Head-To-Head Survey: Acacia Research (NASDAQ:ACTG) & Sodexo (OTCMKTS:SDXAY)

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

86.7% of Acacia Research shares are held by institutional investors. 1.1% of Acacia Research shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Sodexo shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Acacia Research and Sodexo, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Acacia Research	1	0	1	0	2.00
Sodexo	1	5	1	0	2.00

Acacia Research presently has a consensus target price of $6.00, indicating a potential upside of 27.66%. Given Acacia Research’s higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Acacia Research is more favorable than Sodexo.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Acacia Research	-8.53%	-2.81%	-2.11%
Sodexo	N/A	N/A	N/A

Volatility & Risk

Acacia Research has a beta of 0.45, suggesting that its stock price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sodexo has a beta of 0.53, suggesting that its stock price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Acacia Research	$285.23 million	1.59	$21.68 million	($0.18)	-26.11
Sodexo	$26.49 billion	0.32	$765.33 million	N/A	N/A

Sodexo has higher revenue and earnings than Acacia Research.

Summary

Sodexo beats Acacia Research on 6 of the 10 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 Sodexo

Sodexo S.A. provides food services and facilities management services worldwide. It offers various on-site services, which includes corporate services, energy and resources, government and agencies, and other services; healthcare and seniors; and learning solutions to schools and universities. The company also provides food services comprising retail service, food delivery, and meal and food vouchers, as well as digital food ordering services; savings and purchase solutions, data and digital tools, and advisory services and client support; and work-life balance and employee experience solutions. In addition, it offers facility management services, including technical service management, assets management, building maintenance, access control, deep cleaning, energy management, space planning, project management, front-of-house services, grounds maintenance, waste management, HVAC systems, mail management, commercial cleaning, workspace management, and pest control. services. The company was formerly known as Sodexho Alliance and changed its name to Sodexo S.A. in 2008. Sodexo S.A. was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France.