What Makes Fiserv (FI) a Best-In-Class Financial Technology Company?

Ariel Investments, an investment management company, released its “Ariel Focus Fund” third-quarter investor letter.  A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. US equities increased significantly in the third quarter, driven by the Federal Reserve’s first rate cut, strong corporate earnings growth, and broadening market participation. In this environment, the fund increased by 20.76%, outperforming the 5.33% gain for the Russell 1000 Value Index and the 8.12% return for the S&P 500 Index. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its third-quarter 2025 investor letter, Ariel Focus Fund highlighted stocks such as Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE:FI). Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE:FI) is a leading financial technology company that provides payment and fintech services. The one-month return of Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE:FI) was -46.84%, and its shares lost 69.80% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On November 12, 2025, Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE:FI) stock closed at $63.80 per share, with a market capitalization of $34.315 billion.

Ariel Focus Fund stated the following regarding Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE:FI) in its third quarter 2025 investor letter:

“We also purchased Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE:FI), leading global provider of payment processing and financial services technology solutions. The company possesses unmatched scale and cross selling abilities across its businesses, including its core financial technology solutions, merchant acceptance and payment processing. Additionally, these innovative technologies are deeply entrenched in client operations, providing attractive and predictable recurring economics representative of a wide moat, high switching cost service business. A recent pullback in the stock provided an attractive entry point. Shares came under pressure due to investor concerns around Clover volumes decelerating. However, the deceleration was due to one-time items and growth is expected to accelerate later this year. In our view, FI offers a rare opportunity to own a best-in-class financial technology business that should benefit from the secular demand for innovative financial technology.”

Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE:FI) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 94 hedge fund portfolios held Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE:FI) at the end of the second quarter, up from 72 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE:FI) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE:FI) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

In another article, we covered Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE:FI) and shared Madison Large Cap Fund’s views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.