Acacia Research (NASDAQ:ACTG) versus Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) Head-To-Head Contrast

Acacia Research (NASDAQ:ACTG) and Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability and risk.

Volatility and Risk

Acacia Research has a beta of 0.51, suggesting that its share price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Essent Group has a beta of 0.76, suggesting that its share price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Acacia Research and Essent Group”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Acacia Research	$285.23 million	1.47	$21.68 million	($0.15)	-28.67
Essent Group	$1.35 billion	4.18	$689.97 million	$7.17	8.77

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

86.7% of Acacia Research shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.0% of Essent Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.7% of Acacia Research shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.6% of Essent Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Acacia Research	-5.39%	0.44%	0.33%
Essent Group	51.45%	11.91%	9.09%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Acacia Research and Essent Group, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Acacia Research	1	0	1	0	2.00
Essent Group	0	6	3	0	2.33

Acacia Research currently has a consensus target price of $6.00, suggesting a potential upside of 39.53%. Essent Group has a consensus target price of $71.14, suggesting a potential upside of 13.19%. Given Acacia Research’s higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Acacia Research is more favorable than Essent Group.

Summary

Essent Group beats Acacia Research on 13 of the 14 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 Essent Group

Essent Group Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides private mortgage insurance and reinsurance for mortgages secured by residential properties located in the United States. Its mortgage insurance products include primary, pool, and master policy. The company also provides information technology maintenance and development services; customer support-related services; underwriting consulting; and contract underwriting services, as well as risk management products and title insurance and settlement services. It serves the originators of residential mortgage loans, such as regulated depository institutions, mortgage banks, credit unions, and other lenders. Essent Group Ltd. was incorporated in 2008 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.