What Makes Fiserv (FI) a Lucrative Investment?

Ariel Investments, an investment management company, released its “Ariel Appreciation Fund” second-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Following the initial market decline triggered by the “Liberation Day” tariff announcement, the stock market rebounded, bolstered by heightened interest in AI stocks, positive economic data, and robust corporate earnings. Against this backdrop, the fund increased +5.81% in the second quarter, outpacing the Russell Midcap Value Index’s +5.35% returns and trailing the Russell Midcap Index’s +8.53% returns. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its second quarter 2025 investor letter, Ariel Appreciation Fund highlighted stocks such as FFiserv, Inc. (NYSE:FI). Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE:FI) is a payment and fintech services provider. The one-month return of Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE:FI) was -2.81%, and its shares gained 4.48% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On July 18, 2025, Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE:FI) stock closed at $165.74 per share with a market capitalization of $91.892 billion.

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

“We added Fiserv, Inc. (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 in the quarter. However, the deceleration was due to one-time items and growth is expected to accelerate in the second half of 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.”

A businessman in a suit standing in front of a large payment processing system workstation.

Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE:FI) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 72 hedge fund portfolios held Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE:FI) at the end of the first quarter, which was 80 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 Oakmark Equity and Income Fund’s views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 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.