Reviewing Materialise (NASDAQ:MTLS) and ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW)

ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW) and Materialise (NASDAQ:MTLS) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, dividends, profitability and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for ACI Worldwide and Materialise, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ACI Worldwide	0	1	5	0	2.83
Materialise	0	0	1	0	3.00

ACI Worldwide presently has a consensus price target of $47.50, indicating a potential downside of 5.43%. Materialise has a consensus price target of $9.50, indicating a potential upside of 77.90%. Given Materialise’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Materialise is more favorable than ACI Worldwide.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

94.7% of ACI Worldwide shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 19.3% of Materialise shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of ACI Worldwide shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of Materialise shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares ACI Worldwide and Materialise”s top-line 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
Materialise	$257.86 million	1.22	$7.28 million	$0.12	44.50

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

Risk and Volatility

ACI Worldwide has a beta of 1.19, meaning that its stock price is 19% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Materialise has a beta of 1.13, meaning that its stock price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares ACI Worldwide and Materialise’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%
Materialise	4.21%	6.29%	3.80%

Summary

ACI Worldwide beats Materialise on 10 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 Materialise

Materialise NV provides additive manufacturing and medical software, and 3D printing services in the Americas, Europe and Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The company operates through three segments: Materialise Software, Materialise Medical, and Materialise Manufacturing. The Materialise Software segment offers software through programs and platforms that enable and enhance the functionality of 3D printers and of 3D printing operations. Its software interfaces between various types of 3D printers; and various software applications and capturing technologies, including computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing packages and 3D scanners. This segment serves 3D printing machine manufacturers; production companies and contract manufacturers in automotive, aerospace, consumer goods, and hearing aid industries; and 3D printing service bureaus through its sales force, Website, and third party distributors. The Materialise Medical segment provides medical software that allows medical-image based analysis, planning, and engineering, as well as patient-specific design and printing of surgical devices and implants. It serves medical device companies, hospitals, universities, research institutes, and industrial companies through its direct sales force, Website, and picture archiving and communication system. The Materialise Manufacturing segment provides 3D printing services, design and engineering services, and rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing of production parts to industrial and commercial customers. The company has collaboration agreements with Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc.; Encore Medical, L.P.; DePuy Synthes Companies of Johnson & Johnson; Limacorporate Spa; Mathys AG; Corin Ltd; Smith & Nephew Inc.; Corin Ltd; Medtronic Inc.; and Abbott Laboratories Inc. Materialise NV was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium.