Head-To-Head Analysis: Paycor HCM (NASDAQ:PYCR) & ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW)

ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW) and Paycor HCM (NASDAQ:PYCR) are both mid-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares ACI Worldwide and Paycor HCM’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ACI Worldwide	12.01%	19.18%	7.22%
Paycor HCM	-9.00%	2.98%	1.41%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares ACI Worldwide and Paycor HCM”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ACI Worldwide	$1.45 billion	3.62	$121.51 million	$1.34	37.49
Paycor HCM	$654.95 million	3.83	-$58.94 million	($0.41)	-34.24

ACI Worldwide has higher revenue and earnings than Paycor HCM. Paycor HCM is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than ACI Worldwide, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for ACI Worldwide and Paycor HCM, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ACI Worldwide	0	1	5	0	2.83
Paycor HCM	0	8	7	0	2.47

ACI Worldwide presently has a consensus target price of $47.50, indicating a potential downside of 5.43%. Paycor HCM has a consensus target price of $19.40, indicating a potential upside of 38.18%. Given Paycor HCM’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Paycor HCM is more favorable than ACI Worldwide.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

94.7% of ACI Worldwide shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 36.8% of Paycor HCM shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of ACI Worldwide shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Paycor HCM shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

ACI Worldwide has a beta of 1.19, indicating that its stock price is 19% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Paycor HCM has a beta of 0.44, indicating that its stock price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

ACI Worldwide beats Paycor HCM on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Paycor HCM

Paycor HCM, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides software-as-a-service (SaaS) human capital management (HCM) solutions for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) primarily in the United States. It offers cloud-native platform to address the comprehensive people management needs of SMB leaders. The company's SaaS based people management products include Cor HCM, a complete suite of HCM tools spanning HR, onboarding, payroll, compensation management, employee surveys, expenses, and reporting and analytics; Workforce Management, a solution with flexible time entry, overtime calculations, and scheduling capabilities with real-time payroll synchronization; Benefits Administration, a decision support solution to help leaders to streamline and optimize company's benefits administration; and Talent Management, an integrated compensation and performance management solution. It serves manufacturing, healthcare, restaurant, retail, professional services, nonprofit, and education industries through its direct sales teams. Paycor HCM, Inc. was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.