Fiserv Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2010 Results

February 03, 2011 04:01 PM Eastern Time 

• Adjusted internal revenue growth of 2 percent and adjusted EPS growth of 13 percent in the fourth quarter;
• Full year adjusted EPS of $4.05 and $735 million of free cash flow achieve record levels;
• Company expects 2011 adjusted internal revenue growth of 2 to 4 percent and adjusted EPS growth of 9 to 12 percent

BROOKFIELD, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV), the leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2010.

“Strong sales to new and existing clients reflects our focus on creating value for clients”

GAAP revenue in the fourth quarter of 2010 was $1.08 billion compared with $1.06 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009. Adjusted revenue increased 2 percent to $1.03 billion in the fourth quarter compared with $1.01 billion in 2009. For the full year, GAAP revenue was $4.13 billion compared with $4.08 billion in 2009, and adjusted revenue increased 1 percent from $3.87 billion in 2009 to $3.93 billion in 2010.

GAAP earnings per share from continuing operations for the fourth quarter was $0.80, which includes a loss from early debt extinguishment of $0.11 per share, compared with $0.83 in 2009. GAAP earnings per share from continuing operations for the full year was $3.34 compared with $3.04 in 2009.

Adjusted earnings per share in the fourth quarter increased 13 percent to $1.06 compared with $0.94 in 2009. Full year adjusted earnings per share increased 11 percent to $4.05 compared with $3.66 in 2009.

“We delivered on our commitments of returning to positive revenue growth while increasing earnings and generating a record level of free cash flow,” said Jeffery Yabuki, President and Chief Executive Officer of Fiserv. “Our strong performance is the result of our associates delivering for clients every day.”

Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2010

• Adjusted internal revenue growth was 2 percent in the quarter, reflecting 3 percent growth in the Payments segment and 2 percent growth in the Financial segment. For the full year, adjusted internal revenue growth was 1 percent; the Payments segment grew 3 percent and the Financial segment was up less than 1 percent.
• Adjusted operating margin increased 160 basis points to 29.7 percent in the quarter over the prior year period. For the full year, adjusted operating margin increased 70 basis points compared with 2009 to 29.4 percent.
• Free cash flow increased 10 percent to a record $735 million in 2010 compared with $668 million in 2009.
• The company repurchased 2.9 million shares of common stock in the quarter for $164 million. In 2010, the company repurchased 8.1 million shares for a total of $418 million. As of December 31, 2010, the company had approximately 6 million shares remaining under its share repurchase authorization.
• Fiserv was ranked first in North America and fourth in the world in Chartis Research’s RiskTech100^TM 2010, a comprehensive annual study of the top global technology firms active in risk management.
• The company expanded its payments footprint in the quarter by signing 163 electronic bill payment clients and 55 debit clients. The company signed 537 electronic bill payment clients and 218 debit clients in the year.
• 176 clients committed to offer ZashPay^® in the quarter, the new person-to-person payments service from Fiserv. As of December 31, 2010, more than 600 financial institutions have agreed to offer the service.
• In the fourth quarter, the company received an $89 million cash payment, reflecting a dividend and the repayment of a loan, from StoneRiver Group, L.P., a company in which Fiserv owns a 49% interest.
• On January 3, 2011, Mark Ernst joined the company as its Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Ernst’s background spans more than 25 years in the financial services industry and includes senior management positions with the Internal Revenue Service, H&R Block, Inc. and the American Express Company.
• The company signed a number of new and expanded client relationships in the quarter:
  • Associated Bank, headquartered in Green Bay, Wis. with total assets of $22 billion, expanded its existing Fiserv relationship with the selection of Mobile Money™ for mobile banking and ZashPay for person-to-person payments. The bank already utilizes the Signature™ bank platform for account processing, along with additional solutions including online banking and bill payment, Bank Intelligence Solutions^®, asset liability risk management and mortgage loan servicing.
  • Austin Bank, headquartered in Jacksonville, Texas, with more than $1 billion in assets, will implement a full suite of Fiserv debit solutions including processing, Premier Analytics™, Risk Office^SM, ATM driving and enhanced chargebacks.
  • Central Bank, a $2.1 billion financial services holding company headquartered in Lexington, Ky., extended its relationship with Fiserv for the Signature bank platform, EFT and Nautilus^® from Fiserv. The bank also has added eight new solutions, including Corillian^® Online, CheckFree^® RXP^® and Mobile Money from Fiserv to provide integrated banking, bill payment and personal financial management to retail banking customers through the online and mobile channels.
  • Diebold, Incorporated, the global leader in providing integrated self-service delivery and security systems and services, has continued its long-term partnership with Fiserv utilizing the Fiserv Source Capture Solutions^® Image Toolkit. Diebold, headquartered in North Canton, Ohio with $2.7 billion in worldwide revenue, leverages the Fiserv technology for use within its image-enabled ATMs.
  • Fort Financial Credit Union of Fort Wayne, Ind., signed an agreement to implement the XP2^® account processing solution from Fiserv to help serve its nearly 47,000 members. The $180 million credit union will implement an integrated suite of Fiserv solutions that includes CheckFree RXP for electronic bill payment; ConvergeIT^®: IVR for audio response; Nautilus for enterprise content management; Virtual Branch^® for online banking; and Wisdom™ for accounting.
  • Gesa Credit Union of Richland, Wash., agreed to implement Acumen^TM from Fiserv, the company’s newest account processing solution for credit unions. Gesa, which has $1 billion in assets and serves more than 97,000 members, will implement additional Fiserv solutions, including Nautilus for enterprise content management and ATM Source Capture™, Branch Source Capture™ and Teller Source Capture™ solutions.
  • IBERIABANK, headquartered in Lafayette, La., with $10 billion in assets, will implement a full suite of Fiserv debit solutions including processing and enhanced chargebacks, Premier Analytics, CardVision^SM and ATM driving. In addition, the bank will use the ACCEL/Exchange^® PIN debit network from Fiserv.
  • Kawartha Credit Union of Ontario, Canada, with $700 million in assets, agreed to implement Acumen from Fiserv to meet the needs of its nearly 37,000 members. The credit union will also implement additional Fiserv solutions including ConvergeIT: IVR from Fiserv for audio response, Prologue™ General Ledger, Prologue Fixed Assets and Vantage™ Risk and Budgeting Manager.
  • Kennebec Savings Bank, a $776 million savings bank based in Augusta, Maine, selected a complete banking solution from Fiserv based on the Premier bank platform with approximately 20 integrated products. The solution includes business and consumer online banking, CheckFree RXP for bill payment, Mobile Money for mobile banking, Source Capture, fraud and anti-money laundering, Card Services and the ACCEL/Exchange^® Network for debit processing.
  • Zions Bancorporation, one of the nation's leading financial services companies with $53 billion in assets and more than 500 banking offices in the western U.S., is making Check Recovery from Fiserv available to its business customers. This electronic check re-presentment service streamlines and accelerates the recovery of bad checks and lost funds by automating the collection process. Zions Bancorporation, a longstanding client, also uses account processing, bill payment, ACH processing, cash supply chain management, risk and compliance and remittance solutions from Fiserv.

Outlook for 2011

Fiserv expects 2011 adjusted internal revenue growth to be in a range of 2 to 4 percent. The company also expects 2011 adjusted earnings per share to be in a range of $4.42 to $4.54, which represents growth of 9 to 12 percent compared with $4.05 in 2010.

“Strong sales to new and existing clients reflects our focus on creating value for clients,” said Yabuki. “The investments we are making in our industry-leading solutions are building momentum for 2011 and beyond.”

Earnings Conference Call

The company will discuss its fourth quarter and full year 2010 results on a conference call and webcast at 4 p.m. CST on Thursday, February 3, 2011. To register for the event, go to www.fiserv.comand click on the Q4 Earnings Webcast icon. Supplemental materials will be available in the “Investor Relations” section of the website.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We supplement our reporting of revenue, operating income, income from continuing operations and earnings per share information determined in accordance with GAAP by using “adjusted revenue,” “adjusted operating income,” “adjusted income from continuing operations,” “adjusted earnings per share,” “adjusted operating margin,” “free cash flow” and “adjusted internal revenue growth” in this earnings release. Management believes that adjustments for certain non-cash or other revenue or expense items and the exclusion of certain pass-through revenue and expenses enhance our shareholders’ ability to evaluate our performance because such items do not reflect how we manage our operations. Therefore, we exclude these items from GAAP revenue, operating income, income from continuing operations and earnings per share to calculate these non-GAAP measures.

Examples of non-cash or other items may include, but are not limited to, non-cash intangible asset amortization expense associated with acquisitions, severance costs, merger and integration expenses and non-cash deferred revenue adjustments arising from acquisitions. We exclude these items to more clearly focus on the factors we believe are pertinent to the management of our operations, and we use this information to allocate resources to our various businesses.

Free cash flow and adjusted internal revenue growth are non-GAAP financial measures and are described on pages 10 and 12. We believe free cash flow is useful to measure the funds generated in a given period that are available for strategic capital decisions. Free cash flow is calculated as net cash provided by operating activities less capital expenditures, as adjusted for other items as listed on page 10. We believe adjusted internal revenue growth percentage is useful because it presents revenue growth excluding acquired revenue, postage reimbursements in our Output Solutions business and deferred revenue purchase accounting adjustments. We believe this supplemental information enhances our shareholders’ ability to evaluate and understand our core business performance.

These non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to, and not as a substitute for, revenue, operating income, income from continuing operations and earnings per share or any other amount determined in accordance with GAAP. These non-GAAP measures reflect management’s judgment of particular items and may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies.

About Fiserv

Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV) is the leading global provider of information management and electronic commerce systems for the financial services industry, driving innovation that transforms experiences for financial institutions and their customers. Fiserv is ranked No. 1 on the FinTech 100 survey of top technology partners to the financial services industry. For more information, visitwww.fiserv.com.

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