Acacia Research (NASDAQ:ACTG) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Acacia Research (NASDAQ:ACTG) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Saturday.

ACTG has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Acacia Research in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Craig Hallum lifted their price target on Acacia Research from $5.00 to $6.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $6.00.

Acacia Research Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ACTG opened at $4.93 on Friday. Acacia Research has a twelve month low of $2.70 and a twelve month high of $5.13. The company has a quick ratio of 8.64, a current ratio of 9.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $4.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $3.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $475.55 million, a PE ratio of 21.43 and a beta of 0.52.

Acacia Research (NASDAQ:ACTG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 11th. The business services provider reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.14) by $0.17. The business had revenue of $50.13 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.00 million. Acacia Research had a net margin of 7.60% and a return on equity of 4.11%.

Institutional Trading of Acacia Research

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Acacia Research by 12.8% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,145,981 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $11,766,000 after acquiring an additional 355,916 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Acacia Research by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,758,800 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $10,318,000 after acquiring an additional 10,504 shares in the last quarter. Krilogy Financial LLC grew its holdings in Acacia Research by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Krilogy Financial LLC now owns 1,243,413 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,899,000 after purchasing an additional 45,015 shares during the period. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Acacia Research by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. now owns 983,261 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,677,000 after purchasing an additional 93,714 shares during the period. Finally, Formidable Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Acacia Research by 7.0% during the third quarter. Formidable Asset Management LLC now owns 960,355 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,245,000 after purchasing an additional 62,625 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.69% of the company’s stock.

About Acacia Research

Acacia Research Corporation is a publicly traded patent licensing company based in New York City. The firm specializes in acquiring patented technologies through a network of wholly owned subsidiaries and seeking licensing agreements or settlements with companies that utilize those technologies. Since its founding in 1993, Acacia has built a business model centered on identifying innovative inventions and monetizing them through patent enforcement and strategic partnerships.

The company’s activities span a broad range of technology sectors, including life sciences, medical devices, software, telecommunications and consumer electronics.