More Buy-Back for Acxiom - Analyst Blog
May 29 2012 - 7:30AM
Zacks
Last
week, Acxiom Corporation (ACXM)
announced that it has stepped up its share repurchase plan to $150
million now. This was done with the clear intent of bolstering
investor returns. Acxiom’s share repurchase program which started
in August 2011, has bought back about 6.1 million shares since then
for around $72 million. This accounts for nearly 7% of its total
shares outstanding in the market.
The
company’s incipient proactive advances towards returning value to
investors accrues from its strong cash flow generation ability.
Cash flow from operating activities came in at around $229.4
million for the fiscal year 2012 and Acxiom spent around $66
million to repurchase a total of 5.6 million shares during that
time.
Looking
ahead, management projects its earnings per share (EPS) to be
within 55 cents to 65 cents for fiscal 2013. Strong product
innovations, investment plans and management restructuring are
expected to be the major highlights of the upcoming fiscal year for
Acxiom.
However, there
are big players prevalent in the industry that the company should
always remain wary of. Ominous rivals in this regard include
Unisys Corporation (UIS), CoStar Group Inc.
(CSGP)
and EPAM Systems, Inc. (EPAM).
The
Zacks Consensus Estimates for the first quarter and fiscal 2013
stand at 10 cents per share and 61 cents per share, respectively.
We currently have a long-term recommendation of ‘Neutral’ for the
company’s stock. In the short run, we have a Zacks #3 Rank for the
stock, which translates into a short-term rating of
‘Hold’.
ACXIOM CORP (ACXM): Free Stock Analysis Report
COSTAR GRP INC (CSGP): Free Stock Analysis Report
EPAM SYSTEMS (EPAM): Free Stock Analysis Report
UNISYS (UIS): Free Stock Analysis Report
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