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

StockNews.com upgraded shares of ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Thursday morning.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Craig Hallum lifted their price objective on shares of ACI Worldwide from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on ACI Worldwide in a research note on Friday, March 8th. They set a buy rating and a $38.00 price target for the company. TheStreet raised ACI Worldwide from a c rating to a b- rating in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of ACI Worldwide in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a hold rating on shares of ACI Worldwide in a research report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, ACI Worldwide presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $40.00.

ACI Worldwide Stock Down 1.0 %

ACI Worldwide stock traded down $0.34 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $35.12. The stock had a trading volume of 596,346 shares, compared to its average volume of 596,626. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $32.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $29.29. ACI Worldwide has a 12 month low of $19.56 and a 12 month high of $36.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The company has a market capitalization of $3.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.46 and a beta of 1.20.

ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The technology company reported $1.27 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.17. ACI Worldwide had a return on equity of 17.31% and a net margin of 9.88%. The firm had revenue of $477.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $476.43 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.95 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that ACI Worldwide will post 1.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of ACI Worldwide

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ACIW. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in ACI Worldwide by 10.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,204,817 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $404,067,000 after purchasing an additional 1,228,384 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in ACI Worldwide during the fourth quarter valued at about $37,509,000. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado increased its holdings in ACI Worldwide by 9,610.9% during the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 907,098 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $27,757,000 after buying an additional 897,757 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in ACI Worldwide by 1,265.4% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 758,064 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $17,102,000 after acquiring an additional 702,546 shares during the period. Finally, North Reef Capital Management LP boosted its stake in ACI Worldwide by 26.3% in the third quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 2,845,000 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $64,183,000 after acquiring an additional 592,735 shares during the last quarter. 94.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.