If you’ve ever tried to make sense of a stock’s value, you’ve probably run into the Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratio. It’s a handy shorthand, but pulling up the historical P/E ratios for a specific company—like ACI Worldwide (ticker: ACIW)—can be trickier than you might expect. In this article, I’ll walk you through how to find ACIW’s historical P/E ratios, what those numbers tell us, and how interpretations can differ depending on where and how you look. I’ll also share some real-life experiences, including a couple of mistakes I made when compiling this data, and how experts think about P/E in the context of global reporting standards.
Let’s get this out of the way: The P/E ratio tells you how much investors are willing to pay for each dollar of a company’s earnings. A high P/E can mean investors expect fast growth, or it can mean the stock is overpriced. A low P/E can mean a bargain, or a business in trouble. For mid-cap companies like ACI Worldwide, which provides payment software globally, the P/E is a quick way to compare it to peers like FISV or GPN.
First, I made the rookie mistake of just typing “ACIW historical P/E” into Google and clicking the first Yahoo Finance link. Turns out, Yahoo only shows the current P/E, not the trend over time. To get actual historical data, you need to dig deeper—here’s how I did it (and how you can too):
On my first pass, I forgot that some data vendors use trailing twelve months (TTM) earnings, while others use fiscal year-end. That’s why, for example, Macrotrends might show a P/E of 25.7 for 2022, while YCharts shows 24.8 for the same year. They’re both technically correct—just based on slightly different periods.
Here’s a snapshot of ACI Worldwide’s historical P/E ratios (source: MacroTrends, cross-checked with Yahoo Finance and SEC filings):
| Year | P/E (End of Year, Macrotrends) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 27.5 | Higher than previous years, reflecting strong price run-up |
| 2022 | 25.7 | Market optimism post-pandemic |
| 2021 | 41.2 | Earnings dip, stock price stayed up |
| 2020 | 29.6 | Pandemic impact, volatile earnings |
| 2019 | 35.4 | Pre-pandemic, decent growth expectations |
Data sources: Macrotrends.net, SEC 10-K filings. Note: Minor discrepancies may exist due to different definitions of “earnings.”
Now, here’s where things get interesting—and messy. The P/E ratio is simple in theory, but “Earnings” can mean different things depending on which accounting standards and regulations a company follows. For example, the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance (2023) emphasize transparent reporting, but leave room for local standards. In the U.S., the SEC requires GAAP-compliant earnings, while in Europe, IFRS rules apply.
Let’s take a look at how P/E can vary internationally:
| Jurisdiction | "Earnings" Standard | Legal Basis | Regulatory Body |
|---|---|---|---|
| USA | GAAP Net Income | SEC Regulation S-X | SEC |
| EU | IFRS Net Profit | EU IAS Regulation | ESMA, local NCAs |
| Japan | J-GAAP Net Income | FIEA | JFSA |
| China | CAS Net Profit | CSRC rules | CSRC |
For more on global standards, see the IFRS Foundation and US SEC.
A few years back, I compared ACIW’s P/E to Worldline (WLN.PA), a big European payment processor. On paper, Worldline’s P/E was much higher. But after talking with a finance professor (let’s call her Dr. Lin), she pointed out that Worldline’s “E” was calculated using IFRS, which includes more non-cash items and fair value adjustments than U.S. GAAP. So, comparing the two directly didn’t make much sense. Dr. Lin’s advice: “Always check the footnotes. The devil is in the definition of earnings.”
Here’s a snippet of a LinkedIn post by an industry analyst, Mark F., that sums it up nicely:
“Investors who blindly compare P/E ratios across borders, or even across sectors, are missing the nuances of accounting rules. Dig into the financials before drawing conclusions.”
When I first started tracking ACIW, I just wanted a quick answer: higher or lower than average? But after digging through different data sources, reconciling numbers from MacroTrends, Yahoo, and SEC filings, I realized how messy “simple” ratios can be. One time, I even mistyped the ticker as “ACIWX” and wondered why the P/E was off by a factor of ten—rookie mistake!
If you’re comparing ACIW to another stock, make sure:
To sum up, ACI Worldwide’s P/E ratio has bounced between the mid-20s and low 40s over the past five years, reflecting both market optimism and swings in earnings. But getting the “real” number requires checking your data source, understanding accounting standards, and not being afraid to dig into the footnotes.
Next time you’re researching a stock—whether it’s ACIW or another international player—try pulling data from multiple sources, and if you’re really stuck, check the original filings. And if you ever find yourself lost in accounting jargon, remember: even the pros sometimes have to double-check their formulas.
For further reading, check out:
And if you ever want to geek out over the details—or need help tracking down that one elusive data point—feel free to reach out. Sometimes the best insights come from comparing notes and (yes) admitting when you got it wrong the first time.