Materialise (NASDAQ:MTLS – Get Free Report) and ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW – Get Free Report) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk and earnings.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Materialise and ACI Worldwide, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Materialise | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3.00 |
| ACI Worldwide | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 2.83 |
Materialise presently has a consensus target price of $9.50, suggesting a potential upside of 88.87%. ACI Worldwide has a consensus target price of $47.50, suggesting a potential downside of 5.62%. Given Materialise’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Materialise is more favorable than ACI Worldwide.
Valuation & Earnings
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Materialise | $257.86 million | 1.15 | $7.28 million | $0.12 | 41.92 |
| ACI Worldwide | $1.53 billion | 3.47 | $121.51 million | $1.34 | 37.56 |
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.
Profitability
This table compares Materialise and ACI Worldwide’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Materialise | 4.21% | 6.29% | 3.80% |
| ACI Worldwide | 12.01% | 19.18% | 7.22% |
Insider & Institutional Ownership
19.3% of Materialise shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.7% of ACI Worldwide shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.2% of Materialise shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of ACI Worldwide shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Risk & Volatility
Materialise has a beta of 1.13, indicating that its stock price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ACI Worldwide has a beta of 1.19, indicating that its stock price is 19% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
ACI Worldwide beats Materialise on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
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.
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.
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