FIS vs JKHY: Which Is the Better Buy in 2026?
Last updated October 2026
Short answer
FIS is the larger of the two ($18.61B market cap): the incumbent the market prices for continued execution (5.40x forward earnings, beta 0.83). JKHY is the smaller challenger ($11.40B), actually pricier on forward earnings (20.57x): more room to run, but more to prove. The real question is which set of drivers you believe, and whether owning one (or both) leaves you over-concentrated.
FIS vs JKHY: the tie-breaker metrics
Same yardstick, side by side (as of October 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.
| Metric | FIS | JKHY | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $18.61B | $11.40B | Size. The larger name is the incumbent; the smaller has more room to grow and more to prove. |
| Forward P/E | 5.40 | 20.57 | Valuation on next year's expected earnings, the same yardstick for both. Lower is cheaper for that growth; higher means the market is paying up. |
| Trailing P/E | 5.53 | 23.29 | Valuation on the last 12 months. A big drop from trailing to forward means the market expects earnings to jump, so more growth is already in the price. |
| Beta | 0.83 | 0.56 | Volatility vs the market. Above 1 swings harder than the index; below 1 is steadier. Higher beta means bigger drawdowns to hold through. |
| Price vs 52-week range | 11% of range | 57% of range | Where today's price sits between the 52-week low and high. Near the high is momentum with less margin of safety; near the low is out of favor or a discount, depending on why. |
| Price / book | 1.16 | 5.55 | How much you pay over book value. Very high can signal an asset-light, high-return business or a rich price. |
Reading it: FIS is the cheaper of the two on forward earnings, but cheaper is not the same as better. Pair the valuation with growth (how far the forward P/E sits below the trailing P/E) and risk (beta) before you decide.
Before you buy: how FIS and JKHY affect your concentration
The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. FIS and JKHY share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.
This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined FIS and JKHY exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.
What does Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) do?
Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. is a global financial-technology company that provides the software and services banks, capital-markets firms, and merchants run on. It operates mainly through two segments, Banking Solutions (core processing, digital banking, payments, and related software for financial institutions) and Capital Market Solutions (trading, treasury, lending, and risk technology for buy-side and sell-side firms). FIS serves more than 20,000 clients across over 130 countries and processes trillions of dollars in transactions each year, which makes it more of an embedded infrastructure vendor than a consumer-facing brand. Because its software is woven into clients' daily operations, revenue is heavily recurring and switching costs are high.
What does Jack Henry & Associates (JKHY) do?
Jack Henry & Associates, based in Monett, Missouri and founded in 1976, is the largest technology provider focused on community and regional banks and credit unions in the US. Its Core segment runs the ledger systems those institutions depend on (SilverLake, CIF 20/20 and Core Director for banks, Symitar for credit unions), increasingly hosted in the Jack Henry private cloud or on public cloud. Payments covers card processing, bill pay, ACH, real-time payments and its PayCenter hub. Complementary products include the Banno digital banking platform, fraud and risk tools, and lending software. Most revenue is recurring, billed per account or per transaction under multi-year contracts, which is why its revenue rarely swings much from one year to the next.
FIS vs JKHY: how do they differ?
Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.
- FIS drivers: Sticky, recurring banking software; Capital Markets momentum.
- JKHY drivers: Taking core share from the big two; Cloud migration of the installed base.
Which fits which kind of investor
A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: The main risk is that FIS is a mature, slower-growing business competing against strong rivals, so growth can disappoint if bank IT spending softens or clients delay projects. For JKHY, the most visible risk is a growth slowdown.
FIS or JKHY: which should you pick?
Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick FIS if you believe its drivers more; JKHY if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the FIS and JKHY guides.
FIS vs JKHY: the full fundamentals
FIS. At ~$35.94 FIS trades near 5.4x forward adjusted earnings and ~11x EV/EBITDA, a deep discount to software peers that reflects slower guided growth, ~$21 billion of debt and doubts about the Issuer Solutions deal. The January 2026 transactions make reported and pro forma growth figures diverge sharply, and the trailing P/E is depressed by the one-time Worldpay gain, so check which basis a number uses. The November 3 report will show whether margin gains and free cash flow keep outrunning the reduced revenue outlook.
JKHY. At ~$162.55 on October 23, 2026, Jack Henry trades at ~23x its fiscal 2026 EPS of ~$6.98 and ~22x the midpoint of fiscal 2027 GAAP EPS guidance (~$7.33 to ~$7.38). That is below its own five-year average, which often sat near 30x, and reflects a 2026 de-rating of financial software stocks on AI-disruption fears. With ~$539 million of free cash flow, the free cash flow yield is roughly ~4.7%. Fiserv and FIS trade at lower multiples, but both have faced slower growth and management turnover; Jack Henry's premium reflects its share gains and clean balance sheet.
Headline figures (approximate, October 2026): FIS shows revenue (ttm) ~$12.2 billion (latest quarter ~+29% reported, mainly Issuer Solutions consolidation), 2026 pro forma revenue growth guidance ~4.5-5% (lowered at Q2 2026); consensus revenue ~$13.7 billion, adjusted ebitda margin ~41.7% pro forma in Q2 2026 (up ~113 bp), adjusted eps (q2 2026) ~$1.48 vs ~$1.47 expected; 2026 consensus ~$6.19; JKHY shows revenue (fy2026, gaap) ~$2.54 billion, net income (fy2026) ~$503 million, diluted eps (fy2026) ~$6.98, market cap ~$11.4 billion.
The bottom line: FIS vs JKHY
FIS and JKHY are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined FIS and JKHY exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.
Wondering how FIS or JKHY fits the portfolio you already own? Walnut is an AI investing app that connects your brokerage read-only and answers questions like that about your actual holdings: overlap, concentration, and how each position tracks the S&P 500. Compare the best AI portfolio analyzers or see the best AI investing apps in 2026.
Investing in Fidelity National Information Services with AI
Connect the broker you already use and ask Walnut's AI how FIS fits what you actually hold: whether you own it already through a fund, what it would do to your concentration, and how it has tracked the S&P 500. Read-only by default, and you approve anything before it reaches your broker.
FAQ
What is the difference between FIS and JKHY?
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Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. Jack Henry & Associates, based in Monett, Missouri and founded in 1976, is the largest technology provider focused on community and regional banks and credit unions in the US. They show up together because they share investment themes, but they are different businesses, so the better fit depends on which thesis you are expressing.
Is FIS or JKHY the better stock?
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Neither is universally better. FIS is the larger incumbent; JKHY is the smaller challenger and looks pricier on forward earnings. Walnut is informational, not investment advice. Compare what each does, the tie-breaker metrics above, and the risks, then decide which fits your thesis and what you already own.
Which is cheaper, FIS or JKHY?
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On forward P/E (as of October 2026), FIS trades at 5.40x and JKHY at 20.57x, so FIS is the cheaper of the two on next year's expected earnings. A lower multiple is not automatically the better buy: a richer valuation can be justified by faster growth, and a lower one can reflect real risk. Weigh the multiple against how fast each business is compounding.
Should you own both FIS and JKHY?
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Because they share themes, owning both concentrates you in that theme. That can be intentional (a focused bet) or accidental (less diversification than it looks). Walnut can show your combined exposure across both, and whether adding either over-concentrates you, before you buy.
What are the risks of FIS vs JKHY?
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FIS: The main risk is that FIS is a mature, slower-growing business competing against strong rivals, so growth can disappoint if bank IT spending softens or clients delay projects. Its long history of acquisitions and divestitures, including the costly Worldpay round trip, is a reminder that large deals do not always create shareholder value, and the Issuer Solutions integration carries execution and financing risk. The 2026 transactions were partly debt-funded, so leverage is elevated until FIS deleverages as planned, which pressures the balance sheet if cash flow lags. Competition from Fiserv, Global Payments, ACI Worldwide, Temenos, Oracle, and newer cloud-native core-banking vendors is intense, and technology shifts toward modern, cloud-first platforms could erode the switching-cost moat over time. The stock has also been volatile: it fell ~45% in 2026 to ~$35.94 on concerns over slowing growth and acquisition risk after FIS lowered its full-year pro forma revenue growth guidance to ~4.5-5%. Analysts cut targets in October 2026 (Citigroup to $39 from $45, Susquehanna to $37 from $46, Goldman Sachs to $44 from $52), though BofA restarted coverage with a positive view and the 25 analysts covering the stock still average a buy with a mean target near $48. JKHY: The most visible risk is a growth slowdown. Fiscal 2027 guidance of ~6% to 7% revenue growth is below fiscal 2026, and the fourth quarter showed costs rising faster than revenue: R&D was up ~17% and SG&A ~19%, while operating income fell ~12%. If that continues, the margin expansion story weakens. Second, the client base is consolidating. Community banks and credit unions merge every year, and when an acquirer runs a different core, Jack Henry loses the account and receives only a one-time deconversion fee (guided to just ~$23 million in fiscal 2027). A wave of bank mergers under a looser regulatory climate would hurt. Third, competition: Fiserv and FIS are cutting prices to defend share, and newer cloud-native cores such as Thought Machine and Temenos target the same buyers, while Q2 and Alkami compete hard in digital banking. Fourth, AI: investors worry that AI coding and agent tools lower the barrier to building banking software, compressing pricing across the sector. Finally, Jack Henry handles sensitive financial data for thousands of institutions, so a major outage or cyber breach would carry regulatory and reputational costs. At ~22x forward earnings, the shares already assume steady execution.
Walnut is informational, not investment advice. This page is descriptive and not a recommendation to buy or sell FIS or JKHY; figures are approximate and dated (as of October 2026). Verify current data before investing.