Stock Analysis on Net

Fiserv Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV)

This company has been moved to the archive! The financial data has not been updated since April 28, 2022.

Financial Reporting Quality: Aggregate Accruals

Microsoft Excel

Earnings can be decomposed into cash and accrual components. The accrual component (aggregate accruals) has been found to have less persistence than the cash component, and therefore (1) earnings with higher accrual component are less persistent than earnings with smaller accrual component, all else equal; and (2) the cash component of earnings should receive a higher weighting evaluating company performance.


Balance-Sheet-Based Accruals Ratio

Fiserv Inc., balance sheet computation of aggregate accruals

US$ in millions

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Dec 31, 2021 Dec 31, 2020 Dec 31, 2019 Dec 31, 2018 Dec 31, 2017
Operating Assets
Total assets 76,249 74,619 77,539 11,262 10,289
Less: Cash and cash equivalents 835 906 893 415 325
Operating assets 75,414 73,713 76,646 10,847 9,964
Operating Liabilities
Total liabilities 44,299 41,290 42,682 8,969 7,558
Less: Short-term and current maturities of long-term debt 508 384 287 4 3
Less: Long-term debt, excluding current maturities 20,729 20,300 21,612 5,955 4,897
Operating liabilities 23,062 20,606 20,783 3,010 2,658
 
Net operating assets1 52,352 53,107 55,863 7,837 7,306
Balance-sheet-based aggregate accruals2 (755) (2,756) 48,026 531
Financial Ratio
Balance-sheet-based accruals ratio3 -1.43% -5.06% 150.79% 7.01%
Benchmarks
Balance-Sheet-Based Accruals Ratio, Competitors4
Accenture PLC 27.93% 3.73% 42.14%
Adobe Inc. 14.14% 8.20% 2.25%
International Business Machines Corp. -7.39% -9.64%
Intuit Inc. 139.73% -1.39% 29.27%
Microsoft Corp. 40.52% 14.41% 46.31%
Oracle Corp. 5.62% 1.35% 2.79%
Palo Alto Networks Inc. 85.21% 69.06%
Salesforce Inc. 10.87% 65.87%
ServiceNow Inc. 34.89% 19.95%
Synopsys Inc. 0.36% 8.40% 7.93%
Balance-Sheet-Based Accruals Ratio, Sector
Software & Services 17.08% 8.21% 200.00%
Balance-Sheet-Based Accruals Ratio, Industry
Information Technology 21.33% 2.87% 200.00%

Based on: 10-K (reporting date: 2021-12-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2020-12-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2019-12-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2018-12-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2017-12-31).

1 2021 Calculation
Net operating assets = Operating assets – Operating liabilities
= 75,41423,062 = 52,352

2 2021 Calculation
Balance-sheet-based aggregate accruals = Net operating assets2021 – Net operating assets2020
= 52,35253,107 = -755

3 2021 Calculation
Balance-sheet-based accruals ratio = 100 × Balance-sheet-based aggregate accruals ÷ Avg. net operating assets
= 100 × -755 ÷ [(52,352 + 53,107) ÷ 2] = -1.43%

4 Click competitor name to see calculations.

Financial ratio Description The company
Balance-sheet-based accruals ratio Ratio is found by dividing balance-sheet-based aggregate accruals by average net operating assets. Using the balance-sheet-based accruals ratio, Fiserv Inc. improved earnings quality from 2020 to 2021.

Cash-Flow-Statement-Based Accruals Ratio

Fiserv Inc., cash flow statement computation of aggregate accruals

US$ in millions

Microsoft Excel
Dec 31, 2021 Dec 31, 2020 Dec 31, 2019 Dec 31, 2018 Dec 31, 2017
Net income attributable to Fiserv, Inc. 1,334 958 893 1,187 1,246
Less: Net cash provided by operating activities 4,034 4,147 2,795 1,552 1,483
Less: Net cash used in investing activities (1,630) (341) (16,602) (663) (657)
Cash-flow-statement-based aggregate accruals (1,070) (2,848) 14,700 298 420
Financial Ratio
Cash-flow-statement-based accruals ratio1 -2.03% -5.23% 46.15% 3.94%
Benchmarks
Cash-Flow-Statement-Based Accruals Ratio, Competitors2
Accenture PLC 11.80% -13.65% -1.28%
Adobe Inc. 9.21% -0.48% -9.78%
International Business Machines Corp. -1.64% -13.41%
Intuit Inc. 58.72% -34.22% -15.95%
Microsoft Corp. 17.68% -8.19% 7.37%
Oracle Corp. 25.81% -31.35% -74.80%
Palo Alto Networks Inc. -68.30% -488.47%
Salesforce Inc. 10.57% -5.62%
ServiceNow Inc. -21.14% -12.82%
Synopsys Inc. -4.88% 0.92% -0.96%
Cash-Flow-Statement-Based Accruals Ratio, Sector
Software & Services 12.17% -14.79% -3.07%
Cash-Flow-Statement-Based Accruals Ratio, Industry
Information Technology 10.69% -8.36% -22.15%

Based on: 10-K (reporting date: 2021-12-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2020-12-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2019-12-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2018-12-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2017-12-31).

1 2021 Calculation
Cash-flow-statement-based accruals ratio = 100 × Cash-flow-statement-based aggregate accruals ÷ Avg. net operating assets
= 100 × -1,070 ÷ [(52,352 + 53,107) ÷ 2] = -2.03%

2 Click competitor name to see calculations.

Financial ratio Description The company
Cash-flow-statement-based accruals ratio Ratio is found by dividing cash-flow-statement-based aggregate accruals by average net operating assets. Using the cash-flow-statement-based accruals ratio, Fiserv Inc. improved earnings quality from 2020 to 2021.