Hold off on these niche leaders for now

Article Excerpt

ACI WORLDWIDE $22.54 (Nasdaq symbol ACIW; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (402-390-7600; www.tsainc.com; Shares outstanding: 117.8 million; Market cap: $2.7 billion; No dividends paid) makes software for processing transactions involving credit cards, debit cards, automated teller machines, point-of-sale terminals and interbank payments. The company’s products also help cut fraud. In the three months ended June 30, 2015, ACI’s revenue rose 4.3% to $265.8 million from $254.8 million a year earlier. Earnings jumped to $30.0 million, or $0.26 a share, from $14.0 million, or $0.12. Cost cuts were the main reason for the higher profits. ACI is benefiting from the introduction of technology for the shift to chip-and-PIN debit and credit cards, which sped up with the EMV (EuroPay, Master- Card and VISA) payment networks’ liability shift, which came into effect in the U.S. on October 1, 2015. Card-related fraud is the main reason for the change. Despite law-enforcement agencies’ efforts, card fraud keeps rising, costing about $8.6 billion a year in the…