Sifting through countless of stocks in the Financial Services industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in StoneCo Ltd., ACI Worldwide or Inc. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how StoneCo Ltd., ACI Worldwide and Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About StoneCo Ltd., ACI Worldwide and Inc.

StoneCo Ltd. provides financial technology and software solutions to merchants and integrated partners to conduct electronic commerce across in-store, online, and mobile channels in Brazil. The company provides financial services, including payment, prepayment, digital banking, and credit solutions. It offers payment solutions of electronic payments and alternative payment methods, such as payment slips and Pix transactions; digital product to help merchants improve their consumers’ experience, which include split-payment processing, multi-payment processing, and recurring payments for subscriptions; and tap on phone solution. In addition, the company provides prepayment; digital banking; and credit solution. The company serves online, offline, and omni-channel sales clients under Stone, tonstone, and paggar.me. StoneCo Ltd. was founded in 2012 and is based in George Town, the Cayman Islands.

ACI Worldwide, Inc. develops, markets, installs, and supports software products and services for facilitating electronic payments in the United States and worldwide. It operates through Payment Software, and Billers segments. The company offers ACI Acquiring, a solution to process credit, debit, and prepaid card transactions, deliver digital innovation, fraud prevention, and reduce fees; ACI Issuing, a digital payment issuing solution; and ACI Connetic, a solution that offers payment services for processing, routing, and managing various payment types. It provides ACI real-time payments, a solution that provides connectivity to payment rails; ACI RTGS and cross-border, a payments engine that offers multi-currency, payment and STP processing, and back-office integration interfaces; and ACI digital central infrastructure, a solution that offers real-time payments service. Further, it offers ACI Payments Orchestration Platform, a payments platform that orchestrates and optimizes payments; ACI Fraud Management for merchants, billers, and financial institutions; ACI Fraud Scoring Services with artificial and human insights with data intelligence; and Speedpay, an integrated suite of digital billing, payment, disbursement, and communication services. Additionally, it offers electronic bill presentment and payment services to consumer finance, insurance, healthcare, higher education, utility, government, subscription provider, telecommunications, and mortgage sectors; product installations and configurations, and custom software modifications; and business and technical consultancy, on-site support, product education, and testing services, as well distributes software developed by third parties. It has strategic partnerships with dLocal. The company was formerly known as Transaction Systems Architects, Inc. and changed its name to ACI Worldwide, Inc. in July 2007. The company was founded in 1975 and is headquartered in Elkhorn, Nebraska.

Latest Financial Services and StoneCo Ltd., ACI Worldwide, Inc. Stock News

As of September 4, 2026, StoneCo Ltd. had a $2.3 billion market capitalization, compared to the Financial Services median of $2.4 million. StoneCo Ltd.’s stock is down 31.6% in 2026, up 4.2% in the previous five trading days and down 38.76% in the past year.

Currently, StoneCo Ltd.’s price-earnings ratio is 3.9. StoneCo Ltd.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $2.6 billion with a 24.7% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 6.8%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $1.958 per share for the current fiscal year. StoneCo Ltd. does not currently pay a dividend.

As of September 4, 2026, ACI Worldwide, Inc. had a $5.3 billion market cap, putting it in the 68th percentile of all stocks. ACI Worldwide, Inc.’s stock is up 10.8% in 2026, down 1.6% in the previous five trading days and up 6.67% in the past year.

Currently, ACI Worldwide, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 24.1. ACI Worldwide, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $1.8 billion with a 12.4% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 7.3%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $3.590 per share for the current fiscal year. ACI Worldwide, Inc. does not currently pay a dividend.

How We Compare StoneCo Ltd., ACI Worldwide and Inc. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at StoneCo Ltd., ACI Worldwide and Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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StoneCo Ltd., ACI Worldwide and Inc. Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
StoneCo Ltd.	STNE	A
ACI Worldwide, Inc.	ACIW	C

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

StoneCo Ltd. has a Value Score of 99, which is Deep Value. ACI Worldwide, Inc. has a Value Score of 41, which is Average.

The Value Stock Winner: StoneCo Ltd.

As you can clearly see from the Value Grade breakdown above, StoneCo Ltd. is considered to have better value than ACI Worldwide, Inc.. For investors who focus solely on a company’s valuation, StoneCo Ltd. could be a good stock to add to their portfolio. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

StoneCo Ltd., ACI Worldwide and Inc. Growth Grades

Company	Ticker	Growth
StoneCo Ltd.	STNE	D
ACI Worldwide, Inc.	ACIW	A

The foundation of growth investing is seeking out stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth that is expected to continue into the future.

In order to compute the growth score and assign it a letter grade, the percentile ranks for each of three components‐consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations‐must be determined. These three rank figures are added together, and the sum is ranked against the entire stock universe to arrive at a company’s Growth Score to create an equal distribution of grades.

The companies in the bottom 20% of the stock universe receive Growth Grades of F, considered to be very weak, while those in the top 20% receive A grades, which are considered very strong.

StoneCo Ltd. has a Growth Score of 31, which is Weak. ACI Worldwide, Inc. has a Growth Score of 100, which is Very Strong.

The Growth Grade Winner: ACI Worldwide, Inc.

As you can clearly see from the Growth Grade breakdown above, ACI Worldwide, Inc. has a more attractive growth grade than StoneCo Ltd.. For investors who focus solely on how a company is growing relative to other companies in the same industry, ACI Worldwide, Inc. could be a good stock to add to their portfolio. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

StoneCo Ltd., ACI Worldwide and Inc.’s Estimate Revisions Grades

Company	Ticker	Earnings Estimate
StoneCo Ltd.	STNE	D
ACI Worldwide, Inc.	ACIW	C

Earnings estimate revisions scores consider the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, positive surprises beget further positive surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

Estimate revisions offer an indication of what analysts are thinking about the short-term prospects of a firm. Estimate revisions are based on the statistical significance of a firm’s last two quarterly earnings surprises and the percentage change in its consensus estimate for the current fiscal year over the past month and past three months.

StoneCo Ltd. has a Earnings Estimate Score of 24, which is Negative. ACI Worldwide, Inc. has a Earnings Estimate Score of 60, which is Neutral.

The Earnings Estimate Revisions Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither StoneCo Ltd., ACI Worldwide or Inc. has an Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade that could be considered a “winner.” Investors considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if StoneCo Ltd., ACI Worldwide or Inc. is the better investment when it comes to estimate revisions.

Other StoneCo Ltd., ACI Worldwide and Inc. Grades

In addition to Value, Estimate Revisions and Growth, A+ Investor also provides grades for Momentum and Quality.

Momentum grades help uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming.

AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the ranking of key metrics. Specifically, the quality grade is the percentile rank of the composite of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and F-Score.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether StoneCo Ltd., ACI Worldwide and Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, StoneCo Ltd., ACI Worldwide or Inc. Stock?

Overall, StoneCo Ltd. stock has a Value Score of 99, Growth Score of 31 and Estimate Revisions Score of 24.

ACI Worldwide, Inc. stock has a Value Score of 41, Growth Score of 100 and Estimate Revisions Score of 60.

Comparing StoneCo Ltd., ACI Worldwide and Inc.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.