Acacia Research (NASDAQ:ACTG – Get Free Report) and comScore (NASDAQ:SCOR – Get Free Report) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, dividends and analyst recommendations.
Profitability
This table compares Acacia Research and comScore’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Acacia Research | -2.60% | 1.33% | 1.00% |
| comScore | -19.80% | -1,124.27% | -14.92% |
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Acacia Research and comScore, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Acacia Research | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.00 |
| comScore | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.00 |
Volatility and Risk
Institutional & Insider Ownership
86.7% of Acacia Research shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 42.2% of comScore shares are held by institutional investors. 1.1% of Acacia Research shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 11.1% of comScore shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Valuation & Earnings
This table compares Acacia Research and comScore”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Acacia Research | $283.95 million | 1.19 | -$36.06 million | $0.05 | 70.20 |
| comScore | $358.94 million | 0.09 | -$60.25 million | ($5.52) | -1.18 |
Acacia Research has higher earnings, but lower revenue than comScore. comScore is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Acacia Research, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Acacia Research beats comScore on 7 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Acacia Research
Acacia is a publicly traded (Nasdaq: ACTG) company that is focused on acquiring and operating businesses across the industrial, energy and technology sectors where it believes it can leverage its expertise, significant capital base, and deep industry relationships to drive value. Acacia evaluates opportunities based on the attractiveness of the underlying cash flows, without regard to a specific investment horizon. Acacia operates its businesses based on three key principles of people, process, and performance and has built a management team with demonstrated expertise in research, transactions and execution, and operations and management.
About comScore
comScore, Inc. operates as an information and analytics company that measures audiences, consumer behavior, and advertising across media platforms in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Canada, and internationally. The company provides digital ad solutions, including Media Metrix Multi-Platform and Mobile Metrix, which measure websites and applications on computers, smartphones, and tablets; Video Metrix that delivers measurement of digital video consumption; Plan Metrix, which offers understanding of consumer lifestyle; Total Home Panel Suite, which capture OTT, connected TV, and IOT device usage and content consumption; CCR, which enhances validated campaign essentials verification of mobile and desktop video campaigns; XMedia Enhanced, which provides a deduplicated view of national programming content; Comscore marketing solutions; Lift Models, which measures the impact of advertising on a brand; Survey Analytics, which measure various consumer insights including brand health metrics; and Activation Solutions, including audience activation and content activation. The company's cross platform solutions products and services comprises Comscore TVNational that helps customers understand the performance of network advertising campaigns; Comscore TVLocal allows customers to understand consumer viewing patterns and characteristics; OnDemand Essentials that provides transactional tracking and reporting; Movie Solutions; and Hollywood Software Suite. In addition, it offers custom solutions for planning, optimization, and evaluation of advertising campaigns and brand protection. Further, the company provides products that measure movie viewership and box office results by capturing movie ticket sales in real time or near real time. It serves digital publishers, television networks, movie studios, content owners, brand advertisers, agencies, and technology providers. The company was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.
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