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.
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.
Payment Software Leads Growth
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.
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.
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.
ACI Connetic Wins and AI Initiatives
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 Growth Continues Despite Comparisons
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.
Guidance Raised, Buybacks Continue
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.
About ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW)
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.
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