New York, Jan 11, 2026, 18:10 EST — The market has closed.
- Fiserv shares ended Friday 0.5% higher at $69.85, ahead of Monday’s U.S. session reopening.
- This week, the company is showcasing a new in-store analytics tool at the NRF retail conference in New York.
- Investors are keen to see if the merchant business can bounce back following its guidance revision last fall.
Fiserv is set to make another push with retailers this week, aiming to regain confidence in its merchant tools ahead of Monday’s session. On Friday, the stock closed up 0.5% at $69.85, fluctuating between $68.77 and $70.15 during the day, with roughly 5.07 million shares traded. (Fiserv, Inc.)
Why it matters now: Fiserv is still reeling from a sharp reset in October, when it slashed its annual organic revenue growth forecast to 3.5%–4% from roughly 10% and announced a shake-up in senior leadership. The news triggered the biggest one-day drop ever for its shares. Truist Securities analyst Matthew Coad called the update “shockingly bad.” (Reuters)
The NRF annual event ranks as one of the year’s first major tests for point-of-sale (POS) vendors—the checkout hardware and software that retailers rely on—and payments processors battling to capture in-store traffic. Toast is highlighting its “Toast IQ” assistant, designed to help with inventory and pricing. Meanwhile, Fiserv is promoting a new tool that converts in-store card transactions into actionable customer profiles, according to eMarketer.
Fiserv introduced “Unknown Shopper,” a tool aimed at helping merchants and marketing partners create actionable customer segments from card-present transactions—those in-person payments that aren’t linked to loyalty programs. The company said the tool enhances transaction data with demographic info and taps into billions of past transactions to improve campaign “attribution,” meaning how marketers connect spending back to sales. “Unknown Shopper allows merchants to translate in-store transaction data into meaningful insights and customer segments—helping them serve their customers more effectively,” said Chief Data Officer Prasanna Dhore. (Fiserv, Inc.)
Fiserv’s trade-show push doubles as a trial to see if it can leverage its size into services merchants will actually pay a premium for, beyond standard payment processing. The merchant “acquiring” space—the behind-the-scenes handling and routing of card payments for retailers—is crowded and relentlessly squeezed on price.
Traders are focusing on short-term signals like customer wins, partner announcements, and any added insights from management about merchant trends. The next big update comes with the company’s quarterly report and guidance, usually out in early February.
The week ahead isn’t just about showcasing a booth demo. Payments stocks often move with bond yields, since their valuations depend heavily on steady growth and transaction volume forecasts.
Competition isn’t letting up. Block’s Square and Global Payments target many of the same small merchants, while Toast zeroes in on restaurants. All three are doubling down on software and data to lock in their customers.
But risks are apparent. Retailers often drag their feet on system upgrades, and new analytics offerings don’t always convert into contracts. Tools that merge payment data with demographics — plus the wider use of biometrics at checkout — risk triggering privacy and regulatory concerns, which can delay deployment and increase expenses.
Markets face a key test Tuesday morning, as the Labor Department unveils the Consumer Price Index for December 2025 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. If inflation comes in hotter than expected, bond yields could spike, putting pressure on rate-sensitive growth names like payments processors. (Bls)
