SS&C Technologies (NASDAQ:SSNC) and ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW) Critical Comparison
by Mitch Edgeman · The Markets DailySS&C Technologies (NASDAQ:SSNC – Get Free Report) and ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW – Get Free Report) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, profitability and valuation.
Profitability
This table compares SS&C Technologies and ACI Worldwide’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| SS&C Technologies | 13.86% | 19.80% | 6.98% |
| ACI Worldwide | 15.07% | 18.97% | 8.75% |
Volatility & Risk
SS&C Technologies has a beta of 1.2, meaning that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ACI Worldwide has a beta of 1.09, meaning that its share price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for SS&C Technologies and ACI Worldwide, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| SS&C Technologies | 0 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 2.89 |
| ACI Worldwide | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2.60 |
SS&C Technologies presently has a consensus price target of $101.75, indicating a potential upside of 14.20%. ACI Worldwide has a consensus price target of $60.00, indicating a potential upside of 23.23%. Given ACI Worldwide’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe ACI Worldwide is more favorable than SS&C Technologies.
Institutional & Insider Ownership
96.9% of SS&C Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.7% of ACI Worldwide shares are owned by institutional investors. 16.4% of SS&C Technologies shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of ACI Worldwide shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Valuation and Earnings
This table compares SS&C Technologies and ACI Worldwide”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| SS&C Technologies | $5.88 billion | 3.70 | $760.50 million | $3.37 | 26.44 |
| ACI Worldwide | $1.59 billion | 3.15 | $203.12 million | $2.48 | 19.63 |
SS&C Technologies has higher revenue and earnings than ACI Worldwide. ACI Worldwide is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than SS&C Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
SS&C Technologies beats ACI Worldwide on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.
About SS&C Technologies
SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. engages in the development and provision of software solutions to the financial services and healthcare industries. It operates through the following geographical segments: United States, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific and Japan, Canada, and the Americas, excluding the United States and Canada. Its products include advent genesis, antares, asset allocators, AWD, axys, BANC mall, BRIX, DST vision, evare, lightning, and moxy. The company was founded by William Charles Stone in March 1986 and is headquartered in Windsor, CT.
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. It also provides ACI Low Value Real-Time Payments, a platform for processing real-time payments; and ACI High Value Real-Time Payments, a payments engine that offers multi-bank, multi-currency, 24×7 payment processing, and SWIFT messaging. In addition, the company offers ACI Payments Orchestration Platform for optimizing payments; omni-channel payment platform; ACI Fraud Management, a real-time approach to fraud management; and ACI Speedpay, an integrated suite of digital billing, payment, disbursement, and communication services. The company offers electronic bill presentment and payment services to consumer finance, insurance, healthcare, higher education, utility, government, telecommunications, and mortgage sectors; implementation services, include product installations and configurations, and custom software modifications; and business and technical consultancy, on-site support, product education, and testing services, as well as distributes or acts as a sales agent for software developed by third parties. It markets its products under the ACI Worldwide brand. The company was formerly known as Transaction Systems Architects, Inc. and changed its name to ACI Worldwide, Inc. in July 2007. The company was founded in 1975 and is based in Elkhorn, Nebraska.