StockNews.com Upgrades ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW) to “Buy”

ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW) was upgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Thursday.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Craig Hallum boosted their price target on shares of ACI Worldwide from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. DA Davidson boosted their price target on shares of ACI Worldwide from $36.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target on shares of ACI Worldwide in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of ACI Worldwide in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, TheStreet raised shares of ACI Worldwide from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $40.00.

ACI Worldwide Price Performance

ACI Worldwide stock opened at $35.12 on Thursday. ACI Worldwide has a 52-week low of $19.56 and a 52-week high of $36.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.46 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $32.33 and a 200-day simple moving average of $29.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78.

ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The technology company reported $1.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $477.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $476.43 million. ACI Worldwide had a net margin of 9.88% and a return on equity of 17.31%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.95 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that ACI Worldwide will post 1.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in ACI Worldwide by 3.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,976,433 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $270,188,000 after buying an additional 389,424 shares during the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue increased its stake in ACI Worldwide by 414.3% during the fourth quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 66,887 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,046,000 after purchasing an additional 53,882 shares during the period. Reinhart Partners LLC. increased its stake in ACI Worldwide by 9.9% during the fourth quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 2,265,712 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $69,331,000 after purchasing an additional 203,348 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in ACI Worldwide by 0.9% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,592,421 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $58,485,000 after purchasing an additional 24,272 shares during the period. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its stake in ACI Worldwide by 28.5% during the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 21,334 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $481,000 after purchasing an additional 4,737 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.74% of the company’s stock.

ACI Worldwide Company Profile

ACI Worldwide, Inc, a software company, develops, markets, installs, and supports a range of software products and solutions for facilitating digital payments in the United States and internationally. The company operates in three segments: Banks, Merchants, and Billers. The company offers ACI Acquiring, a solution to process credit, debit, and prepaid card transactions, deliver digital innovation, and fraud prevention; ACI Issuing, a digital payment issuing solution for new payment offering; and ACI Enterprise Payments Platform that provides payment processing and orchestration capabilities for digital payments.