Analyzing Acacia Research (NASDAQ:ACTG) and NCR Atleos (NYSE:NATL)

NCR Atleos (NYSE:NATL) and Acacia Research (NASDAQ:ACTG) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares NCR Atleos and Acacia Research’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
NCR Atleos	4.44%	83.41%	5.87%
Acacia Research	-5.39%	0.44%	0.33%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares NCR Atleos and Acacia Research”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
NCR Atleos	$4.35 billion	0.79	$162.00 million	$2.58	17.93
Acacia Research	$285.23 million	1.48	$21.68 million	($0.15)	-28.93

NCR Atleos has higher revenue and earnings than Acacia Research. Acacia Research is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than NCR Atleos, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

NCR Atleos has a beta of 0.56, meaning that its stock price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Acacia Research has a beta of 0.44, meaning that its stock price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

88.7% of NCR Atleos shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.7% of Acacia Research shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of NCR Atleos shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of Acacia Research shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for NCR Atleos and Acacia Research, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
NCR Atleos	0	4	1	0	2.20
Acacia Research	1	0	1	0	2.00

NCR Atleos presently has a consensus target price of $50.27, suggesting a potential upside of 8.66%. Acacia Research has a consensus target price of $6.00, suggesting a potential upside of 38.25%. Given Acacia Research’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Acacia Research is more favorable than NCR Atleos.

Summary

NCR Atleos beats Acacia Research on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About NCR Atleos

NCR Atleos Corporation operates as a financial technology company in the United States, rest of the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through three segments: Self-Service Banking, Network, and Telecommunications & Technology (T&T). The Self-Service Banking segment offers solutions, including a line of automated teller machine (ATM) and interactive teller machine (ITM) hardware and software, as well as related installation, maintenance, and managed and professional services; and solutions to manage and run the ATM channel end-to-end for financial institutions comprising back office, cash management, software management and ATM deployment, and others. The Network segment provides a network of ATMs and multi-functioning financial services kiosks for financial institutions, fintechs, neobanks, and retailers; Allpoint network for credit unions, banks, digital banks, fintechs, stored-value debit card issuers, and other consumer financial services providers; ReadyCode to convert a digital value to cash or cash to a digital value; ATM branding solutions to financial institutions; ATM management and services to retailers and other businesses; and engages in the buying and selling of Bitcoins. The T&T segment offers managed network and infrastructure services to enterprise clients across various industries through communications service providers and technology manufacturers; and professional, field, and remote services for modern network technologies, including software-defined wide area networking, network functions virtualization, wireless local area networks, optical networking, and edge networks. NCR Atleos Corporation is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

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.