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Earnings documents stored for ACIW.
Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-06ACI Worldwide Q2 Earnings Call Highlights
MarketBeat
ACI Worldwide Q2 Earnings Call Highlights
Interested in ACI Worldwide, Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. ACI Worldwide reported solid Q2 growth: Revenue rose 7% to $430 million, net income increased to $32 million, and adjusted EPS jumped 54% to $0.54. Adjusted EBITDA grew 12% to $91 million, expanding the margin to 34%. Payment Software led performance, with revenue up 9% and issuing and acquiring revenue up 37%, while cloud-native ACI Connetic gained its first U.S. customers. The company also cited AI initiatives that reduced payment-mandate analysis to hours and saved more than 6,000 engineering hours. ACI raised its 2026 outlook for revenue to $1.895 billion-$1.925 billion and adjusted EBITDA to $545 million-$560 million. The company continued share buybacks, repurchasing about $41 million of stock in Q2 and $107 million year to date. Why Q2 Holdings Stock Could Be Your Next Big Buy ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW) reported second-quarter 2026 revenue growth of 7% and raised its full-year outlook, citing momentum in its Payment Software business, continued adoption of its cloud-native platforms and expanding customer modernization demand. Second-quarter revenue totaled $430 million, up 7% from a year earlier on a reported basis and 6% in constant currency. Net income rose to $32 million from $12 million in the prior-year quarter. Adjusted diluted earnings per share increased 54% to $0.54, while adjusted EBITDA rose 12% to $91 million. Net adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 34% from 32% a year earlier. → 3 Drone Stocks That Should Soar After the Summer Slump 3 Fintech Stocks With Good 2021 Prospects President and CEO Thomas Warsop said the company’s margin improvement reflected expense discipline alongside continued investment in innovation. Research and development spending increased 17% during the quarter, according to CFO Robert Leibrock. ACI’s Payment Software segment generated $196 million in second-quarter revenue, up 9% reported and 7% in constant currency. Segment adjusted EBITDA increased 12% to $94 million, producing a 48% net adjusted EBITDA margin. → Meta’s Earnings Drop Shows Wall Street Wants More Than Ad Growth The segment was supported by strength in issuing and acquiring, where revenue increased 37% on a reported basis, or 33% in constant currency. Leibrock attributed the growth to large expansions with renewing customers. Warsop said the performance was broad-based, includin…Read full documentShow less
Interested in ACI Worldwide, Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. ACI Worldwide reported solid Q2 growth: Revenue rose 7% to $430 million, net income increased to $32 million, and adjusted EPS jumped 54% to $0.54. Adjusted EBITDA grew 12% to $91 million, expanding the margin to 34%. Payment Software led performance, with revenue up 9% and issuing and acquiring revenue up 37%, while cloud-native ACI Connetic gained its first U.S. customers. The company also cited AI initiatives that reduced payment-mandate analysis to hours and saved more than 6,000 engineering hours. ACI raised its 2026 outlook for revenue to $1.895 billion-$1.925 billion and adjusted EBITDA to $545 million-$560 million. The company continued share buybacks, repurchasing about $41 million of stock in Q2 and $107 million year to date. Why Q2 Holdings Stock Could Be Your Next Big Buy ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW) reported second-quarter 2026 revenue growth of 7% and raised its full-year outlook, citing momentum in its Payment Software business, continued adoption of its cloud-native platforms and expanding customer modernization demand. Second-quarter revenue totaled $430 million, up 7% from a year earlier on a reported basis and 6% in constant currency. Net income rose to $32 million from $12 million in the prior-year quarter. Adjusted diluted earnings per share increased 54% to $0.54, while adjusted EBITDA rose 12% to $91 million. Net adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 34% from 32% a year earlier. → 3 Drone Stocks That Should Soar After the Summer Slump 3 Fintech Stocks With Good 2021 Prospects President and CEO Thomas Warsop said the company’s margin improvement reflected expense discipline alongside continued investment in innovation. Research and development spending increased 17% during the quarter, according to CFO Robert Leibrock. ACI’s Payment Software segment generated $196 million in second-quarter revenue, up 9% reported and 7% in constant currency. Segment adjusted EBITDA increased 12% to $94 million, producing a 48% net adjusted EBITDA margin. → Meta’s Earnings Drop Shows Wall Street Wants More Than Ad Growth The segment was supported by strength in issuing and acquiring, where revenue increased 37% on a reported basis, or 33% in constant currency. Leibrock attributed the growth to large expansions with renewing customers. Warsop said the performance was broad-based, including transaction-volume growth, pricing on renewals, new product launches and cross-selling of value-added services. Merchant and anti-fraud solutions each grew in the mid-single digits. Real-time payments revenue declined from the prior-year period because the number of renewal and expansion opportunities was lower, though the company said retention and expansion performance remained strong. ACI expects real-time payments to contribute to growth for the full year. → Jersey Mike's Serves Fresh Gains After IPO Stumble Warsop said payments customers are increasingly focused on modernizing infrastructure as they manage more payment types and rails, rising real-time payment adoption, fraud risks and regulatory requirements. He said those conversations have shifted from selling individual software products to helping financial institutions and merchants update their broader payments environments. The company signed its first U.S.-based ACI Connetic customer during the second quarter and signed another shortly after the quarter ended. Warsop said the first customer was an existing ACI customer that will convert from an existing solution to Connetic in the coming months. ACI Connetic is a cloud-native platform designed to connect payment types and support payment intelligence and orchestration. Warsop said its pipeline is the company’s fastest-growing solution set and has been for several quarters. All Connetic signings to date have been software-as-a-service arrangements, Leibrock said. In the United States, initial Connetic use cases are concentrated around account-to-account payments, including real-time payments, high-value wire transfers and SWIFT payments, according to Warsop. The platform is enabled across eight sets of U.S. payment rails, he said. ACI also highlighted artificial intelligence applications across its operations and products. Warsop said an AI mandate analyzer has reduced the time required to interpret payment-scheme mandates from two to three weeks to minutes or hours. In the Biller business, AI-supported re-architecture work on a common product reduced effort by about 50% and saved more than 6,000 engineering hours, he said. The company has also deployed AI-powered routing and scoring capabilities in Connetic and tools intended to simplify API deployment and customer implementations for its ACI Speedpay ONE platform. Biller segment revenue increased 5% to $234 million. The business faced difficult comparisons with unusually strong prior-year transaction volumes and certain prior-year credits that did not recur. Results also included a one-time charge related to a partnership that has been terminated and is not expected to recur. Leibrock said the one-time charge was included in adjusted EBITDA rather than excluded as an adjustment. He said it represented less than half of the segment’s year-over-year EBITDA contraction, with the remainder tied to seasonality, revenue mix and prior-year comparison items. Despite those factors, management said customer demand remained healthy. ACI has more than 100 customers live on the Speedpay ONE platform and continues to add customers and expand relationships with existing clients. During the quarter, Biller signed two new customer logos, while 80% of bookings represented expansions by existing customers, Leibrock said. The company expects upper-single-digit revenue growth in Biller for the full year and expects net revenue growth to more closely track gross revenue growth during the remainder of 2026. For the first half, ACI reported revenue of $956 million, up 8% on a reported basis, and adjusted EBITDA of $196 million, up 12%. Year-to-date operating cash flow was $135 million. ACI raised its full-year revenue outlook to a range of $1.895 billion to $1.925 billion, from prior guidance of $1.89 billion to $1.92 billion. The company increased expected adjusted EBITDA to $545 million to $560 million, from $540 million to $555 million previously. Management expects approximately 40% of second-half revenue in the third quarter and 60% in the fourth quarter, primarily because of the timing of high-margin Payment Software license renewals. The company forecast third-quarter revenue of $417 million to $427 million and adjusted EBITDA of $90 million to $95 million. ACI repurchased approximately 948,000 shares for $41 million during the second quarter, bringing year-to-date repurchases to about 2.5 million shares for $107 million. The company ended the quarter with $167 million in cash, a net leverage ratio of 1.2 times adjusted EBITDA and approximately $349 million remaining under its repurchase authorization. ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW) is a global software company that provides electronic payment and banking solutions to financial institutions, merchants and billers. The company's platforms enable real-time processing of credit, debit, ACH, bill payments, faster payments and money transfers, as well as integrated fraud prevention services. Headquartered in Naples, Florida, ACI serves clients across banking, payments and commerce sectors worldwide. ACI's modular suite of applications can be deployed on-premise, in the cloud or in hybrid environments to meet diverse operational needs. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. The article "ACI Worldwide Q2 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for August 2026.
Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-06ACI Worldwide: Q2 Earnings Snapshot
Associated Press
ACI Worldwide: Q2 Earnings Snapshot
ELKHORN, Neb. (AP) — ELKHORN, Neb. (AP) — ACI Worldwide Inc. (ACIW) on Thursday reported second-quarter net income of $31.8 million. On a per-share basis, the Elkhorn, Nebraska-based company said it had profit of 31 cents. Earnings, adjusted for stock option expense and amortization costs, came to 54 cents per share. The maker of software for electronic payments posted revenue of $430.4 million in the period. ACI Worldwide expects full-year revenue in the range of $1.9 billion to $1.93 billion. ACI Worldwide shares have climbed 21% since the beginning of the year. The stock has risen 39% in the last 12 months. _____ This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on ACIW at https://www.zacks.com/ap/ACIW
Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-06ACI Worldwide (ACIW) Q2 Earnings and Revenues Beat Estimates
Zacks
ACI Worldwide (ACIW) Q2 Earnings and Revenues Beat Estimates
ACI Worldwide (ACIW) came out with quarterly earnings of $0.54 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.51 per share. This compares to earnings of $0.35 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of +5.88%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this maker of software for electronic payments would post earnings of $0.45 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.61, delivering a surprise of +35.56%. Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates three times. ACI Worldwide, which belongs to the Zacks Computer - Software industry, posted revenues of $430.42 million for the quarter ended June 2026, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.17%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $401.26 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates four times over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. ACI Worldwide shares have added about 20.9% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 12.8%. While ACI Worldwide has outperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for ACI Worldwide was favorable. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to outperform the market in the near future. You can see the complete list o…Read full documentShow less
ACI Worldwide (ACIW) came out with quarterly earnings of $0.54 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.51 per share. This compares to earnings of $0.35 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of +5.88%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this maker of software for electronic payments would post earnings of $0.45 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.61, delivering a surprise of +35.56%. Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates three times. ACI Worldwide, which belongs to the Zacks Computer - Software industry, posted revenues of $430.42 million for the quarter ended June 2026, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.17%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $401.26 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates four times over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. ACI Worldwide shares have added about 20.9% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 12.8%. While ACI Worldwide has outperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for ACI Worldwide was favorable. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to outperform the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and the current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $0.92 on $417.9 million in revenues for the coming quarter and $3.46 on $1.9 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year. Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Computer - Software is currently in the top 35% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1. Another stock from the same industry, Intuit (INTU), has yet to report results for the quarter ended July 2026. The results are expected to be released on August 25. This maker of TurboTax, QuickBooks and other accounting software is expected to post quarterly earnings of $3.59 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +30.6%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been revised 0.2% higher over the last 30 days to the current level. Intuit's revenues are expected to be $4.27 billion, up 11.5% from the year-ago quarter. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report ACI Worldwide, Inc. (ACIW) : Free Stock Analysis Report Intuit Inc. (INTU) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research
Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-06ACI Worldwide Inc (ACIW) (Q2 2026) Earnings Call Highlights: Strong Growth and Raised Guidance ...
GuruFocus.com
ACI Worldwide Inc (ACIW) (Q2 2026) Earnings Call Highlights: Strong Growth and Raised Guidance ...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Revenue: $430 million in Q2 2026, up 7% on a reported basis and 6% in constant currency. Net Income: $32 million, compared to $12 million in the prior year. Adjusted Diluted EPS: $0.54, up 54% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA: $91 million, up 12% on a reported basis and 9% in constant currency; margin expanded to 34% from 32%. Payment Software Segment Revenue: $196 million, up 9% on a reported basis and 7% in constant currency; issuing and acquiring grew 33% in constant currency. Biller Segment Revenue: $234 million, up 5% on both a reported and constant currency basis. Net New ARR Bookings: $18 million during the quarter. New License and Services Bookings: $59 million. Operating Cash Flow: $135 million year-to-date. Share Repurchases: Approximately 948,000 shares for $41 million in Q2; 2.5 million shares for $107 million year-to-date. Full-Year 2026 Revenue Guidance: Raised to $1.895 billion to $1.925 billion. Full-Year 2026 Adjusted EBITDA Guidance: Raised to $545 million to $560 million. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 5 Warning Sign with VSEC. Is ACIW fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Release Date: August 06, 2026 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. ACI Worldwide Inc (NASDAQ:ACIW) reported strong Q2 2026 results with 7% revenue growth, 12% adjusted EBITDA growth, and 54% adjusted diluted EPS growth, leading to another raise in full-year guidance. The company signed its first US-based Kinetic customer in Q2 and a second shortly after, validating its cloud-native payments modernization strategy and expanding its pipeline. AI integration is delivering tangible benefits, including reducing payment scheme mandate interpretation time from 2-3 weeks to minutes/hours and saving over 6,000 hours of engineering time in product rearchitecture. Payment software segment revenue grew 9% in Q2, driven by a 37% increase in issuing and acquiring revenue, reflecting strong customer expansions and renewals. The company maintains a strong balance sheet with net leverage of 1.2x adjusted EBITDA and continues to return capital to shareholders, repurchasing $107 million year-to-date. Biller segment shows healthy underlying demand with over 100 customers live on Speedpay1, and management expects upper single-digit revenue growth for the full year…Read full documentShow less
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Revenue: $430 million in Q2 2026, up 7% on a reported basis and 6% in constant currency. Net Income: $32 million, compared to $12 million in the prior year. Adjusted Diluted EPS: $0.54, up 54% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA: $91 million, up 12% on a reported basis and 9% in constant currency; margin expanded to 34% from 32%. Payment Software Segment Revenue: $196 million, up 9% on a reported basis and 7% in constant currency; issuing and acquiring grew 33% in constant currency. Biller Segment Revenue: $234 million, up 5% on both a reported and constant currency basis. Net New ARR Bookings: $18 million during the quarter. New License and Services Bookings: $59 million. Operating Cash Flow: $135 million year-to-date. Share Repurchases: Approximately 948,000 shares for $41 million in Q2; 2.5 million shares for $107 million year-to-date. Full-Year 2026 Revenue Guidance: Raised to $1.895 billion to $1.925 billion. Full-Year 2026 Adjusted EBITDA Guidance: Raised to $545 million to $560 million. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 5 Warning Sign with VSEC. Is ACIW fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Release Date: August 06, 2026 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. ACI Worldwide Inc (NASDAQ:ACIW) reported strong Q2 2026 results with 7% revenue growth, 12% adjusted EBITDA growth, and 54% adjusted diluted EPS growth, leading to another raise in full-year guidance. The company signed its first US-based Kinetic customer in Q2 and a second shortly after, validating its cloud-native payments modernization strategy and expanding its pipeline. AI integration is delivering tangible benefits, including reducing payment scheme mandate interpretation time from 2-3 weeks to minutes/hours and saving over 6,000 hours of engineering time in product rearchitecture. Payment software segment revenue grew 9% in Q2, driven by a 37% increase in issuing and acquiring revenue, reflecting strong customer expansions and renewals. The company maintains a strong balance sheet with net leverage of 1.2x adjusted EBITDA and continues to return capital to shareholders, repurchasing $107 million year-to-date. Biller segment shows healthy underlying demand with over 100 customers live on Speedpay1, and management expects upper single-digit revenue growth for the full year. Management raised full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $1.895-$1.925 billion and adjusted EBITDA to $545-$560 million, reflecting confidence in the pipeline and second-half performance. Biller segment revenue growth was only 5% in Q2, impacted by difficult year-over-year comparisons and non-recurring margin benefits from the prior year. Biller adjusted EBITDA declined year-over-year due to prior year comparison items and a one-time charge related to a terminated partnership, which was not excluded from adjusted EBITDA. Real-time payments revenue declined in Q2 due to fewer renewal and expansion opportunities compared to the prior year, though retention remains strong. Net new ARR bookings were $18 million in Q2, down from a particularly strong prior year period that benefited from several large payment software contract signings. The company expects a 40/60 revenue split between Q3 and Q4, with Q3 revenue guidance of $417-$427 million and adjusted EBITDA of $90-$95 million, indicating a back-half-loaded year. Management declined to comment on recent speculation about potential divestitures or acquisitions, creating uncertainty for investors regarding strategic direction. The company's M&A strategy remains opportunistic, but valuations for potential acquisitions are noted as more attractive, suggesting possible capital deployment risks. Q: Can you provide more detail on the Q3 and Q4 guidance cadence, which is expected to be a 40%/60% split this year, and confirm whether this was anticipated?A: CFO Robert Leibrock confirmed the 40/60 split was previously flagged last quarter and is driven by the timing of high-margin payment software license renewals, which skew revenue and EBITDA toward Q4. He emphasized that ~95% of ACI's revenue is recurring on a 5-year contract basis, providing strong visibility. CEO Thomas Warsop added that the shift from the recent 50/50 split is entirely due to renewal dates, which are booked under US GAAP on the renewal date, and the company has excellent visibility into this timing. Q: Can you tell us about the first US-based Kinetic customer signing, whether it was an existing or new customer, and the current state of the Kinetic pipeline?A: CEO Thomas Warsop revealed the Q2 signing was an existing customer that will convert from a legacy solution to Kinetic in the coming months. He noted the Kinetic pipeline is the fastest-growing solution set for the company, having been so for several quarters. CFO Robert Leibrock added that all Kinetic signings to date have been SaaS-based, validating the cloud-native platform, and highlighted progress with Solaris, which is expected to go live in the second half of the year. Q: Given recent market speculation, can you discuss your approach to M&A and provide an update on the potential sale of the Biller segment?A: CEO Thomas Warsop stated the company constantly evaluates strategic actionsincluding acquisitions, divestitures, and partnershipsto drive shareholder value, but declined to comment on specific rumors. CFO Robert Leibrock highlighted the health of the Biller business, noting strong year-to-date ARR bookings, including two new logos in Q2 and 80% of bookings coming from healthy expansions where customers are doubling or tripling their relationships. He reiterated expectations for high single-digit growth in the segment for the year. Q: How is the perception of ACI changing with the Kinetic platform, and can it attract non-customers to adopt other ACI solutions?A: CEO Thomas Warsop explained that Kinetic has fundamentally changed customer dialogues, shifting from selling a piece of software to helping customers modernize their entire payment infrastructure. He noted ACI is now more frequently viewed as a current innovator rather than a legacy software provider. CFO Robert Leibrock added that this momentum is contagious across the business, improving talent attraction and customer responsiveness, and cited a 15-point increase in net promoter score for Speedpay as evidence of the improved perception. Q: Can you provide more detail on the strength in issuing and acquiring, which grew 33% in constant currency?A: CFO Robert Leibrock attributed the strength to durable mid-single-digit retention rates and significant lift from real-time payments demand on a multi-year basis. He emphasized ACI's agnostic strategy, which allows the company to orchestrate across various payment typescards, debit, real-time payments, or digital assetsprotecting revenue regardless of payment rail shifts. CEO Thomas Warsop added that the growth was broad-based, driven by volume growth, pricing power exercised on renewals, and new value-added product launches and cross-selling. Q: What are the primary use cases for Kinetic in the US market?A: CEO Thomas Warsop stated that initial US use cases are largely concentrated around account-to-account payments, including real-time payments and high-value wire transfers. He noted broad-based interest across payment types, including cards, but the initial wins are focused on account-to-account capabilities. Q: Can you confirm whether the one-time charge related to a terminated partnership in the Biller segment was included in the adjusted EBITDA add-back?A: CFO Robert Leibrock clarified that the charge flowed through as an operational item within adjusted EBITDA and was not excluded as a one-time add-back. He estimated the charge represented less than half of the contraction in Biller EBITDA, with the remainder driven by revenue seasonality and prior-year comparison items. Q: How is AI impacting ACI's operations and product offerings?A: CEO Thomas Warsop provided several examples: AI mandate analyzers have reduced payment scheme interpretation time from 2-3 weeks to minutes or hours, creating incremental engineering capacity; AI-supported rearchitecture work has reduced effort by ~50%, saving over 6,000 engineering hours; and a retrofit agent team automates up to 85% of previously manual processes. He also highlighted AI-powered capabilities in Kinetic, including dynamic context-dependent intelligent routing and scoring for fraud detection, and in Speedpay1, which simplifies API deployment for customers. Q: What drove the decision to raise full-year 2026 guidance, and what are the updated expectations?A: CFO Robert Leibrock announced revenue guidance was raised to $1.895 billion to $1.925 billion (from $1.89 billion to $1.92 billion) and adjusted EBITDA to $545 million to $560 million (from $540 million to $555 million). The increase reflects strong first-half performance and confidence in the pipeline. He also provided Q3 guidance of $417 million to $427 million in revenue and $90 million to $95 million in adjusted EBITDA, consistent with the 40/60 revenue weighting between Q3 and Q4. Q: Can you elaborate on the bookings performance and the health of the Biller segment?A: CFO Robert Leibrock noted net new ARR bookings were $18 million in Q2, with new license and services bookings of $59 million, against a strong prior-year comparison. He highlighted that year-to-date Biller bookings are strong, with Q1 featuring 3 new logos and Q2 adding 2 more, while 80% of bookings were expansions. He reiterated confidence in upper single-digit Biller revenue growth for the full year, with acceleration expected in the second half. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.
Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-06ACI Worldwide Q2 Adjusted Earnings, Revenue Rise; Raises 2026 Revenue Guidance
MT Newswires
ACI Worldwide Q2 Adjusted Earnings, Revenue Rise; Raises 2026 Revenue Guidance
ACI Worldwide (ACIW) reported Q2 adjusted earnings Thursday of $0.54 per diluted share, up from $0.3
Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-06ACI Worldwide Reports Strong Second Quarter 2026 Results and Raises Full-Year Guidance
Business Wire
ACI Worldwide Reports Strong Second Quarter 2026 Results and Raises Full-Year Guidance
HIGHLIGHTS Q2 revenue of $430 million, increased 7% (6% in constant currency) Q2 GAAP net income of $32 million and adjusted EBITDA of $91 million, increased 12% (9% in constant currency) Q2 GAAP diluted EPS of $0.31 and adjusted diluted EPS of $0.54, increased 54% Successfully enabled ACI Connetic across eight major U.S. payment networks and signed two U.S. customers 2.5 million shares repurchased YTD for $107 million Raising full year 2026 financial guidance for revenue & adjusted EBITDA OMAHA, Neb., August 06, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW), a leading provider of global payments technology, today announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026 and increased financial guidance for full-year 2026. "Signing two U.S.-based customers for ACI Connetic is a significant milestone and validates both the strength of our cloud-native payments platform and the growing demand for payments modernization in the world's largest banking market," said Thomas Warsop, President and CEO of ACI Worldwide. "In the second quarter, we delivered 7% revenue growth, expanded EBITDA margins and continued to execute our balanced capital allocation strategy. We continued to invest in ACI Connetic to support long-term organic growth and, at the same time, returned capital to shareholders through share repurchases. As a result of our strong first-half performance, we are increasing our full-year revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance. We enter the second half of 2026 with strong momentum, a healthy pipeline and confidence in our ability to create long-term shareholder value." Q2 2026 FINANCIAL SUMMARY In Q2 2026, total revenue was $430 million, up 7% from Q2 2025, or up 6% on a constant currency basis. Recurring revenue was $336 million, up 5% from Q2 2025, or up 4% on a constant currency basis. Net income of $32 million in Q2 2026 compares to net income of $12 million in Q2 2025. Total adjusted EBITDA in Q2 2026 was $91 million, up 12% from Q2 2025, or up 9% on a constant currency basis. Net adjusted EBITDA margin in Q2 2026 was 34%, up from 32% in Q2 2025. GAAP diluted EPS in Q2 2026 was $0.31 and adjusted diluted EPS was $0.54, up 54% from Q2 2025. PAYMENT SOFTWARE SEGMENT RESULTS Payment Software revenue in Q2 2026 was $196 million, up 9% from Q2 2025, or up 7% on a constant currency basis. The segment saw particular strength from Issuing and…Read full documentShow less
HIGHLIGHTS Q2 revenue of $430 million, increased 7% (6% in constant currency) Q2 GAAP net income of $32 million and adjusted EBITDA of $91 million, increased 12% (9% in constant currency) Q2 GAAP diluted EPS of $0.31 and adjusted diluted EPS of $0.54, increased 54% Successfully enabled ACI Connetic across eight major U.S. payment networks and signed two U.S. customers 2.5 million shares repurchased YTD for $107 million Raising full year 2026 financial guidance for revenue & adjusted EBITDA OMAHA, Neb., August 06, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW), a leading provider of global payments technology, today announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026 and increased financial guidance for full-year 2026. "Signing two U.S.-based customers for ACI Connetic is a significant milestone and validates both the strength of our cloud-native payments platform and the growing demand for payments modernization in the world's largest banking market," said Thomas Warsop, President and CEO of ACI Worldwide. "In the second quarter, we delivered 7% revenue growth, expanded EBITDA margins and continued to execute our balanced capital allocation strategy. We continued to invest in ACI Connetic to support long-term organic growth and, at the same time, returned capital to shareholders through share repurchases. As a result of our strong first-half performance, we are increasing our full-year revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance. We enter the second half of 2026 with strong momentum, a healthy pipeline and confidence in our ability to create long-term shareholder value." Q2 2026 FINANCIAL SUMMARY In Q2 2026, total revenue was $430 million, up 7% from Q2 2025, or up 6% on a constant currency basis. Recurring revenue was $336 million, up 5% from Q2 2025, or up 4% on a constant currency basis. Net income of $32 million in Q2 2026 compares to net income of $12 million in Q2 2025. Total adjusted EBITDA in Q2 2026 was $91 million, up 12% from Q2 2025, or up 9% on a constant currency basis. Net adjusted EBITDA margin in Q2 2026 was 34%, up from 32% in Q2 2025. GAAP diluted EPS in Q2 2026 was $0.31 and adjusted diluted EPS was $0.54, up 54% from Q2 2025. PAYMENT SOFTWARE SEGMENT RESULTS Payment Software revenue in Q2 2026 was $196 million, up 9% from Q2 2025, or up 7% on a constant currency basis. The segment saw particular strength from Issuing and Acquiring revenue, which increased 33% on a constant currency basis versus Q2 2025, driven by large expansions with renewing customers. Payments Intelligence and Merchant Payments revenue each increased 3% on a constant currency basis in the quarter. Real-Time Payments revenue was $23 million, down from last year due to renewal timing. Recurring revenue in the segment, which represents SaaS and Maintenance revenues, increased 3%, versus Q2 2025, or 2% on a constant currency basis. Payment Software adjusted EBITDA in Q2 2026 was $94 million, up 12%, or up 9% on a constant currency basis from Q2 2025 driven by operating leverage and disciplined expense management, partially offset by ongoing growth investments. As a result, net adjusted EBITDA margin in Q2 2026 was 48%, up from 46% in Q2 2025. BILLER SEGMENT RESULTS Biller revenue in Q2 2026 was $234 million, up 5% from Q2 2025 on a reported and constant currency basis. Biller revenue, net of interchange fees, was $68 million, down 3%, from Q2 2025, driven by a strong comparison with significant new onboarding and transactions in the same period last year, as previously discussed. Based on new business wins and current transactions trends, the company’s expectation for full-year 2026 Biller revenue growth in the high single digits remains unchanged. Biller adjusted EBITDA in Q2 2026 was $35 million, down 13%, from Q2 2025. Net adjusted EBITDA margin, net of interchange fees, was 51%, down from 56% in Q2 2025. Results in the current period reflected lower net revenue compared to the strong prior-year, the impact of certain discrete operating expenses and continued investments in Speedpay ONE. YEAR-TO-DATE 2026 FINANCIAL SUMMARY Year-to-date 2026 total revenue was $856 million, up 8% from year-to-date 2025, or up 6% on a constant currency basis. Recurring revenue was $649 million, up 7% from year-to-date 2025, or up 6% on a constant currency basis. Year-to-date 2026 net income of $70 million compares to net income of $71 million for year-to-date 2025, which included a $22 million after-tax gain on the sale of our minority interest in Mindgate. GAAP diluted EPS for year-to-date 2026 was $0.69 and adjusted diluted EPS was $1.16, up 35% from year-to-date 2025. Total adjusted EBITDA for year-to-date 2026 was $196 million, up 12% from year-to-date 2025, or up 8% on a constant currency basis. Net adjusted EBITDA margin for year-to-date 2026 was 36%, up from 34% in year-to-date 2025. NEW BOOKINGS Net new ARR bookings in Q2 2026 were $18 million, down 25%, from Q2 2025, as strength in Biller segment ARR growth was offset by the timing of expected Payment Software contracts. New license and services bookings were $59 million in Q2 2026, up 2% from Q2 2025. Net new ARR bookings for the trailing twelve months ended June 30, 2026 were $68 million, down 15% from 2025. New license and services bookings for the trailing twelve months ended June 30, 2026 were $255 million down 12% from 2025. The company expects full year 2026 growth for both new ARR and new license and services bookings. BALANCE SHEET AND LIQUIDITY, CASH FLOW, AND REPURCHASES ACI ended Q2 2026 with $167 million in cash on hand and a debt balance of $826 million, representing a net debt leverage ratio of 1.2x adjusted EBITDA. ACI had total cash and available liquidity under its credit facility of $540 million. Operating cash flows for year-to-date 2026 were $135 million, up from $128 million for year-to-date 2025. During Q2 2026, the company repurchased approximately 948,000 shares for approximately $41 million at an average price of $43.75. Year-to-date 2026, repurchases totaled 2.5 million shares for approximately $107 million at an average price of $42.75. The company has approximately $349 million remaining available on the share repurchase authorization and continues to expect to allocate 50-60% of operating cash flow to share repurchases for the full year, subject to market conditions. RAISING 2026 GUIDANCE Based on first half 2026 performance and the strength of its pipeline, the company is increasing its full-year 2026 guidance. The company now expects revenue in the range of $1.895 billion to $1.925 billion, up from the prior range of $1.890 billion to $1.920 billion, and adjusted EBITDA in the range of $545 million to $560 million, up from $540 million to $555 million. For the second half of 2026, the company continues to expect an approximately 40% and 60% revenue weighting for Q3 and Q4, respectively, driven by the timing of high margin Payment Software license renewals. This equates to revenue of $417 million to $427 million in Q3 2026. Adjusted EBITDA in Q3 2026 is expected to be $90 million to $95 million. CONFERENCE CALL TO DISCUSS FINANCIAL RESULTS Today, management will host a conference call at 8:30 a.m. ET to discuss these results. Webcast: http://investor.aciworldwide.com/ Pre-registration (recommended): https://events.q4inc.com/analyst/520999677?pwd=fAB3MTWf Pre-registration provides a unique passcode to join without operator assistance. Dial-in:USA Toll-Free: 1 833 461 5787 or International Toll: 1 585 542 9983 Conference ID: 520999677 About ACI Worldwide ACI Worldwide, an original innovator in global payments technology, delivers transformative software solutions that power intelligent payments orchestration in real time so banks, billers, and merchants can drive growth, while continuously modernizing their payment infrastructures, simply and securely. With more than 50 years of trusted payments expertise, we combine our global footprint with a local presence to offer enhanced payment experiences to stay ahead of constantly changing payment challenges and opportunities. © Copyright ACI Worldwide, Inc. 2026. ACI, ACI Worldwide, ACI Payments, Inc., ACI Pay, Speedpay ONE and all ACI product/solution names are trademarks or registered trademarks of ACI Worldwide, Inc., or one of its subsidiaries, in the United States, other countries or both. Other parties' trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners. To supplement our financial results presented on a GAAP basis, we use the non-GAAP measures indicated in the tables, which exclude significant transaction-related expenses, as well as other significant non-cash expenses such as depreciation, amortization, and stock-based compensation, that we believe are helpful in understanding our past financial performance and our future results. The presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to our GAAP results and are not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. Management generally compensates for limitations in the use of non-GAAP financial measures by relying on comparable GAAP financial measures and providing investors with a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures only in addition to and in conjunction with results presented in accordance with GAAP. We believe that these non-GAAP financial measures reflect an additional way to view aspects of our operations that, when viewed with our GAAP results, provide a more complete understanding of factors and trends affecting our business. Certain non-GAAP measures include: Adjusted EBITDA: net income (loss) plus income tax expense (benefit), net interest income (expense), net other income (expense), depreciation, amortization and stock-based compensation, as well as significant transaction-related expenses. Adjusted EBITDA should be considered in addition to, rather than as a substitute for, net income (loss). Net Adjusted EBITDA Margin: Adjusted EBITDA divided by revenue net of pass-through interchange revenue. Net Adjusted EBITDA Margin should be considered in addition to, rather than as a substitute for, net income (loss). Adjusted Diluted EPS: diluted EPS plus tax effected significant transaction related items, amortization of acquired intangibles and software, and non-cash stock-based compensation. Adjusted diluted EPS should be considered in addition to, rather than as a substitute for, diluted EPS. Recurring Revenue: revenue from software as a service and platform as a service fees and maintenance fees. Recurring revenue should be considered in addition to, rather than as a substitute for, total revenue. ARR: New annual recurring revenue expected to be generated from new accounts, new applications, and add-on sales bookings contracts signed in the period. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release contains forward-looking statements based on current expectations that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Generally, forward-looking statements do not relate strictly to historical or current facts and may include words or phrases such as "believes," "will," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," and words and phrases of similar impact. The forward-looking statements are made pursuant to safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to: (i) the growing demand for payments modernization in the world’s largest banking market, (ii) we enter the second half of 2026 with strong momentum, a healthy pipeline and confidence in our ability to create long-term shareholder value, (iii) based on new business wins and current transactions trends, the company’s expectation for full-year 2026 Biller revenue growth in the high single digits remains unchanged, (iv) the company expects full year 2026 growth for both new ARR and new license and services bookings, (v) our full‑year outlook including Q3 2026 and full-year 2026 revenue and adjusted EBITDA financial guidance, and (vi) expectations to allocate 50-60% of operating cash flow to share repurchases for the full year, subject to market conditions. All of the foregoing forward-looking statements are expressly qualified by the risk factors discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such factors include, but are not limited to, increased competition, business interruptions, cybersecurity incidents or failure of our information technology and communication systems, security breaches, reliance on third-party cloud infrastructure and related services, reliance on third-parties, our ability to attract and retain senior management personnel and skilled technical employees, future acquisitions, strategic partnerships and investments, divestitures and other restructuring activities, implementation and success of our strategy, anti-takeover provisions, exposure to credit or operating risks arising from certain payment funding methods, loss caused by theft or fraud, customer reluctance to switch to a new vendor, our ability to adequately defend our intellectual property, litigation, consent orders and other compliance agreements, our offshore software development activities, risks from operating internationally, including fluctuations in currency exchange rates, adoption of ACI Connetic, adverse changes in the global economy, compliance of our products with applicable legislation, governmental regulations and industry standards, the complexity of our products and services and the risk that they may contain hidden defects, legal and business risks from artificial intelligence technology incorporated into our products, risks to our business from the use of artificial intelligence by our workforce, complex regulations applicable to our payments business, our compliance with privacy and cybersecurity regulations, compliance with requirements of the payment card networks and Nacha, exposure to unknown tax liabilities, changes in tax laws and regulations, consolidations and failures in the financial services industry, volatility in our stock price, demand for our products, failure to obtain renewals of customer contracts or to obtain such renewals on favorable terms, delay or cancellation of customer projects or inaccurate project completion estimates, changes in card association and debit network fees or products, impairment of our goodwill or intangible assets, the accuracy of management’s backlog estimates, the cyclical nature of our revenue and earnings and the accuracy of forecasts due to the concentration of revenue-generating activity during the final weeks of each quarter, restrictions and other financial covenants in our debt agreements, our existing levels of debt, incurring additional debt, events outside of our control including natural disasters, wars, and outbreaks of disease, and revenues or revenue mix below expectations. For a detailed discussion of these risk factors, parties that are relying on the forward-looking statements should review our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260806711532/en/ Contacts For more information contact:Investor Relations John KraftSVP, Head of Strategy and Finance305-894-2223 / [email protected]
TranscriptFY2026 Q22026-08-06FY2026 Q2 earnings call transcript
Earnings source - 76 paragraphs
FY2026 Q2 earnings call transcript
Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us and welcome to the second quarter 2026 ACI Worldwide Earnings Conference Call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I will now hand the conference over to John Kraft. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us. On today's call, we will discuss ACI Worldwide's second quarter 2026 results, as well as our updated financial outlook for the remainder of the year. We will then open the line for your questions. Slides and press release accompanying this webcast can be found at aciworldwide.com under the investor relations tab and will remain available after the call. As always, today's call is subject to safe harbor and forward-looking statements. You can find the full text of these statements in our earnings materials and SEC filings. Joining me this morning are Thomas Warsop, our President and CEO, and Robert Leibrock, our Chief Financial Officer. Before I turn it over to Tom, I'd like to highlight several upcoming conferences where members of management will be participating.
The KeyBanc Technology Leadership Forum on August 11, the Seaport Research Partners Annual Summer Investor Conference on August 18, and the FT Partners Fintech Conference on September 15. We look forward to meeting many of you at these events. With that, I'll turn the call over to Tom. Tom?
Thanks, John. Good morning, everyone. As always, I appreciate you joining us for our earnings call. Today, we'll talk about our second quarter 2026. Let me start by saying financial performance was strong, and the quarter was fulfilling in many ways, in addition to those strong financial results. I want to share a few examples of the things we at ACI are proud of as we continue to deliver on our promises and transform for the future. Let me start with the headline financial results. Then I'll discuss the operational progress driving the momentum we're seeing across the business. Today, we reported 7% revenue growth, 12% adjusted EBITDA growth, and 54% adjusted diluted EPS growth. We're again raising our full year guidance. Perhaps even more importantly, we continued to make progress on our key strategic initiatives, the things we believe drive long-term growth and shareholder value creation.
We signed our first U.S.-based ACI Connetic customer in the quarter, and we've already signed another in Q3. The traction with ACI Connetic is a result of our ongoing strategic growth investments and the privileged position we have in the payments ecosystem around the world. We remain well-positioned to benefit from the ongoing need for payments modernization. I'm going to discuss this in more detail shortly. Our margin expansion is a result of disciplined expense management while continuing to invest in innovation and returning capital to shareholders. Before I discuss our business segments, I'll spend a few minutes on what's happening in the payments industry. Across financial services, payment ecosystems are becoming significantly more complex. Financial institutions are managing more payment types, more payment rails, increasing real-time payments adoption, rising fraud threats, evolving regulatory requirements, and continually increasing expectations from consumers and businesses.
At the same time, many organizations are operating on infrastructure that was designed for a very different payments environment. As a result, modernization has become one of the most important strategic priorities for customers around the world. Increasingly, the discussion is no longer whether institutions will modernize, but how they will modernize and who they will partner with to help them get there. That trend continues to create meaningful opportunities for us at ACI. As I mentioned, one of the most significant accomplishments during the quarter was the signing of our first U.S.-based ACI Connetic customers. We signed one customer during Q2 and a second customer shortly after the quarter ended. We view these wins as further validation of the ACI Connetic strategy.
Customers are increasingly looking to simplify complex payments environments through a modern cloud-native platform that provides connectivity across payment types while positioning them for the next generation of payment intelligence and orchestration. Our ACI Connetic pipeline continues to expand faster than any other solution set. In the Biller business, our ACI Speedpay ONE platform continues to advance with new customers being implemented on this cloud-native leading-edge solution. We now have more than 100 customers live on this platform, and our continuing investments are improving performance and flexibility. Our ACI Connetic solution and our ACI Speedpay ONE Biller solution are broadly AI-enabled, meaning we're building AI-powered capabilities directly into the solution from day one. I've previously mentioned a little bit about how ACI is taking advantage of the potential of AI.
I want to give you a little bit more flavor in terms of how AI is really impacting us and our customers. We're already seeing tangible benefits from these efforts. Here's a few examples. In terms of test automation, our AI mandate analyzer is reducing the time required to interpret payment scheme mandates from two to three weeks to minutes or hours. That's shifting roughly two weeks of effort earlier in each cycle across schemes and products and creating an incremental person year of engineering capacity over time. That's just the beginning. In our Biller business, AI-supported re-architecture work on one of our common products has reduced the effort by about 50%, and that's already saved over 6,000 hours of engineering time. In customer support, we built a retrofit agent team.
That's a team of agents doing retrofitting work, and that will automate up to 85% of a previously completely manual process, saving approximately 10 hours per week per user, with additional benefits in related root cause workflows. That work has already been piloted with a large customer in our European business with broader rollout coming soon. We've integrated AI-powered functionality into products across our portfolio, and this is accelerating. Just a couple of examples. In ACI Connetic, we've implemented a dynamic context-dependent intelligent routing and scoring capability. This enables very fast adjustments to fraud and routing algorithms based upon up-to-the-second information. That is only possible with generative AI and related tools. On ACI Speedpay ONE in our Biller business, we've deployed tools to simplify and accelerate our customers' ability to deploy our standard APIs and to accelerate the customer implementation journey.
These are only two of the many solution capabilities we've implemented which are powered by AI. I do want to comment briefly on each of our operating segments. Obviously, Bobby will cover more detail, but let me start with Payment Software. Payment Software continued to perform well during this quarter. The segment delivered 9% revenue growth driven by strength in issuing and acquiring, where revenue increased 37%. Encouragingly, we're seeing customers move beyond evaluating modernization initiatives and increasingly begin executing against them. As transaction volumes continue to grow and payment environments become more complex, customers increasingly view ACI as a strategic technology partner rather than simply a software provider. Our merchant and anti-fraud solutions both grew in the mid-single digits, and both solutions are well-positioned to benefit from some interesting new AI, which is driving new technology opportunities and tools.
That includes a new collaboration with some of our merchant clients, where we have created an agentic commerce solution that can be used both by consumers making a purchase and by our customers' agents who are assisting consumers. We're playing both sides of that opportunity. In our Biller segment, revenue increased 5% during the quarter. While year-over-year comparisons in Q2 were challenging, following unusually strong volumes last year, as well as some unique margin benefits that did not recur, the underlying health of the business is strong. We continue to see growing adoption of our ACI Speedpay ONE platform through expansions across our installed base and success with new customer wins. We remain confident in our expectation for upper single-digit growth in Biller for the full year. We're also continuing to execute our balanced capital allocation strategy.
We deployed approximately $41 million of capital to share repurchases in Q2, and that brings our year-to-date repurchases to approximately $107 million. As we previously communicated, we expect to allocate between 50% and 60% of operating cash flow to share repurchases during 2026. At this level, we will maintain flexibility for further organic growth investments and potential strategic acquisitions, particularly focusing on those that accelerate our cloud-based payments modernization offerings. As we've said before, driving a superior return on capital deployed is a core tenet of our leadership team and a strategic imperative for our business. We take this capital stewardship seriously. As a part of this disciplined effort, our corporate development team regularly evaluates inorganic opportunities across a full spectrum of strategic actions, including opportunistic acquisitions, divestitures, and partnerships.
There are some interesting technologies in the marketplace that could help accelerate our growth. The valuations are more attractive than they've been in the recent past. Evaluation of those opportunities occurs in the normal course of business for us. I'm sure you understand that I will not comment directly on any recent speculation about us in the news. To be clear, our business is operating from a place of financial and competitive strength, positioning us to further establish ACI as a platform for profitable growth over time consistent with our proven track record as a value compounder. I'm pleased with our execution in the first half of the year, and I remain encouraged by the strength of our pipeline, which gives us confidence we are on track for a strong finish to the year.
Our recurring revenue profile, strong customer relationships, ongoing technology investments, and disciplined cost management have us well positioned to continue delivering profitable growth. This strategic framework, combined with our shareholder focus, returns-based capital deployment strategy, positions us well to continue to create long-term shareholder value. I want to thank our employees around the world for what they do every day. Their dedication to our customers and their commitment to operational excellence are what makes our success possible. I also want to thank our customers for their partnership. Our shareholders for their continued trust and support as we execute on our long-term value creation strategy. With that, I'll turn it over to Bobby.
Thank you, Tom, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin with a review of our second quarter financial results, then discuss our first half performance, capital allocation activities, and outlook for the remainder of 2026. Overall, we delivered another quarter of solid financial performance characterized by revenue growth, margin expansion, earnings growth, and strong cash generation. Second quarter revenue was $430 million, up 7% on a reported basis and up 6% in constant currency. Net income was $32 million, compared to $12 million a year ago. Adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.54, up 54% from the prior year, reflecting strong operational performance and the benefits of our share repurchase program. Adjusted EBITDA was $91 million, up 12% on a reported basis and up 9% in constant currency.
Net adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 34% from 32% last year, even as we increased R&D spending by 17% to support innovation and future growth. This margin expansion was driven by strong operating leverage and reflects disciplined expense management. Year-to-date revenue was $956 million, up 8% on a reported basis and up 6% in constant currency. Year-to-date adjusted EBITDA was $196 million, up 12% on a reported basis and up 8% in constant currency. While net adjusted EBITDA margin for that period expanded approximately 200 basis points to 36%. In the Payment Software segment, second quarter revenue was $196 million, up 9% on a reported basis and up 7% in constant currency. The segment benefited from notable strength in issuing and acquiring, which grew 33% in constant currency versus the prior year period, driven by large expansions with renewing customers. Merchant and fraud management revenue also delivered year-over-year growth.
Real-time payments revenue declined versus the prior year period. While the number of renewal and expansion opportunities was lower than a year ago, retention and expansion performance remained strong, underscoring the healthy demand environment we continue to see in real-time payments. We continue to expect real-time payments to contribute to growth in 2026 and remain encouraged by customer demand and the strength of our pipeline. Segment adjusted EBITDA for Payment Software was $94 million, up 12% on a reported basis and up 9% in constant currency, resulting in a net adjusted EBITDA margin of 48%. The margin expansion reflects the inherent leverage of a highly recurring software model. In Biller, revenue was $234 million, up 5% on both a reported and constant currency basis.
As we noted last quarter, second quarter revenue net of interchange and adjusted EBITDA were impacted by mix and difficult comparisons against unusually strong volume activity in the prior year, which also included certain credits that did not occur. Despite those near-term comparisons, underlying customer demand remains healthy. We continue to expect upper single-digit revenue growth for the Biller segment for the full year. While adjusted EBITDA declined year-over-year, the pressure was primarily driven by prior year comparison items rather than any change in the underlying health of the business. Results in the current quarter were also impacted by a one-time charge related to a partnership that has since been terminated and is not expected to reoccur. The business continues to benefit from healthy transaction growth, strong customer retention, new customer additions, and continued adoption of Speedpay ONE.
We also expect net revenue growth to trend more closely with gross revenue growth over the balance of the year. Net new ARR bookings were $18 million during the quarter, while new license and services bookings were $59 million. ARR bookings were compared against a particularly strong prior year period that benefited from several large Payment Software contract signings. This year, strong Biller performance partially offset lower Payment Software bookings with a greater concentration of expected signings weighted towards the second half of the year. New license and services bookings reflect similar timing of anticipated Payment Software deals. While quarterly results can fluctuate based on the timing of large transactions, we remain encouraged by the strength of our pipeline. We continue to expect both net new ARR bookings and new license and services bookings to grow for the full year.
On the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with $167 million in cash and a net leverage ratio of 1.2 times adjusted EBITDA. Year-to-date operating cash flow was $135 million, reflecting the strength of the business and disciplined execution across the organization. As Tom mentioned, we continue to take a balanced and disciplined approach to capital allocation, investing in initiatives that support long-term growth while returning capital to shareholders. During the second quarter, we repurchased approximately 948,000 shares for $41 million. Year to date, we have repurchased approximately 2.5 million shares for $107 million and ended the quarter with approximately $349 million remaining under our authorization. Turning to guidance, based on the first half performance and the strength of our pipeline, we're increasing our full year 2026 outlook. We now expect revenue in the range of $1.895 billion-$1.925 billion, up from our prior range of $1.89 billion-$1.92 billion.
We expect adjusted EBITDA in the range of $545 million-$560 million, up from $540 million-$555 million. For the second half of 2026, as we discussed last quarter, we continue and expect an approximately 40% and 60% revenue weighting between the third and fourth quarters respectively, driven by the timing of high-margin Payment Software license renewals. This implies third quarter revenue of $417 million-$427 million, and adjusted EBITDA in Q3 '26 is expected to be $90 million-$95 million. Additional income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow guidance assumptions are available on the guidance slide in our earnings presentation. Our outlook continues to be supported by a strong recurring revenue base, healthy customer demand, and a robust pipeline across both Payment Software and Biller. The increase in our guidance reflects both our strong first half performance and our confidence in the opportunities we see ahead.
We remain committed to investing in innovation and our strategic growth priorities while maintaining a disciplined approach to profitability and cash generation. As we look to the balance of 2026, we remain focused on executing our strategy, investing in innovation, maintaining operational discipline, and generating strong cash flow. As customers continue to modernize their payment infrastructure, the needs for intelligent payment orchestration continues to grow. We believe ACI's unique combination of software, data, industry expertise positions us well to capitalize on that opportunity while continuing to deliver long-term shareholder value. With that, Tom and I will be happy to take your questions.
We will now begin the question and answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. The first question comes from the line of Jeff Cantwell with Seaport Research. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Hey, Jeff.
Hey, thanks guys. Good morning. Can you talk more about the Q3 and Q4 guidance? Why is there a 40%/60% cadence this year? What are the major call-outs? I hear you on the timing. Can you go through this in a little more detail, if you don't mind? Can you confirm whether that was expected? We're getting questions on that this morning. Thanks.
Hey, Jeff. I'll jump in. This is Bobby. I think it'd be helpful for Tom to expand on some of the strength we're seeing for the year that supports the confidence we have in the raise of the overall guide. As you get into Q3 and Q4, we've been trying to be very transparent with the guidance we've provided. One. The recurring nature of our business, we provide the recurring revenue that happens every quarter. I like to think 95% of ACI's revenue is recurring, but on a 5-year contract basis for the Payment Software license renewals. That gives me and Tom a lot of visibility as we enter the year to know when we're going to have the best opportunity to renew those customers as well as expand on them.
Last quarter, 90 days ago, I gave headlights into the Q3, Q4 guide as being more of a 40/60 split, versus the last couple of years, it's been 50/50. You go back and you compare, call it three, four, five years ago, you'll see that same 40/60 split, which is indicative of the types of customers and the concentration we see in Q4 this year. We feel good about that. As you look underneath it's all Payment Software driven. That's our high margin business. The EBITDA even has a bit more of a skew towards fourth quarter. As shown in the confidence of raising both revenue and EBITDA on the full year, we feel good about that. Payment Software had a good Q2. They're coming out of the first half very strong.
Yeah, Jeff, we have very good visibility into the second half, given what Bobby just described. The driver for that 40/60 versus what we saw the last couple of years, more closer to 50/50, it's all due to renewal dates. As you know, by U.S. GAAP, we have to book the revenue on the renewal dates. We can't change that. We have excellent visibility to that and we have strong pipelines. Business is performing very well. Last quarter, Bobby talked about the 40/60 split. That's still what we see.
As he just said, the business, the higher skew to fourth quarter on revenue drives an even higher skew towards EBITDA because of that high-margin software business.
Okay, thanks for that. Can you tell us about the Kinetic signing in the U.S., how that came about, and anything that you can give us in terms of was it an existing customer that converted? Was it a new customer? Is this a sizable asset base? What does the pipeline look like for Kinetic right now? I'd just love to hear an update on that as well. Thank you.
Sure. The one we signed in the quarter, it is an existing customer, and that's great news actually, because we're attacking opportunities across all types of customers. Net new, existing customers that will convert, and then a little bit hybrid. We've got a very strong pipeline, growing pipeline across all of those types of customers. This particular one that we signed in the quarter is an existing customer and will convert in the next few months from an existing solution to Kinetic. That's great and we're excited about it. That's specifically to your question. The pipeline that is the fastest-growing, I think I mentioned this previously, that is Kinetic is the fastest-growing solution set in terms of our pipeline. It has been for a couple of quarters now, and we expect that to continue. Very pleased with the progress on Kinetic.
We also announced a couple of months ago, I think, that we have enabled Kinetic across eight different sets of payment rails in the U.S. we can handle just about anything that gets thrown at Kinetic in terms of payment types and payment rails.
Yeah. I think the thing I would add, Jeff, on the Kinetic part would be, one, we talked about the guidance this year really doesn't depend on Kinetic revenue, but as Tom's showing, almost every sales discussion with our customers starts with a Kinetic level of excitement on how they can modernize. As you get under that, all the Kinetic signings to date have been SaaS, which is exciting because it's proving the cloud-native platform that we've built there, the customers, it really resonates with them. The other thing that's exciting is Solaris, who we mentioned last year. The team's made great progress with them leaning in both on their side and ours. We're excited to start to get them live here in the second half of the year, which will be a good instantiation of the platform.
Absolutely.
Okay. That's a great update. Maybe if I could just squeeze one more in. There were some articles out there about Biller, which obviously you're not going to comment on rumors. Could you maybe talk to everyone who's listening about your approach to M&A, and maybe just give us an update? Because it's been a while since we've had to consider a potential sale of Biller. How would you frame that for us? Thanks.
Yeah, as I said in the prepared remarks, this is sort of normal course of business. We evaluate constantly what's the best way to drive shareholder value, and we look at potential acquisitions, potential divestitures, different kinds of investments. We do that all the time. There's nothing unusual about that. We obviously don't comment on specific rumors in the marketplace. I think it's fair to say we have great businesses and there's a lot of people that would probably love to own all the businesses that we have. That's just what we do.
I think, Jeff, I'll take the opportunity to talk mostly about the strength we see in Payment Software and Kinetic. We do have, as Tom mentioned, a very healthy Speedpay business with our Biller segment. I talked a bit in my earlier comments around the bookings health we see. I just want to, similar to what I did last quarter, put a little more detail on that. Year to date, we're doing great in terms of the ARR bookings in that business. In Q1, I mentioned we had three new logos and about 70% of our top wins actually were within our expansion customers where we're seeing really good return on the customer success account management focus that the team's driving there.
In Q2, we signed two nice new logos there. Across those bookings, 80% of them were really healthy expansions, customers doubling, tripling their relationships with us. I'm excited on the health of that business, and we see it growing high single digits for the year and really accelerating in the second half.
Great.
Okay. Appreciate all that. Thanks for that. I'll jump back into queue. I have some other questions, but I'll jump back in the queue. Thanks.
Thanks, Jeff.
The next question comes from Peter Heckmann with D.A. Davidson. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Hey, Pete.
Hey, good morning, everybody. Good to see the good results and the raise in the annual guidance. Also good to see the two new Kinetic wins. Can you talk a little bit about how the perception of ACI might be changing? For a long time, I think people who used ACI and people who were deep in the industry understood how important ACI was to certain processes within financial or electronic payments. Maybe the company was viewed as maybe having some older technology or as not being as innovative. I guess with Kinetic, how is this changing your perception with customers? Clearly it appears that there's been some good early acceptance of the platform.
I guess what I'm thinking is, do you think the fact that you have this roadmap towards this modern payment hub can actually cause some non-customers to think differently about ACI and potentially adopt other solutions that you have?
Yeah, great question, Pete. Yes, the short answer to your question is yes. We are having very different dialogues with customers and prospects now as we lead with Kinetic. I think one of the biggest drivers of that is that our vision of the future of payments, the payments industry, is that you'd have a very consistent set of technologies, platforms that can handle essentially any type of payment. That will allow financial institutions and merchants to get maximum leverage out of the investments they make in payments and provide even better service to their customers. That is our vision, and Kinetic was built very specifically to support that vision. What's happening now is in the old days, so maybe a couple of years ago, Pete, we would go in and we were perceived as trying to sell a piece of software.
Of course we want to sell software. Now what tends to happen is we'll sit down with a customer or a prospect and we'll talk about how can we help them change the way they do business? How can we help the bank or the merchant provide a better customer experience, get better results, reduce the cost of handling payments inside of their organization, and ultimately modernize their infrastructure? Not just the payments side, but every, especially financial institutions, they're all thinking about how do I modernize my infrastructure? They look increasingly to ACI to help them think that through. How do I modernize specifically? How can I take advantage of this new way of approaching the technology around payments? That's what ACI Connetic gives us.
It's created a different kind of dialogue and it's definitely started, we got more to go, Pete, but it's started to change the perception that we have in the industries where much more often people are thinking of us as a current innovator instead of, "Well, they've got software that they've been running for a long time. It's really good, but it's not all that innovative." Now we're much more likely to be seen as an innovator.
Pete, I'll just add to Tom's comments. This idea of the momentum we have, the perception, it is very contagious across multiple elements of the business. Everything from how do you attract talent, the sense of urgency in the company, how fast we show up to customer requests, demands. The thing I'd also add is you talked about ACI Connetic. I think the focus that ACI has and the two-segment model, GM model that Tom's put in place over the last few years has definitely unlocked that as well. A lot of the comments there around ACI Connetic, I would say you're seeing it show up in the ACI Speedpay Biller business as well. One of the stats I put out there is our customers this past year have given us a 15-point increase in their Net Promoter Score for ACI Speedpay.
I think that's a bit of how we're showing up, as you described, in the ACI Speedpay business as well. The focus we have on not managing as a mixing our Biller customers with our banking customers and intermediary customers, our merchants, that focus has helped a lot in how the company's showing up, we're seeing it across both segments in a really healthy way.
Yeah, actually, that's a great point. I think the other thing about that is it's allowed us to get a lot more focus internally on the two segments. Not only are we showing up differently to customers and prospects, but also internally we have, it's very clear now. Somebody would say, "I'm on the Speedpay team. My job is to make Speedpay perform incredibly well," or, "I'm on the Payment Software team. I'm going to make sure that business performs super well." We struggled with that when we had a functional model and this change to a general manager model, which we did a year and a half or two years ago, has made a big difference inside and outside the company.
All right. That's very helpful. Just the one-time item, I believe that was in Biller to terminate a partnership. Just want to confirm that was included in the add backs to adjusted EBITDA.
That flowed through to EBITDA. It was an operational item. It was not a one-time item. It's within our adjusted EBITDA.
It was not in the-
It was not an add back.
Yeah.
It was not excluded.
Okay. Could you put a rough bracket around the dollar value of that one-time item?
Yeah. As you look at the contraction you saw there in our EBITDA, it was less than half of that. I gave you the other buckets, which were some of the seasonality we saw in revenue as well as some of the last year items. Those are the three buckets, and they're not exactly perfect, but it's more like a third. It's not more than half.
All right. Well, we'll just keep that in mind as we think about modeling for the second quarter last year. Thanks. I'll get back in the queue.
Thanks, Pete.
Thank you, Pete.
The next question comes from George Sutton with Craig-Hallum. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Hey, George.
Thank you. Hey, guys. I wondered if you could go into a little more detail on the strength in issuing and acquiring. Surprisingly strong. You mentioned large expansions. Can you give us a little more of a picture of what's happening there?
I'll jump in, and I think as you look across the expansions, I like to think about it in the solution areas that we see within Payment Software. Really, we've got a great install base around our issuing and acquiring products. Over the last year since I've joined, George, I've really tried to instill this idea of what's the retention rates, the NRR, is underneath of those. That business, it's very durable. Mid-single retention rates, nice and stable there. Where we get a lot of the lift when you get into the retention rates, and this could be distorted on a quarterly basis when you look at the year-to-year on different renewal cohorts, but where we're getting really good lift is going to be in the real-time payment area where we're seeing a lot more demand for that on a multi-year basis and how that is growing.
I think that's the, as I've kind of learned here in ACI, that's a bit of the beauty of our strategy. We're agnostic on your payment type. We're independent on whether you're choosing a card type, a debit type, a real-time payment scheme, and we can help you orchestrate across all those. From a growth standpoint, it really is very defendable. That is, payments go from a card to a different real-time payment or even to a digital asset. We can help you orchestrate across that, but we're also going to be protected from a revenue standpoint as well.
I'd just add to that the issuing and acquiring strength, it was quite broad based, and we increased in all of the areas that drive our revenue in that space, in the software space. We had volume growth, which is great. One of the really great things about being in the payment business, of course, is that payment volumes grow, and they tend to continue to grow. We have that. We have good pricing power, and we exercise that on renewals. Then we had some nice new product launch, so value-add services, more cross-sell. It was strong across all of those areas, and we're very pleased with the performance in that particular part of the business.
Fabulous. I wondered if you could address the ACI Connetic use cases in the U.S. I know your initial win was going to be a fairly focused use case. Can you talk about how broad these U.S. wins might be?
Yeah. The initial use cases in the U.S. are largely concentrated around account-to-account payments. What that means is everything from a-- As we've said, ACI Connetic enables most types of payments today. In the U.S., there's a lot of interest around real-time payments, being ready for real-time payments when consumers ramp up their adoption, and then also high-value payments. Wire transfers, for example, SWIFT payments. Those are some of the use cases that are of the greatest interest right now. We are seeing broad-based interest, including cards as well, going forward. The initial ones are largely focused around account-to-account.
Perfect. Okay. Thanks, guys.
Thank you, George.
We have now reached the end of our Q&A session. I would now like to turn the call back to ACI Worldwide for closing remarks.
Thank you very much, and we appreciate you all joining us this morning. We're very pleased with the work that our teams are doing. I'm really proud of our team around the world. We're very thankful for the customers that are helping make sure that we continue to drive growth. Of course, we're very thankful for our shareholders, and we've said it many times, but our job is to drive extraordinary shareholder value. That's what we're trying to do, and we expect to continue to do that. We have a great start to the year in the first half, and as we've said this morning, the outlook is strong for the remainder of the year. That's what gave us the confidence to, once again, raise our guidance in terms of both revenue and EBITDA. We're excited about the future, and thank you all for your support.
Thanks, everyone.
This concludes today's call. Thank you for connecting. You may now disconnect.
Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-05APPS Tops Q1 Earnings & Revenue Estimates, Raises Fiscal 2027 Guidance
Zacks
APPS Tops Q1 Earnings & Revenue Estimates, Raises Fiscal 2027 Guidance
Digital Turbine APPS delivered first-quarter fiscal 2027 adjusted earnings of 19 cents per share, up from 6 cents in the year-ago quarter. The figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 14 cents by 35.7%.Net revenues totaled $166 million, which increased 27% from the year-ago quarter and surpassed the consensus estimate of $150 million by 10.7%. Strength in the App Growth Platform and a sharp year-over-year jump in adjusted EBITDA were key highlights.By segment, Digital Turbine's On Device Solutions generated $110 million of net revenues before intercompany eliminations, up 15% year over year, led by higher device volumes and revenue per device from international partners. App Growth Platform net revenues came in at $56.6 million, up 56% year over year, marking the segment's second consecutive quarter of more than 50% growth on the back of strength in both the brand business and DT Exchange. Digital Turbine, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Digital Turbine, Inc. Quote The non-GAAP gross margin expanded 210 basis points (bps) year over year to 49.4%. Sales and marketing expenses, as a percentage of revenues, decreased 114 bps from the year-ago quarter's level to 9.2%.General and administrative expenses, as a percentage of revenues, decreased from the year-ago quarter's level of 32.8% to 19.9%.Product development expenses, as a percentage of revenues, decreased 137 bps to 6.4%.Non-GAAP EBITDA was $42.5 million as compared with $25.1 million in the year-ago quarter, indicating an increase of 69% year over year, with margin expanding nearly 640 bps to 25.6%.Digital Turbine reported GAAP income from operations of $23.1 million, up from a loss of $4.7 million in the year-ago quarter, reflecting the combined impact of higher scale and continued expense discipline.Non-GAAP net income more than tripled to $24.1 million from $7 million in the year-ago quarter, driven by strong top-line growth and operating leverage. As of June 30, 2026, cash and cash equivalents (including restricted cash) were $43.2 million compared with $38 million as of March 31, 2026.In the reported quarter, the company generated cash flow from operations of $17.9 million compared with $4.38 million in the previous quarter.Non-GAAP free cash flow was $11.3 million compared with a free cash flow burn of $3 million in the previous quarter.Total debt, net of issuance costs and discounts, wa…Read full documentShow less
Digital Turbine APPS delivered first-quarter fiscal 2027 adjusted earnings of 19 cents per share, up from 6 cents in the year-ago quarter. The figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 14 cents by 35.7%.Net revenues totaled $166 million, which increased 27% from the year-ago quarter and surpassed the consensus estimate of $150 million by 10.7%. Strength in the App Growth Platform and a sharp year-over-year jump in adjusted EBITDA were key highlights.By segment, Digital Turbine's On Device Solutions generated $110 million of net revenues before intercompany eliminations, up 15% year over year, led by higher device volumes and revenue per device from international partners. App Growth Platform net revenues came in at $56.6 million, up 56% year over year, marking the segment's second consecutive quarter of more than 50% growth on the back of strength in both the brand business and DT Exchange. Digital Turbine, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Digital Turbine, Inc. Quote The non-GAAP gross margin expanded 210 basis points (bps) year over year to 49.4%. Sales and marketing expenses, as a percentage of revenues, decreased 114 bps from the year-ago quarter's level to 9.2%.General and administrative expenses, as a percentage of revenues, decreased from the year-ago quarter's level of 32.8% to 19.9%.Product development expenses, as a percentage of revenues, decreased 137 bps to 6.4%.Non-GAAP EBITDA was $42.5 million as compared with $25.1 million in the year-ago quarter, indicating an increase of 69% year over year, with margin expanding nearly 640 bps to 25.6%.Digital Turbine reported GAAP income from operations of $23.1 million, up from a loss of $4.7 million in the year-ago quarter, reflecting the combined impact of higher scale and continued expense discipline.Non-GAAP net income more than tripled to $24.1 million from $7 million in the year-ago quarter, driven by strong top-line growth and operating leverage. As of June 30, 2026, cash and cash equivalents (including restricted cash) were $43.2 million compared with $38 million as of March 31, 2026.In the reported quarter, the company generated cash flow from operations of $17.9 million compared with $4.38 million in the previous quarter.Non-GAAP free cash flow was $11.3 million compared with a free cash flow burn of $3 million in the previous quarter.Total debt, net of issuance costs and discounts, was $352.9 million, down more than $8 million sequentially, reflecting continued deleveraging following an amendment to the company's financing agreement during the quarter. Management pointed to broad-based momentum across both segments, continued AI-driven yield improvement and balance sheet strengthening as key supports for the raised outlook. The updated guidance implies a higher profitability profile compared with the initial fiscal 2027 view, underscoring that the company's growth initiatives are translating into more durable earnings power.For fiscal 2027, APPS now expects non-GAAP revenues between $650 million and $670 million, up from the prior guided range of $630 million to $650 million. Adjusted EBITDA is projected to be in the band of $145 million to $155 million, up from the earlier guidance of $135 million to $145 million. APPS currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Zacks Computer & Technology include Applied Materials AMAT, ACI Worldwide ACIW and Analog Devices ADI. Each stock sports a Zacks Rank of 1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.Applied Materials shares have gained 112.7% in the year-to-date period. Applied Materials is set to report second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 13.Shares of ACI Worldwide have gained 19.7% in the year-to-date period. ACI Worldwide is set to report second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 6. Shares of Analog Devices have rallied 40.3% year to date. Analog Devices is slated to report fiscal third-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 19. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Digital Turbine, Inc. (APPS) : Free Stock Analysis Report Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) : Free Stock Analysis Report Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT) : Free Stock Analysis Report ACI Worldwide, Inc. (ACIW) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research
Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-05Paylocity Q4 Earnings Beat Estimates, Revenues Increase Y/Y
Zacks
Paylocity Q4 Earnings Beat Estimates, Revenues Increase Y/Y
Paylocity PCTY reported fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 non-GAAP net income of $1.84 per share, which increased 17.9% year over year and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 19.48%.Total revenues increased 11% year over year to $444.7 million and surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 3.18%.Top-line growth was driven by the 12.4% increase in recurring and other revenues (roughly 93% of total revenues) to $415.6 million. Interest income on funds held for clients (about 7% of total revenues) declined 5.6% year over year to $29.1 million. Paylocity Holding Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Paylocity Holding Corporation Quote Paylocity's adjusted gross profit was $327.5 million, up 10.4% from the year-ago period, though the adjusted gross margin contracted roughly 40 basis points (bps) to 73.6%. Non-GAAP operating income rose 13.8% year over year to $120.2 million, with the non-GAAP operating margin expanding about 70 bps to 27%.Adjusted EBITDA increased 11.3% from the year-ago quarter to $145.5 million, with the adjusted EBITDA margin up roughly 10 bps to 32.7%. Adjusted EBITDA excluding interest income on funds held for clients rose 16.5% year over year to $116.4 million, with margin (as a percentage of recurring and other revenues) up roughly 100 bps to 28%.GAAP net income for the quarter was $60.3 million, or $1.12 per share, up 24.1% and 30.2%, respectively, from $48.6 million, or 86 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. As of June 30, 2026, Paylocity's cash and cash equivalents were $271.9 million, down from $299.7 million as of March 31, 2026.Long-term debt totaled $81.3 million as of the end of fiscal 2026, down 50% from $162.5 million a year earlier, reflecting repayment of approximately $81.3 million on the outstanding credit facility balance (originally drawn to fund the October 2024 acquisition of Airbase Inc.) during fiscal 2026.Net cash provided by operating activities for fiscal 2026 was $533.3 million (30.1% of total revenues), up 27.5% from $418.2 million (26.2% of total revenues) in fiscal 2025. Free cash flow rose 24.8% year over year to $427.8 million, or 24.2% of total revenues, compared with $342.8 million, or 21.5%, in fiscal 2025.Paylocity repurchased $398.1 million, or approximately 2.8 million shares, of common stock during fiscal 2026, bringing cumulative repurchases since May 2024 to $697.8 million, or approximately 4…Read full documentShow less
Paylocity PCTY reported fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 non-GAAP net income of $1.84 per share, which increased 17.9% year over year and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 19.48%.Total revenues increased 11% year over year to $444.7 million and surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 3.18%.Top-line growth was driven by the 12.4% increase in recurring and other revenues (roughly 93% of total revenues) to $415.6 million. Interest income on funds held for clients (about 7% of total revenues) declined 5.6% year over year to $29.1 million. Paylocity Holding Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Paylocity Holding Corporation Quote Paylocity's adjusted gross profit was $327.5 million, up 10.4% from the year-ago period, though the adjusted gross margin contracted roughly 40 basis points (bps) to 73.6%. Non-GAAP operating income rose 13.8% year over year to $120.2 million, with the non-GAAP operating margin expanding about 70 bps to 27%.Adjusted EBITDA increased 11.3% from the year-ago quarter to $145.5 million, with the adjusted EBITDA margin up roughly 10 bps to 32.7%. Adjusted EBITDA excluding interest income on funds held for clients rose 16.5% year over year to $116.4 million, with margin (as a percentage of recurring and other revenues) up roughly 100 bps to 28%.GAAP net income for the quarter was $60.3 million, or $1.12 per share, up 24.1% and 30.2%, respectively, from $48.6 million, or 86 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. As of June 30, 2026, Paylocity's cash and cash equivalents were $271.9 million, down from $299.7 million as of March 31, 2026.Long-term debt totaled $81.3 million as of the end of fiscal 2026, down 50% from $162.5 million a year earlier, reflecting repayment of approximately $81.3 million on the outstanding credit facility balance (originally drawn to fund the October 2024 acquisition of Airbase Inc.) during fiscal 2026.Net cash provided by operating activities for fiscal 2026 was $533.3 million (30.1% of total revenues), up 27.5% from $418.2 million (26.2% of total revenues) in fiscal 2025. Free cash flow rose 24.8% year over year to $427.8 million, or 24.2% of total revenues, compared with $342.8 million, or 21.5%, in fiscal 2025.Paylocity repurchased $398.1 million, or approximately 2.8 million shares, of common stock during fiscal 2026, bringing cumulative repurchases since May 2024 to $697.8 million, or approximately 4.6 million shares. Approximately $1.3 billion remained available under the share repurchase authorization as of June 30, 2026. In April 2026, Paylocity completed the acquisition of Grayscale Labs, Inc., an AI-powered recruiting automation company, expanding its recruiting capabilities to help clients engage candidates earlier and move faster through hiring workflows.The company also launched Paylocity Elevate Solutions, pairing its unified platform with dedicated payroll and HR experts to handle implementation, ongoing payroll processing and HR execution on clients' behalf, comprising Elevate Implementation, Elevate Payroll and Elevate HR.The company also disclosed a change in accounting convention: beginning in fiscal 2027, deferred contract costs will be amortized over an eight-year useful life, up from seven years, a shift expected to lift fiscal 2027 adjusted EBITDA margins by approximately 120-140 bps.Management also pointed to continued investment in its AI platform capabilities across HR, Finance and IT workflows as a key driver of the company's product strategy heading into fiscal 2027. For the first quarter of fiscal 2027, Paylocity expects total revenues in the range of $439.5-$444.5 million, indicating approximately 8% growth from the year-ago period. Recurring and other revenues are projected between $414 million and $419 million, implying approximately 10% growth.Adjusted EBITDA is projected in the range of $152-$156 million, while adjusted EBITDA excluding interest income on funds held for clients is expected between $126.5 million and $130.5 million.For fiscal 2027, Paylocity projects total revenues between $1.88 billion and $1.895 billion, implying approximately 7% growth over fiscal 2026. Recurring and other revenues are expected in the range of $1.777-$1.792 billion, suggesting approximately 8% growth.Adjusted EBITDA is expected between $690 million and $700 million, while adjusted EBITDA excluding interest income on funds held for clients is projected between $587 million and $597 million. PCTY currently carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Zacks Computer & Technology include Applied Materials AMAT, ACI Worldwide ACIW and Analog Devices ADI. Each stock sports a Zacks Rank of 1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Applied Materials shares have gained 112.7% in the year-to-date period. Applied Materials is set to report second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 13. Shares of ACI Worldwide have gained 19.7% in the year-to-date period. ACI Worldwide is set to report second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 6. Shares of Analog Devices have rallied 40.3% year to date. Analog Devices is slated to report fiscal third-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 19. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Paylocity Holding Corporation (PCTY) : Free Stock Analysis Report Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) : Free Stock Analysis Report Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT) : Free Stock Analysis Report ACI Worldwide, Inc. (ACIW) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research
Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-05Astera Labs Q2 Earnings Beat on PCIe 6 and Scorpio Strength
Zacks
Astera Labs Q2 Earnings Beat on PCIe 6 and Scorpio Strength
Astera Labs ALAB reported second-quarter 2026 non-GAAP earnings of 80 cents per share, up 81.8% year over year. The figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 15.94%.Revenues surged 104.4% year over year to $392.4 million, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 8.93%. Broad-based demand across AI fabrics and signal-conditioning products drove the upside, while PCIe 6 offerings generated more than half of quarterly revenues. The top line increased 27% sequentially, reflecting strength across the company’s product portfolio. Management cited expanding design activity across customers and product categories as AI infrastructure deployments require greater connectivity bandwidth and more complex switching architectures.Aries generated record quarterly revenues on solid adoption of PCIe 6 retimers across scale-up and scale-out applications. Demand also benefited from continued PCIe 5 deployments, particularly for inference workloads and higher attach rates associated with newer AI server platforms. Astera Labs, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Astera Labs, Inc. Quote The Scorpio product family delivered significant growth as the X-Series began shipping in initial production volumes across multiple lane configurations. The high-radix Scorpio X-Series entered volume production and is expected to scale materially during the second half of 2026.Management expects Scorpio to become the company’s largest product family in the third quarter, one quarter earlier than previously projected. The transition will be led by the 320-lane Scorpio X-Series fabric switch, which supports larger accelerator clusters and includes hardware-based Hypercast and in-network compute capabilities. Taurus revenues grew strongly on increased unit shipments across AI and general-purpose computing platforms. The company also delivered preproduction volumes of 100-gigabit-per-lane Taurus Smart Cable Modules for 800-gigabit active electrical cables.Astera Labs expanded the Taurus portfolio with 3.2-terabit Smart Retimers and Smart Redrivers supporting 200-gigabit-per-lane Ethernet and UALink connectivity. Management expects the new offerings to double the Taurus market opportunity to more than $4 billion by 2030.The company also reported renewed momentum for its Leo CXL memory controllers. ALAB secured a new standard Leo design win with a U.S. hyperscaler and expects standard and cu…Read full documentShow less
Astera Labs ALAB reported second-quarter 2026 non-GAAP earnings of 80 cents per share, up 81.8% year over year. The figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 15.94%.Revenues surged 104.4% year over year to $392.4 million, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 8.93%. Broad-based demand across AI fabrics and signal-conditioning products drove the upside, while PCIe 6 offerings generated more than half of quarterly revenues. The top line increased 27% sequentially, reflecting strength across the company’s product portfolio. Management cited expanding design activity across customers and product categories as AI infrastructure deployments require greater connectivity bandwidth and more complex switching architectures.Aries generated record quarterly revenues on solid adoption of PCIe 6 retimers across scale-up and scale-out applications. Demand also benefited from continued PCIe 5 deployments, particularly for inference workloads and higher attach rates associated with newer AI server platforms. Astera Labs, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Astera Labs, Inc. Quote The Scorpio product family delivered significant growth as the X-Series began shipping in initial production volumes across multiple lane configurations. The high-radix Scorpio X-Series entered volume production and is expected to scale materially during the second half of 2026.Management expects Scorpio to become the company’s largest product family in the third quarter, one quarter earlier than previously projected. The transition will be led by the 320-lane Scorpio X-Series fabric switch, which supports larger accelerator clusters and includes hardware-based Hypercast and in-network compute capabilities. Taurus revenues grew strongly on increased unit shipments across AI and general-purpose computing platforms. The company also delivered preproduction volumes of 100-gigabit-per-lane Taurus Smart Cable Modules for 800-gigabit active electrical cables.Astera Labs expanded the Taurus portfolio with 3.2-terabit Smart Retimers and Smart Redrivers supporting 200-gigabit-per-lane Ethernet and UALink connectivity. Management expects the new offerings to double the Taurus market opportunity to more than $4 billion by 2030.The company also reported renewed momentum for its Leo CXL memory controllers. ALAB secured a new standard Leo design win with a U.S. hyperscaler and expects standard and custom products to enter volume production at two U.S. hyperscalers in 2027. Non-GAAP gross margin was 73.7% in the second quarter of 2026, contracting 230 basis points year over year. The margin performance reflected a broader product mix as Astera Labs scaled its AI fabric and signal-conditioning portfolios.Non-GAAP operating expenses totaled $135.8 million, rising 10% sequentially as Astera Labs continued investing in its product roadmap. Research and development expenses surged 103.7% year over year to $135.9 million. Sales and marketing expenses increased 41.7% year over year to $26.4 million, while general and administrative expenses rose 76.2% year over year to $36 million.In the second quarter of 2026, non-GAAP operating margin expanded 290 basis points sequentially to 39.1%. Astera Labs ended June 30, 2026, with $1.25 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities, up $68.5 million from the prior quarter. Cash provided by operating activities was $87.7 million, supporting continued investments in technology development and portfolio expansion. For the third quarter of 2026, revenues are expected to be between $540 million and $560 million. The midpoint implies sequential growth of approximately 40%, driven by the Scorpio X-Series production ramp, continued Aries PCIe 6 retimer strength and preproduction Taurus shipments for 800-gigabit Ethernet applications.Non-GAAP gross margin is projected to be approximately 72%. Non-GAAP operating expenses are expected to be between $156 million and $160 million, with the operating margin forecasted to be roughly 43%.Management projects non-GAAP earnings between $1.16 and $1.21 per share. The outlook assumes interest and other income of approximately $12 million, a 12% non-GAAP tax rate and about 185 million shares outstanding. Astera Labs currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector include Applied Materials AMAT, ACI Worldwide ACIW and Analog Devices ADI. Each stock carries a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.Applied Materials shares have gained 112.7% in the year-to-date period. Applied Materials is set to report second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 13.Shares of ACI Worldwide have gained 19.7% in the year-to-date period. ACI Worldwide is set to report the second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 6.Shares of Analog Devices have rallied 40.3% year to date. Analog Devices is slated to report fiscal third-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 19. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Astera Labs, Inc. (ALAB) : Free Stock Analysis Report Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) : Free Stock Analysis Report Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT) : Free Stock Analysis Report ACI Worldwide, Inc. (ACIW) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research
Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-05IPGP Q2 Earnings Beat Estimates on Industrial Solutions Growth
Zacks
IPGP Q2 Earnings Beat Estimates on Industrial Solutions Growth
IPG Photonics Corporation IPGP reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of 58 cents per share, up 93% year over year. The figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 45%.Revenues of $278.58 million rose 11% year over year but missed the consensus mark by 0.2%. Strong demand across Industrial Solutions, particularly battery manufacturing, supported growth. Emerging growth products represented 58% of revenues, up from 53% in the prior quarter. Industrial Solutions revenues increased 16% year over year to $237 million and accounted for 85% of total sales. Growth was driven by higher welding, marking, cleaning and additive manufacturing revenues. Sequentially, the segment advanced 4%, led by welding and cleaning applications.Battery manufacturing remained an important demand driver for welding products. The performance helped IPGP deliver its third consecutive quarter of double-digit year-over-year revenue growth. Changes in foreign exchange rates added roughly 2% to total revenues. IPG Photonics Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | IPG Photonics Corporation Quote Advanced Solutions revenues declined 9% year over year to $41.5 million. Lower micromachining and defense sales more than offset growth in semiconductor applications. However, revenues improved 10% sequentially as semiconductor and micromachining demand strengthened.The company continues to pursue expansion opportunities in higher-growth applications. Its planned acquisition of Lumibird Medical is expected to establish a larger medical laser platform, including ophthalmology treatment and diagnostic systems, while complementing IPG Photonics’ existing urology presence. Asia revenues increased 19% year over year, primarily reflecting stronger welding sales. The region also posted sequential growth as demand for Industrial Solutions remained robust.Europe revenues rose 5% from the year-ago quarter, supported by cleaning and additive manufacturing applications. North American sales decreased 2% due to lower cutting, medical and defense revenues, although marking and defense sales improved sequentially. GAAP gross margin increased 310 basis points year over year to 40.4%. Adjusted gross margin expanded 290 basis points to 40.7%. Both measures also improved sharply from the first quarter.The margin gains reflected lower product costs, reduced inventory provisions and $4.7 million in tariff…Read full documentShow less
IPG Photonics Corporation IPGP reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of 58 cents per share, up 93% year over year. The figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 45%.Revenues of $278.58 million rose 11% year over year but missed the consensus mark by 0.2%. Strong demand across Industrial Solutions, particularly battery manufacturing, supported growth. Emerging growth products represented 58% of revenues, up from 53% in the prior quarter. Industrial Solutions revenues increased 16% year over year to $237 million and accounted for 85% of total sales. Growth was driven by higher welding, marking, cleaning and additive manufacturing revenues. Sequentially, the segment advanced 4%, led by welding and cleaning applications.Battery manufacturing remained an important demand driver for welding products. The performance helped IPGP deliver its third consecutive quarter of double-digit year-over-year revenue growth. Changes in foreign exchange rates added roughly 2% to total revenues. IPG Photonics Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | IPG Photonics Corporation Quote Advanced Solutions revenues declined 9% year over year to $41.5 million. Lower micromachining and defense sales more than offset growth in semiconductor applications. However, revenues improved 10% sequentially as semiconductor and micromachining demand strengthened.The company continues to pursue expansion opportunities in higher-growth applications. Its planned acquisition of Lumibird Medical is expected to establish a larger medical laser platform, including ophthalmology treatment and diagnostic systems, while complementing IPG Photonics’ existing urology presence. Asia revenues increased 19% year over year, primarily reflecting stronger welding sales. The region also posted sequential growth as demand for Industrial Solutions remained robust.Europe revenues rose 5% from the year-ago quarter, supported by cleaning and additive manufacturing applications. North American sales decreased 2% due to lower cutting, medical and defense revenues, although marking and defense sales improved sequentially. GAAP gross margin increased 310 basis points year over year to 40.4%. Adjusted gross margin expanded 290 basis points to 40.7%. Both measures also improved sharply from the first quarter.The margin gains reflected lower product costs, reduced inventory provisions and $4.7 million in tariff refunds recorded during the quarter. Operating expenses, excluding foreign exchange and other items, were $91.4 million, up 1% year over year but down 2% sequentially. Expenses benefited from a $1.8 million German research and development tax credit.Adjusted operating income surged 246% year over year to $23.9 million. Adjusted EBITDA rose 54% to $48.5 million, exceeding the upper end of management’s second-quarter guidance. IPG Photonics ended the quarter with $871 million in cash and short-term investments and $33 million in long-term investments. The company had no debt.For the second quarter of 2026, Cash generated from operations was $37.8 million. For the third quarter of 2026, IPGP expects revenues between $265 million and $295 million. Adjusted gross margin is projected to be in the range of 37.5% to 40.5%, while adjusted operating expenses are expected to be between $92 million and $95 million.Adjusted earnings are forecasted to be between 30 cents and 60 cents per share. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the range of $35 million-$51 million. IPG Photonics currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector include Applied Materials AMAT, ACI Worldwide ACIW and Analog Devices ADI. Each stock carries a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.Applied Materials shares have gained 112.7% in the year-to-date period. Applied Materials is set to report second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 13.Shares of ACI Worldwide have gained 19.7% in the year-to-date period. ACI Worldwide is set to report the second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 6.Shares of Analog Devices have rallied 40.3% year to date. Analog Devices is slated to report fiscal third-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 19. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report IPG Photonics Corporation (IPGP) : Free Stock Analysis Report Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) : Free Stock Analysis Report Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT) : Free Stock Analysis Report ACI Worldwide, Inc. (ACIW) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research
Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-05AEIS Q2 Earnings Beat on Semiconductor and Data Center Strength
Zacks
AEIS Q2 Earnings Beat on Semiconductor and Data Center Strength
Advanced Energy Industries AEIS reported second-quarter 2026 non-GAAP earnings of $2.74 per share, up 82.7% year over year and beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 25.11%.Revenues increased 30% year over year to $574.1 million, surpassing the consensus estimate by 5.47%. Results benefited from record Semiconductor Equipment sales, strong data center demand and improved factory execution. Semiconductor Equipment revenues reached a record $278.3 million, increasing 26.8% sequentially and 32.8% year over year. Advanced Energy cited stronger demand for leading-edge logic and memory applications.Customers validated yield and throughput improvements from the company’s eVerest and eVoS plasma power platforms. AEIS also secured system power design wins in semiconductor testing, atomic layer deposition and thermal-sensing applications. Several plasma and system power programs have started production ramps. Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. Quote Data Center Computing revenues were $191.5 million, down 1.4% sequentially but up 35.2% year over year. Demand improved during the quarter as customers resolved downstream constraints, supporting a stronger outlook for the second half of 2026.The company continued to secure programs with hyperscale customers and engage with “second wave” customers outside the largest hyperscalers. Management expects these newer customer programs to contribute more meaningfully in 2027. Advanced Energy is also developing modular 800-volt power solutions, with initial production revenues expected in late 2027 and a larger ramp anticipated in 2028. Industrial & Medical revenues rose 11.1% from the prior quarter and 16.6% year over year to $80 million. Higher factory output helped the company address healthy customer demand and reduce overdue backlog.Distribution trends also improved, with stronger orders, resales and channel inventory metrics. Advanced Energy reported momentum in electrosurgery, supported by its pulsed-power technology and captured design wins in aerospace and defense. Design wins originating from website inquiries increased 40% year over year during the first half of 2026.Telecom & Networking revenues totaled $24.3 million, declining 4.3% sequentially but increasing 11.5% from the prior-year quarter. Customers continued evaluating the company’s rack-level p…Read full documentShow less
Advanced Energy Industries AEIS reported second-quarter 2026 non-GAAP earnings of $2.74 per share, up 82.7% year over year and beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 25.11%.Revenues increased 30% year over year to $574.1 million, surpassing the consensus estimate by 5.47%. Results benefited from record Semiconductor Equipment sales, strong data center demand and improved factory execution. Semiconductor Equipment revenues reached a record $278.3 million, increasing 26.8% sequentially and 32.8% year over year. Advanced Energy cited stronger demand for leading-edge logic and memory applications.Customers validated yield and throughput improvements from the company’s eVerest and eVoS plasma power platforms. AEIS also secured system power design wins in semiconductor testing, atomic layer deposition and thermal-sensing applications. Several plasma and system power programs have started production ramps. Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. Quote Data Center Computing revenues were $191.5 million, down 1.4% sequentially but up 35.2% year over year. Demand improved during the quarter as customers resolved downstream constraints, supporting a stronger outlook for the second half of 2026.The company continued to secure programs with hyperscale customers and engage with “second wave” customers outside the largest hyperscalers. Management expects these newer customer programs to contribute more meaningfully in 2027. Advanced Energy is also developing modular 800-volt power solutions, with initial production revenues expected in late 2027 and a larger ramp anticipated in 2028. Industrial & Medical revenues rose 11.1% from the prior quarter and 16.6% year over year to $80 million. Higher factory output helped the company address healthy customer demand and reduce overdue backlog.Distribution trends also improved, with stronger orders, resales and channel inventory metrics. Advanced Energy reported momentum in electrosurgery, supported by its pulsed-power technology and captured design wins in aerospace and defense. Design wins originating from website inquiries increased 40% year over year during the first half of 2026.Telecom & Networking revenues totaled $24.3 million, declining 4.3% sequentially but increasing 11.5% from the prior-year quarter. Customers continued evaluating the company’s rack-level power solutions for AI-related applications. In the second quarter of 2026, the non-GAAP gross margin was 41.9%, up 380 basis points (bps) year over year and 180 bps sequentially. The figure included a benefit from tariff refunds. Excluding that impact, gross margin was 40.7%, exceeding management’s guidance range due to higher volumes and a favorable product mix.Non-GAAP operating expenses were $114.8 million, up 10.8% year over year and 7.3% sequentially. As a percentage of revenues, the figure declined 350 bps year over year and 90 bps quarter over quarter to 20% in the reported quarter.Non-GAAP operating income reached a record $125.5 million. The non-GAAP operating margin expanded to 21.9% from 19.1% in the first quarter and 14.6% in the year-ago period, reflecting revenue growth and operating leverage. As of June 30, 2026, cash and cash equivalents were $1.40 billion compared with $699.5 million as of March 31. For the second quarter of 2026, AEIS’s total debt was $1.26 billion. In the second quarter of 2026, operating cash flow from continuing operations was $86 million compared with an outflow of $6 million in the prior quarter. For the third quarter of 2026, Advanced Energy expects revenues of $640 million, plus or minus $20 million. Non-GAAP earnings are projected to be $3 per share, plus or minus 25 cents.Management expects the non-GAAP gross margin to be between 41% and 41.5%, excluding the second-quarter tariff-refund benefit. Operating expenses are forecasted to be between $120 million and $124 million, reflecting continued investment in product development.AEIS raised its 2026 revenue growth outlook to the low-to-mid-30% range from the low-to-mid-20% range. Semiconductor revenues in the second half are expected to grow nearly 50% year over year, while full-year Data Center Computing growth is now projected to be more than 50%.The company expects its gross margin to reach the 42% range by the fourth quarter. It also increased its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to $180-$195 million while maintaining its target for free cash flow to be at or above the 2025 level. Advanced Energy currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).Some other top-ranked stocks in the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector include Applied Materials AMAT, ACI Worldwide ACIW and Analog Devices ADI. Each stock carries a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.Applied Materials shares have gained 112.7% in the year-to-date period. Applied Materials is set to report second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 13.Shares of ACI Worldwide have gained 19.7% in the year-to-date period. ACI Worldwide is set to report the second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 6.Shares of Analog Devices have rallied 40.3% year to date. Analog Devices is slated to report fiscal third-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 19. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. (AEIS) : Free Stock Analysis Report Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) : Free Stock Analysis Report Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT) : Free Stock Analysis Report ACI Worldwide, Inc. (ACIW) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

