Buy ACI Worldwide, hold onto Fair Isaac

Article Excerpt

ACI WORLDWIDE $29 (Nasdaq symbol ACIW; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (402-334-5101; www.tsainc.com; Shares outstanding: 33.9 million; Market cap: $967.4 million; No dividends paid) makes software used to process credit card, debit card, ATM, point-of-sale terminal and interbank payment transactions. ACI has more than 750 clients worldwide. Its customers include more than 100 of the world’s 500 largest banks and seven of the top 12 retailers in the U.S. In March 2011, ACI bought ICD Corp. for an undisclosed amount. ICD has over 140 customers who use its software to authorize credit- and debit-card transactions through over 70 different payment processors, including banks and credit card companies. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, ACI’s revenue rose 19.1%, to $104.5 million from $87.7 million a year earlier. The company earned $1.6 million, or $0.05 a share. That’s a big improvement over the $2.1 million, or $0.06 a share, that it lost a year earlier. ACI’s cash flow rose 9.4%, to 12.9 million, or…