ACI Worldwide ACIW shares rallied 5.6% in the last trading session to close at $49.26. This move can be attributable to notable volume with a higher number of shares being traded than in a typical session. This compares to the stock's 10.1% gain over the past four weeks.
ACI Worldwide increased 5.6%, driven by strong demand across its payments portfolio, continued execution of its long-term growth strategy and ongoing innovation initiatives. Management attributed the company's momentum to its focus on expanding relationships with existing customers, winning new clients and improving operational efficiency. The company also emphasized disciplined capital allocation, investment in growth initiatives and shareholder returns through share repurchases as key elements supporting its performance.
The Payment Software business benefited from robust demand for issuing, acquiring and real-time payment solutions. Real-time payments continued to see strong growth as rising transaction volumes increased contract values during customer renewals, with management expecting additional opportunities as adoption expands. The company also continued advancing its cloud-native ACI Kinetic platform by enhancing card payments, multi-rail clearing connectivity and fraud prevention capabilities. Management stated that Kinetic is strengthening customer confidence in ACI's long-term technology roadmap, supporting contract renewals, customer expansions and reinforcing its position as a long-term payments partner.
The Biller segment remained a key growth driver, supported by continued adoption of the Speedpay One platform, new customer wins and expansion within existing accounts. Annual recurring revenue bookings increased significantly in the first quarter 2026, led primarily by the Biller business, with new contracts across utilities, insurance and other verticals. Management highlighted that customers are increasingly consolidating onto modern digital payment platforms to improve customer experience, reduce operating costs and expand payment options. The company also stated continued investment in AI initiatives alongside its strategy of returning capital to shareholders through share repurchases.
This maker of software for electronic payments is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.49 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +40%. Revenues are expected to be $429.7 million, up 7.1% from the year-ago quarter.
Earnings and revenue growth expectations certainly give a good sense of the potential strength in a stock, but empirical research shows that trends in earnings estimate revisions are strongly correlated with near-term stock price movements.
For ACI Worldwide, the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. And a stock's price usually doesn't keep moving higher in the absence of any trend in earnings estimate revisions. So, make sure to keep an eye on ACIW going forward to see if this recent jump can turn into more strength down the road.
The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>
ACI Worldwide belongs to the Zacks Computer - Software industry. Another stock from the same industry, Blackbaud BLKB, closed the last trading session 10% higher at $29.23. Over the past month, BLKB has returned -12.6%.
Blackbaud's consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has remained unchanged over the past month at $1.23. Compared to the company's year-ago EPS, this represents a change of +1.7%. Blackbaud currently boasts a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).