- Stephens analyst Brett Huff upgrades ACI Worldwide (ACIW +10.4%) to Overweight from Equalweight after Starboard Value's Jeffrey Smith wrote to the company urging the sale of ACIW.
- Huff, who considers a potential sale much more likely now, estimates that ACIW may be worth $44 per share assuming $60M in synergies on 18x-19x forward EBITDA takeout valuation. That's 32% higher than ACIW's closing price of $33.42 on Tuesday.
- Among potential acquires are: Fidelity National Information Services (FIS -1.3%), Fiserv (FISV -0.6%), NCR (NCR +0.3%), SAP (SAP -0.5%), Oracle (ORCL +0.5%), Euronet (EEFT +0.3%), IT consulting firms, Microsoft (MSFT -0.7%), Mastercard (MA -0.2%), and private equity firms, he said.