Calls
Source: S&P Capital IQ transcripts via Xpressfeed · latest indexed call 2026-05-05 · generated 2026-07-30.
Latest call digest
Fiserv, Inc., Q1 2026 Earnings Call, May 05, 2026 · 2026-05-05T12:00:00
Q1 2026 — reported May 5, 2026. Prepared remarks were an execution-progress narrative; the Q&A was almost entirely about when that progress reaches the reported numbers.
Paul Todd's numbers came in as guided: adjusted revenue of $4.68 billion, down 2.4%; organic revenue down 3.6%; adjusted operating margin of 29.7%; adjusted EPS of $1.79, of which $0.17 came from an 11% quarterly tax rate the company called strictly timing-related, with the full-year 19% to 19.5% rate unchanged. Free cash flow was $259 million, described as normal Q1 seasonality. Every element of 2026 guidance was reiterated rather than revised: organic and adjusted revenue growth of 1% to 3%, adjusted EPS of $8 to $8.30, adjusted operating margin of approximately 34%, Q2 as the trough in year-on-year revenue decline, and free cash flow conversion of approximately 90% of adjusted net income.
Mike Lyons's section led with One Fiserv Action Plan proof points: time to resolve client inquiries down 27%, high-impact client incidents down nearly 60%, Clover VAS at 27% of Clover revenue and up 18%, CommerceHub transactions up nearly 200%, Finxact accounts and positions up over 70%, 27 new bank merchant referral partners, and the largest agent bank partnership in company history with Western Alliance Bank. Two new Clover verticals launched in March — PracticePay in healthcare and Professional Services. Notably, this was also the first reviewed call to name a geopolitical driver of consumer spending: higher gas prices from Middle East conflict.
The gap between the two halves of the call is the point. Prepared remarks conceded up front that operating improvement is "not yet visible in our reported financial results," and the Q&A pushed on exactly that. Lyons put Financial Solutions at "probably operating flattish today on a clean basis" and framed 2027, not the back half of 2026, as the first full year of clearly visible growth. Core attrition was again acknowledged as above target. The most repeated management answer was a deferral: the May 14 Investor Day was named as the venue for Clover Capital strategy, non-Clover SMB decomposition, Project Elevate financial targets and a new governed AI operating layer for banks. Analysts asking for specific sizing — Q2 nonrecurring headwinds by subsegment, and the composition of non-Clover SMB — did not get it.
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 | Banking visibility and core attrition | Opened the call on retention given ongoing bank conversions. Lyons conceded core attrition is above where the company wants it, attributed it to client-service actions taken over prior years, and pointed to service KPIs and a new AI-built client health index as evidence rather than to revenue. |
| William Nance | Goldman Sachs | When Financial Solutions reaches the target growth rate | Pressed on whether flat underlying FS growth, lingering attrition or further margin investment pushes the mid-single-digit company target past 2026. Lyons said the required efforts are fully funded and resourced, and named 2027 as the first full year of clearly visible growth. |
| Bryan Bergin | TD Cowen | Sizing the nonrecurring revenue headwinds | Asked for the size of nonrecurring headwinds across Issuing and Banking and their relative scale in Q2. Todd identified Output Solutions within Issuing as the biggest single driver but declined to size the rest beyond the previously stated high-mid-single-digit Q2 decline for Financial Solutions. |
| Timothy Chiodo | UBS | Non-Clover SMB growth and composition | Framed non-Clover SMB as roughly 20% of total company revenue and roughly 40% of Merchant, asking for its organic growth trend and a split across U.S., international and ISV. Todd gave a low-single-digit organic decline for Q1 with similar expected in Q2, and deferred the decomposition to Investor Day. |
| Vasundhara Govil | KBW | Clover nonrecurring revenue and Clover Capital penetration | Asked what the prior-year nonrecurring Clover revenue was, and what has constrained Clover Capital adoption including the on- versus off-balance-sheet funding mix. Todd confirmed hardware was the biggest piece and that Clover Capital is underpenetrated, but held the strategy and balance-sheet answer for Investor Day. |
| Andrew Schmidt | KeyBanc Capital Markets | SMB back-book conversion to Clover | Asked how conversion testing of non-Clover merchants has performed and what it implies for the pace ahead. Todd said nothing unique happened in Q1 and expectations are unchanged; the low end of the Clover GPV guide assumes very minimal back-book conversion, the high end more meaningful conversion. |
| James Friedman | Susquehanna | Competitive dynamics in Issuing and Banking | Raised investor anxiety about a changing landscape, particularly modern core. Lyons said he sees no major changes in the competitive landscape and pointed to Finxact's scale on the modern core platform. |
| David Koning | Baird | Source of the implied second-half Merchant acceleration | Asked what produces the step up from roughly mid-single-digit first-half growth to high single digits in the back half. Todd leaned on Q4 comparisons — the Clover pricing rollbacks and November volume softness — plus ISV growth and international ramp, rather than on any change to volume assumptions. |
| Dan Dolev | Mizuho | AI in bank processing | Prompted by a competitor's AI announcement the prior day. Lyons described four AI focus areas and previewed a governed AI operating layer for financial institutions, already live in pilot with two institutions and with others lined up across loan origination, compliance and call centers. |
Theme tracker
Themes are curator-classified across supplied calls.
| Theme | Status | Quarters mentioned | Read-through |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clover as the primary growth engine | 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 | Present in every reviewed call, but the framing changed materially: from a point-of-sale and hardware story with a hard revenue target, to a 'small business operating platform' built on verticals, horizontal partnerships and value-added services. The constant is that Clover carries the equity story; what moved is how success is measured. |
| Argentina as a swing factor | 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 | Discussed in every reviewed call, with the sign reversed over the period. Through 2024 it was a large organic-growth tailwind from excess inflation and interest; by Q1 2026 lower Argentine inflation and rates are described as a revenue headwind to Merchant, largely offset by lower interest expense below the line. The Q3 2025 call retroactively sized it at roughly 5 points of 2023 organic growth and roughly 10 points of 2024. |
| Core-bank client service and attrition remediation | emerged | Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026 | Absent from the 2023 and 2024 calls, then central from the Q3 2025 reset onward. This is the clearest new disclosure in the history: management now concedes lost share in core banking, names client service as the cause, and reports service KPIs in place of revenue improvement. It is also the theme where the fix is claimed to be fully within the company's control. |
| Nonrecurring-revenue grow-over as the explanation for reported weakness | emerged | Q4 2025, Q1 2026 | New vocabulary that now does heavy work: it is the stated reason reported revenue lags the volume, transaction and account growth management cites. Only two calls old, so there is no track record yet of the gap closing on the promised schedule. |
| AI-led cost and revenue program (Project Elevate, agentic commerce) | emerged | Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026 | AI was mentioned earlier as a data and fraud capability, but the structured enterprise program with IBM, the agentic commerce partnerships and the bank-facing AI layer all date from Q3 2025. Financial targets for Elevate had still not been given as of Q1 2026 and were deferred to Investor Day. |
| Stablecoin and digital-asset custody (FIUSD, StoneCastle) | emerged | Q2 2025, Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026 | Introduced in Q2 2025, expanded through the StoneCastle acquisition, and by Q1 2026 reduced to a single line about launching a previously announced interbank money-movement pilot this summer. Airtime is already shrinking relative to its introduction. |
| CashFlow Central as a named growth driver | persisted | Q3 2023, Q4 2023, Q1 2024, Q2 2024, Q3 2024, Q4 2024, Q1 2025, Q2 2025, Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026 | Continuously present but with steadily less airtime after Q1 2025. The Q4 2025 call gave the most concrete data — 5 live FI clients, over 100,000 SMBs using it, over 155 FIs signed and a pipeline of over 400 — which is a long way from the 'meaningful in 2026' expectation set on the Q4 2024 call. |
| Dolar turista transitory revenue | dropped | Q1 2024, Q2 2024, Q3 2024, Q4 2024, Q1 2025, Q2 2025 | Quantified on six consecutive calls, including analyst questions asking it to be sized, then absent from Q3 2025 onward. This one is benign: the program was expected to end and the Q1 2025 call said so. It is a useful control case for what a genuine, explained disappearance looks like. |
| The consecutive-year double-digit adjusted EPS growth streak | dropped | Q3 2023, Q4 2023, Q1 2024, Q2 2024, Q4 2024, Q1 2025 | The streak framing anchored management's confidence through Q1 2025 and then vanished. Double-digit EPS growth still appears as an ambition from Q3 2025 onward, but as a 2027-onward target rather than an unbroken record. The disappearance coincides with the reset, not with the CEO change. |
| Clover $4.5 billion 2026 revenue and 27% VAS penetration targets | dropped | Q4 2023, Q1 2024, Q2 2024, Q3 2024, Q1 2025, Q2 2025 | Reaffirmed as recently as Q2 2025, absent from every call since. Clover VAS is still reported as a share of Clover revenue, but no forward penetration target is given, and the 2026 revenue framing changed from a dollar target to low-double-digit growth off a $3.3 billion 2025 base. |
| The cross-segment 'SMB bundle' packaging story | dropped | Q2 2024, Q3 2024, Q4 2024, Q1 2025 | A centerpiece of the 2024 calls — Clover plus CashFlow Central plus XD plus SpendTrack sold as one suite — and gone as a named construct from Q2 2025 onward. The component products are still discussed individually, which suggests the bundle was repackaged rather than abandoned, but the integrated-suite claim is no longer made. |
Guidance ledger
Quotes, calls, and speakers are source-verified; outcomes are curator-classified.
| Verbatim guidance | Call | Speaker | Curator outcome | Outcome note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| “We are maintaining our 2024 organic revenue growth outlook of 15% to 17% and raising our estimate for adjusted operating margin expansion to more than 135 basis points compared to at least 125 basis points.” | Fiserv, Inc., Q2 2024 Earnings Call, Jul 24, 2024 · 2024-07-24T12:00:00 | Robert Hau | kept | The Q4 2024 call reported full-year 2024 total company organic revenue growth of 16% and adjusted operating margin up 170 basis points to 39.4%. |
| “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% full-year organic revenue growth and adjusted EPS of $8.80, at the top of the range. |
| “we remain on track to achieve our 2026 Clover targets of $4.5 billion in revenue and VAS penetration of 27%.” | Fiserv, Inc., Q3 2024 Earnings Call, Oct 22, 2024 · 2024-10-22T12:00:00 | Robert Hau | missed | Superseded. The Q4 2025 call put 2025 Clover revenue at $3.3 billion and guided 2026 Clover revenue to low-double-digit growth; no forward VAS penetration target has been given since Q2 2025. |
| “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 | The Q4 2025 call reported 2025 organic revenue growth of 3.8%, adjusted operating margin down 200 basis points to 37.4%, adjusted EPS of $8.64 versus $8.80 in 2024, and free cash flow of $4.44 billion. |
| “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 July cut to approximately 10% and two quarters before the October reset to 3.5% to 4%. Full-year 2025 landed at 3.8% organic growth and $8.64 adjusted EPS. |
| “we have refined our full year organic revenue growth guidance to approximately 10%, which is at the low end of our guidance range. And to be clear, 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 | Three months later the Q3 2025 call cut 2025 organic growth to 3.5% to 4% and Clover revenue to $3.3 billion; the Q4 2025 call confirmed both. |
| “We now expect to achieve 3.5% to 4% organic revenue growth based on the revenue-related impacts detailed earlier. 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 | The Q4 2025 call reported 3.8% organic revenue growth, in the upper half of the range, and adjusted EPS of $8.64, above the guided range. |
| “We expect 2026 organic revenue growth in the range of 1% to 3% with Merchant Solutions revenue growth in the mid-single digits and Financial Solutions flat to slightly down.” | Fiserv, Inc., Q4 2025 Earnings Call, Feb 10, 2026 · 2026-02-10T13:00:00 | Paul Todd | pending | Reiterated on the Q1 2026 call, where Q1 organic revenue declined 3.6% with Q2 guided as the trough, implying the full-year range depends entirely on second-half delivery. |
| “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 on the Q1 2026 call, which reported Q1 adjusted EPS of $1.79 including a $0.17 benefit from an 11% quarterly tax rate management described as strictly timing-related and offset later in the year. |
| “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 on that call as in line with the just below 30% view provided in February. |
| “On a structural basis, our medium-term revenue growth rate target for Clover remains in the 15% to 20% range.” | Fiserv, Inc., Q4 2025 Earnings Call, Feb 10, 2026 · 2026-02-10T13:00:00 | Paul Todd | unknown | No end year is attached to the medium-term target, so nothing in the supplied call history can test it. For context, 2026 Clover revenue is guided to low-double-digit growth. |
| “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, or mid-teens excluding prior-year nonrecurring revenue, on GPV growth of over 9% reported and 12% excluding the gateway conversion. |
| “We continue to expect adjusted operating margin of approximately 34% for the year.” | Fiserv, Inc., Q1 2026 Earnings Call, May 05, 2026 · 2026-05-05T12:00:00 | Paul Todd | pending | Requires 35% to 36% in the second half against approximately 31% to 32% in the first half, with Q4 the stated high point. |
Q&A pressure map
Question counts and firms are curator tallies; analyst coverage shown above.
| Topic | Questions | Firms | Pressure / response |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clover's volume-to-revenue spread and Clover revenue targets | 12 | Wolfe Research, UBS, Goldman Sachs, Bernstein, William Blair, Baird, BofA Securities, Wells Fargo, KBW, Morgan Stanley | The single most persistent line of questioning across the last eight calls. Analysts have repeatedly asked management to decompose Clover revenue growth against volume growth — hardware, VAS, pricing, Clover Capital, anticipation, gateway conversion, fee eliminations — because the two numbers have rarely moved together. One exchange is worth flagging: on the Q4 2025 call James Faucette asked for measurable merchant response to the Clover fee changes, specifically changes in churn or retention and how long the impact lasts. The answer described positive partner feedback and said in-quarter attribution was not possible, without offering a retention measure or a duration. |
| Financial Solutions growth and what has to change to fix it | 11 | Baird, Wolfe Research, UBS, JPMorgan, KeyBanc Capital Markets, Susquehanna, TD Cowen | Pressure here shifted in character rather than volume. Through 2024 the questions were about the drivers of an expected acceleration; from Q3 2025 they are about why the segment went negative and what evidence would confirm a turn. Management's consistent answer is that underlying volumes, accounts and transactions are in trend and that comparisons are the problem. Bryan Bergin's Q1 2026 request for the relative size of the Q2 nonrecurring headwinds by subsegment was answered with a named driver but no figure. |
| Credibility of guidance and the reset baseline | 7 | Wolfe Research, JPMorgan, Bernstein, Mizuho, Goldman Sachs | A distinct topic that did not exist before Q2 2025. Analysts have asked in sequence whether the review is complete, how long the company had been over-earning, why a quarter-old forecast moved so far in two months, and whether anything new has been found since. Harshita Rawat's Q3 2025 question — how a largely recurring segment could change that much between a July update and an October reset — drew the most direct answer in the reviewed history, with Lyons saying the July work covered major projects only. |
| Non-Clover SMB and back-book conversion to Clover | 7 | Morgan Stanley, Baird, Bernstein, KeyBanc Capital Markets, UBS, Autonomous Research | Analysts have tracked this book for years because it is large, low-growth and the stated swing factor between the low and high ends of the Clover GPV guide. Management has been consistent that conversion will be deliberate and that the low end assumes minimal conversion. Timothy Chiodo's Q1 2026 request to decompose the book by geography and ISV was deferred to Investor Day rather than answered. |
| Margins, investment spend and how clean the run rate is | 5 | JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Bernstein, Baird | Recurring but lower-volume. The useful thread is Tien-Tsin Huang asking on the Q4 2025 call how clean the implied exit-rate margin is, given the mix of structural spend, professional services and Project Elevate costs. Todd separated ongoing One Fiserv operating expense from Elevate program cost and said Elevate spend would rise and shift from professional services toward technology. |
| Argentina's transitory contribution | 2 | Mizuho | Included because of how quickly it faded. Argentina drew direct sizing questions in 2024 and early 2025, largely from one analyst, and no analyst asked about it in the last four calls even as the Q3 2025 call disclosed it had contributed roughly 10 points of 2024 organic growth and Q1 2026 called it a Merchant revenue headwind. |
Language shifts
Only language evidence verified against the referenced component is shown.
| Observation | Verbatim evidence | Call ID | Component |
|---|---|---|---|
| The consecutive-year EPS streak was management's core confidence device through Q1 2025 and then disappears entirely. Later calls still target double-digit EPS growth, but as a forward ambition starting in 2027 rather than an unbroken record to be extended. | “can extend our track record of 39 consecutive years of double-digit adjusted EPS growth” | 1939097020 | 2 |
| Q3 2025 introduced reset vocabulary and, for the first time in the reviewed history, applied a negative adjective to the company's own guidance. The sentence pairs the concession with two positive framings in the same breath, which is the pattern in most subsequent candour on this call. | “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 |
| Defensive reassurance also entered in Q3 2025 — a formulation that bounds the damage rather than describing performance. It is worth noting because it is an answer to a question no analyst had asked on the record. | “nothing at Fiserv is fundamentally broken” | 1964393802 | 2 |
| Time-horizon language loosened in Q4 2025. Where earlier calls promised second-half acceleration within the guided year, the destination is now a multi-quarter path with no date attached to it. | “we are clear on our strategy, laser-focused on our priorities, and are optimistic about our multi-quarter path towards delivering strong, sustainable operating performance” | 1978891396 | 2 |
| Attrition disclosure became specific in Q4 2025, with a stated comparison across three years rather than a general reference to churn. The same admission is repeated in Q1 2026, so this is now a standing disclosure rather than a one-off. | “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 management states the gap between operating progress and reported results as a prepared-remarks fact, pre-empting the Q&A rather than waiting for it. No earlier reviewed call contains this construction. | “that progress is not yet visible in our reported financial results” | 1996095516 | 2 |
| New external-risk vocabulary appears in Q1 2026: a named geopolitical driver of consumer spending mix, tied to the company's own Small Business Index data. No prior reviewed call raises a comparable exogenous watch item for Merchant volumes. | “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 calls the pattern is consistent: the volume and transaction metrics management cites have held up reasonably well, and the reported revenue line has repeatedly failed to follow them. Guidance set since the Q3 2025 reset has been met or slightly beaten, which is the opposite of the 2025 record, but it was set at a much lower level and the current year loads all of the growth into the second half. The call history does not yet contain a single quarter in which the reported numbers confirm the bridge management describes, so the mid-single-digit revenue and double-digit EPS case still rests on management's framing rather than on results.