Viad (NYSE:VVI) versus Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE:FIS) Critical Comparison

Viad (NYSE:VVI) and Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE:FIS) are both business services companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Viad and Fidelity National Information Services, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Viad	0	0	2	0	3.00
Fidelity National Information Services	0	9	12	1	2.64

Viad presently has a consensus price target of $41.50, suggesting a potential upside of 24.70%. Fidelity National Information Services has a consensus price target of $80.65, suggesting a potential downside of 2.20%. Given Viad’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Viad is more favorable than Fidelity National Information Services.

Risk & Volatility

Viad has a beta of 2.04, meaning that its stock price is 104% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Fidelity National Information Services has a beta of 1.06, meaning that its stock price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Viad and Fidelity National Information Services’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Viad	2.30%	29.43%	3.10%
Fidelity National Information Services	7.72%	13.63%	5.61%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Viad and Fidelity National Information Services’ gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Viad	$1.31 billion	0.54	$16.02 million	($0.38)	-87.58
Fidelity National Information Services	$9.96 billion	4.61	-$6.65 billion	($10.23)	-8.06

Viad has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Fidelity National Information Services. Viad is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Fidelity National Information Services, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

89.9% of Viad shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.2% of Fidelity National Information Services shares are held by institutional investors. 4.1% of Viad shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Fidelity National Information Services shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Viad pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Fidelity National Information Services pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Viad pays out -105.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Fidelity National Information Services pays out -14.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Summary

Fidelity National Information Services beats Viad on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Viad

Viad Corp provides hospitality, leisure activities, experiential marketing, and live events in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It operates in three segments: Pursuit, Spiro, and GES Exhibitions. The Pursuit segment offers recreational attractions, hotels and lodges, food and beverage, retail, sightseeing, and ground transportation services. This segment consists of Banff Jasper Collection, the Alaska Collection, the Glacier Park Collection, FlyOver, and Sky Lagoon. The Spiro segment operates as an experiential marketing agency that partners with brands around the world to manage and elevate their global experiential marketing activities. The GES Exhibition segment engages as an exhibition services company that partners with exhibition and conference organizers as a full-service provider of strategic and logistics solutions to manage the complexity of their shows. It serves event organizers and corporate brand marketers; and tour operators, tour wholesalers, destination management companies, and retail travel agencies. Viad Corp was founded in 1926 and is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona.

About Fidelity National Information Services

Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. engages in the provision of financial services technology solutions for financial institutions, businesses, and developers worldwide. It operates through Banking Solutions, Capital Market Solutions, and Corporate and Other segments. The company provides core processing and ancillary applications; mobile and online banking; fraud, risk management, and compliance; card and retail payment; electronic funds transfer and network; wealth and retirement; and item processing and output solutions. It also offers trading and asset, lending, leveraged and syndicated loan markets, and treasury and risk solutions. The company was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.