ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW) Stock Price Up 6.7% on Better-Than-Expected Earnings

ACI Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACIW)’s share price shot up 6.7% during mid-day trading on Thursday following a better than expected earnings announcement. The stock traded as high as $54.23 and last traded at $53.96. 163,751 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 73% from the average session volume of 598,101 shares. The stock had previously closed at $50.58.

The technology company reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.27. ACI Worldwide had a return on equity of 21.67% and a net margin of 14.04%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, DA Davidson downgraded ACI Worldwide from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $57.00 to $60.00 in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, ACI Worldwide presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.50.

Insider Activity

In other ACI Worldwide news, CTO Abraham Kuruvilla sold 5,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.71, for a total transaction of $300,834.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 81,107 shares in the company, valued at $4,518,470.97. This represents a 6.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of ACI Worldwide

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its holdings in shares of ACI Worldwide by 56.8% during the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 18,218 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $946,000 after purchasing an additional 6,602 shares during the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of ACI Worldwide by 86.5% during the third quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 19,724 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,004,000 after buying an additional 9,149 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in ACI Worldwide during the third quarter worth approximately $1,248,000. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of ACI Worldwide by 14.7% in the 3rd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 133,681 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,804,000 after acquiring an additional 17,105 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its position in ACI Worldwide by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,455,864 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $226,803,000 after acquiring an additional 56,919 shares during the period. 94.74% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

ACI Worldwide Stock Performance

The firm’s fifty day moving average is $52.62 and its 200 day moving average is $51.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.56 and a quick ratio of 1.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.71 and a beta of 1.20.

About ACI Worldwide

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.