Watershed Asset Management L.L.C. Buys New Stake in ACI Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACIW)

Watershed Asset Management L.L.C. bought a new stake in ACI Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACIW) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 9,687 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $296,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in ACI Worldwide by 3.4% in the 3rd 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. North Reef Capital Management LP grew its stake in ACI Worldwide by 26.3% in the 3rd quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 2,845,000 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $64,183,000 after buying an additional 592,735 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in ACI Worldwide by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,592,421 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $58,485,000 after buying an additional 24,272 shares during the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. grew its stake in ACI Worldwide by 9.9% in the 4th quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 2,265,712 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $69,331,000 after buying an additional 203,348 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in ACI Worldwide by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,905,301 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $42,984,000 after buying an additional 8,634 shares during the last quarter. 94.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on ACIW shares. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of ACI Worldwide in a research note on Friday, March 8th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $38.00 target price on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of ACI Worldwide in a research report on Friday, March 15th. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and issued a $39.00 price target on shares of ACI Worldwide in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, TheStreet upgraded 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 four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, ACI Worldwide has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $39.00.

ACI Worldwide Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ACIW traded up $1.21 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $33.46. 660,214 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 580,669. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $31.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $28.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.56 billion, a PE ratio of 30.14 and a beta of 1.24. ACI Worldwide, Inc. has a 12 month low of $19.56 and a 12 month high of $33.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.36.

ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The technology company reported $1.27 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $477.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $476.43 million. ACI Worldwide had a net margin of 8.37% and a return on equity of 16.30%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.95 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that ACI Worldwide, Inc. will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ACI Worldwide 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.