Contrasting Wolters Kluwer (OTCMKTS:WTKWY) & Acacia Research (NASDAQ:ACTG)

Wolters Kluwer (OTCMKTS:WTKWY) and Acacia Research (NASDAQ:ACTG) are both business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership and risk.

Risk and Volatility

Wolters Kluwer has a beta of 0.7, meaning that its share price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Acacia Research has a beta of 0.52, meaning that its share price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Wolters Kluwer	N/A	N/A	N/A
Acacia Research	7.60%	4.11%	3.05%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Wolters Kluwer and Acacia Research”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Wolters Kluwer	$6.93 billion	2.50	$1.48 billion	N/A	N/A
Acacia Research	$285.23 million	1.66	$21.68 million	$0.23	21.35

Wolters Kluwer has higher revenue and earnings than Acacia Research.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

0.0% of Wolters Kluwer shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.7% of Acacia Research shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.7% of Acacia Research shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Wolters Kluwer and Acacia Research, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Wolters Kluwer	1	0	3	1	2.80
Acacia Research	0	1	1	0	2.50

Acacia Research has a consensus target price of $6.00, suggesting a potential upside of 22.20%. Given Acacia Research’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Acacia Research is more favorable than Wolters Kluwer.

Summary

Wolters Kluwer beats Acacia Research on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer N.V. provides professional information, software solutions, and services in the Netherlands, rest of Europe, the United States, Canada, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company operates through Health; Tax & Accounting; Financial & Corporate Compliance; Legal & Regulatory; and Corporate Performance & ESG segments. The Health segment offers clinical technology and evidence-based solutions that drive effective decision-making and improved outcomes across healthcare. It serves hospitals, healthcare organizations, clinicians, students, schools, libraries, payers, life sciences, and pharmacies. The Tax & Accounting segment offers solutions that help tax, accounting, and audit professionals to drive productivity, navigate change, and deliver better outcomes. It serves accounting firms, tax and auditing departments, businesses of all sizes, government agencies, libraries, and universities. The Financial & Corporate Compliance segment offers solutions for legal entity compliance and banking product compliance. It serves corporations, small businesses, law firms, banks, non-bank lenders, credit unions, insurers, and securities firms. The Legal & Regulatory segment provides information, insights, and workflow solutions for changing regulatory obligations, managing risk, and increasing efficiency. It provides solutions for legal and compliance professionals in law firms, corporate legal departments, universities, and government organizations. The Corporate Performance & ESG segment offers enterprise software to drive financial and sustainability performance and manage risks, meet reporting requirements, improve safety and productivity, and reduce environmental impact. It serves corporate finance, audit, planning, risk, environmental, health and safety, operational risk management, and sustainability professionals in corporations, banks, and governments. Wolters Kluwer N.V. was founded in 1836 and is based in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.

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.