ACI Worldwide missed estimates for the third quarter and reduced guidance for the near term, after the firm announced earnings results Thursday (Nov. 3). The firm said timing played a factor in missing estimates, as those renewals slipped beyond the quarter’s closing.
ACI Worldwide’s reported EPS of $0.04 missed The Street by $0.17. The revenues for the quarter that ended Sept. 30 came in just shy of $217 million, which was more than $29 million below The Street.
On a conference call with analysts, CEO Phil Heasley said that his firm has been seeing increasing interest in universal payments initiatives and also Software-as-a-Service. In the third quarter, new bookings came in at 9 percent growth. Management said that bookings in the SaaS bookings grew by 24 percent year over year.
Turning attention to the EMV rollout, Heasley said the focus for ACI has been mid-sized to large retailers. Management also said that the plan to bundle its payments services together has made it so that renewal negotiations are taking “longer than they have in the past and is impacting our forecast.” As a result, the guidance has been lowered, and this is simply a “timing issue” for the business, according to the firm. For the year, the top line should range from $960 million to $990 million, whereas previously that estimate had been $990 million to as much as $1 billion.
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