| “We are maintaining our full year 2025 guidance of organic revenue growth of 10% to 12% and adjusted earnings per share in the range of $10.10 to $10.30, representing 15% to 17% adjusted EPS growth.” | Fiserv, Inc., Q1 2025 Earnings Call, Apr 24, 2025 · 2025-04-24T12:00:00 | Robert Hau | missed | Reaffirmed one quarter before the first cut. Full-year 2025 organic revenue growth came in at 3.8% and adjusted EPS at $8.64, per the Q4 2025 call. |
| “we have refined our full year organic revenue growth guidance to approximately 10%, which is at the low end of our guidance range” | Fiserv, Inc., Q2 2025 Earnings Call, Jul 23, 2025 · 2025-07-23T12:00:00 | Michael Lyons | missed | Cut again three months later to 3.5% to 4%; the year finished at 3.8%. |
| “we are maintaining our guidance for $3.5 billion of Clover revenue this year” | Fiserv, Inc., Q2 2025 Earnings Call, Jul 23, 2025 · 2025-07-23T12:00:00 | Michael Lyons | missed | The Q3 2025 call lowered the expectation to $3.3 billion, and the Q4 2025 call confirmed Clover revenue finished the year at $3.3 billion. |
| “We now expect to achieve 3.5% to 4% organic revenue growth based on the revenue-related impacts detailed earlier.” | Fiserv, Inc., Q3 2025 Earnings Call, Oct 29, 2025 · 2025-10-29T12:00:00 | Michael Lyons | kept | The Q4 2025 call reported annual organic revenue growth of 3.8%, in the upper half of this range. |
| “We expect full year 2025 adjusted EPS to be $8.50 to $8.60, representing a modest decline year-on-year.” | Fiserv, Inc., Q3 2025 Earnings Call, Oct 29, 2025 · 2025-10-29T12:00:00 | Michael Lyons | kept | Annual adjusted EPS came in at $8.64, above the guidance range, per the Q4 2025 call. |
| “Putting it all together, we expect adjusted EPS of $8 to $8.30.” | Fiserv, Inc., Q4 2025 Earnings Call, Feb 10, 2026 · 2026-02-10T13:00:00 | Paul Todd | pending | Reiterated unchanged on the Q1 2026 call. Q1 2026 adjusted EPS of $1.79 included a $0.17 benefit from an 11% tax rate that management called strictly timing-related. |
| “In the first half, we expect adjusted operating margin of 31% to 32%, with Q1 representing the low point just below 30%.” | Fiserv, Inc., Q4 2025 Earnings Call, Feb 10, 2026 · 2026-02-10T13:00:00 | Paul Todd | kept | Q1 2026 adjusted operating margin was 29.7%, which Todd described as in line with the just below 30% view. The first-half range itself is not yet complete. |
| “We continue to expect Clover revenue growth in the low double-digits for 2026 and GPV growth of 10% to 15% ex the gateway conversion.” | Fiserv, Inc., Q1 2026 Earnings Call, May 05, 2026 · 2026-05-05T12:00:00 | Paul Todd | pending | Q1 2026 Clover revenue grew 6% reported, which management said would be mid-teens excluding prior-year nonrecurring revenue, on Clover volume growth of over 9% reported and 12% ex the gateway conversion. |
Q&A pressure map
Question counts and firms are curator tallies; analyst coverage shown above.
| Topic | Questions | Firms | Pressure / response |
|---|---|---|---|
| Credibility of the reset and when growth becomes visible | 9 | Wolfe Research, JPMorgan, Baird, Bernstein, Goldman Sachs | The single most pressed topic across the last four calls. Analysts asked what changed between the July and October 2025 guides, whether the review is genuinely complete, and how a recurring-revenue segment could deteriorate that fast in two months. Management's answers have been consistent — the review is done, the baseline is solid, the fixes are within the company's control — but the proof keeps moving forward a quarter, from second-half 2026 to full-year 2027. |
| Clover growth, yield and the withdrawn revenue targets | 9 | UBS, Goldman Sachs, William Blair, Wells Fargo, Bernstein, KBW, Morgan Stanley | Persistent questioning on the spread between Clover volume and revenue, VAS attach, yield maintenance and Clover Capital penetration. The pattern is that reported Clover growth is repeatedly explained by adjustments — fee eliminations, gateway conversion runoff, prior-year nonrecurring revenue — so analysts keep asking for the underlying rate. Management's answer has settled on a mid-teens fundamental rate against low double-digit reported growth. |
| Non-Clover SMB and back-book conversion | 5 | Baird, Autonomous Research, Bernstein, KeyBanc Capital Markets, UBS | Roughly a fifth of company revenue sits here and it has been flat to declining. Analysts have asked repeatedly for the drivers of the assumed return to slight growth. Answers have given direction but not composition, and on the Q1 2026 call the decomposition was explicitly deferred to the Investor Day. |
| Banking attrition and Financial Solutions reacceleration | 5 | KeyBanc Capital Markets, Susquehanna, Bernstein, JPMorgan | Analysts have asked what clients are actually saying and what has to change for the segment to grow. Lyons has answered with process and investment detail and with a statement that 2025 attrition was above target but stable versus 2024 and 2023. No attrition rate, retention rate or lost-account count has been given on any of these calls, which leaves the central claim — that the curve is bending — unverifiable from the call record. |
| Nonrecurring revenue and comparability | 3 | TD Cowen, Goldman Sachs, KBW | Because so much of the reported decline is attributed to lapping nonrecurring revenue, analysts have asked for that revenue to be sized. Bergin's Q1 2026 question asked specifically for the relative size of the Issuing and Banking headwinds in Q2; the answer identified Output Solutions, acknowledged other items across Digital and Banking, and then redirected to the existing trough guidance without sizing them. Lyons had said the prior quarter that it is hard to go through every single item. |
| Margin trajectory and the cleanliness of the expense base | 3 | Bernstein, JPMorgan, Baird | Questions have focused on how much of the elevated spend is structural versus transitional, including a direct Q4 2025 question about how clean the implied exit-year 36% margin is. Todd said there is no material expense ramp beyond what is baked in and that Project Elevate costs will shift from professional services toward technology. |
Language shifts
Only language evidence verified against the referenced component is shown.
| Observation | Verbatim evidence | Call ID | Component |
|---|---|---|---|
| The streak framing that anchored the prior CEO's confidence disappears after Q1 2025. It is the last call on which the consecutive-year record is invoked; from Q2 2025 onward double-digit adjusted EPS growth is described as an ambition starting in 2027 rather than an unbroken record being extended. | “can extend our track record of 39 consecutive years of double-digit adjusted EPS growth” | 1939097020 | 2 |
| Q3 2025 introduces reset vocabulary that had no precedent in the prior eight calls. The word appears repeatedly on that call and the framing is explicitly corrective rather than incremental, which marks the sharpest single-quarter change in register across the window. | “While disappointing, the actions we are taking are driven by a rigorous analysis of the company conducted during the third quarter and represent a critical and necessary reset and a revitalizing moment for the company.” | 1964393802 | 2 |
| The same call pairs the reset with a containment phrase. Read as evidence rather than intent, it draws a boundary around the problem — execution and forecasting rather than positioning — and that boundary has held in every subsequent call. | “Another important takeaway from our analysis is that nothing at Fiserv is fundamentally broken.” | 1964393802 | 2 |
| Attrition becomes a named, standing disclosure from Q4 2025. The formulation is careful: above target but not deteriorating. It is the first time the call record puts a direction on core client losses, and it is still given without a rate. | “Specifically on core client attrition in 2025, it was above where we wanted to be, but stable with where it was in 2024 and 2023.” | 1978891396 | 23 |
| By Q1 2026 confidence is expressed through metrics that are not in the financial statements, with an explicit acknowledgment that the reported numbers do not yet support the claim. The construction — improving execution, not yet visible results — recurs several times on the call. | “So our execution is improving across both businesses, but as expected, that progress is not yet visible in our reported financial results” | 1996095516 | 2 |
| New external risk vocabulary appears in Q1 2026 that was absent from the prior calls in the window: a named geopolitical driver tied conditionally to consumer spending mix, cross-referenced to the company's own Small Business Index data. | “Going forward in Merchant, we're watching the impact of various environmental factors, including higher gas prices from the conflict in the Middle East, which, if sustained, can impact the mix of consumer spending.” | 1996095516 | 2 |
Across twelve quarters the call record shows reported revenue and margins deteriorating while the volume, transaction and account metrics management points to have stayed broadly stable. That is the crux of the current debate: the reset removed the old targets and the guidance since has been met, but no quarter yet demonstrates the underlying stability converting back into reported growth. The Q1 2026 call deferred most of the specifics to the Investor Day, so the case still rests on management's timetable rather than on evidence in the numbers.