Critical Review: Legacy Education Alliance (OTCMKTS:LEAI) and Acacia Research (NASDAQ:ACTG)

Acacia Research (NASDAQ:ACTG) and Legacy Education Alliance (OTCMKTS:LEAI) are both business services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends and institutional ownership.

Volatility & Risk

Acacia Research has a beta of 0.45, suggesting that its share price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Legacy Education Alliance has a beta of -0.09, suggesting that its share price is 109% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Acacia Research and Legacy Education Alliance”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	1.57	$21.68 million	($0.18)	-25.83
Legacy Education Alliance	$150,000.00	N/A	-$2.62 million	($0.07)	N/A

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

Profitability

This table compares Acacia Research and Legacy Education Alliance’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%
Legacy Education Alliance	N/A	N/A	N/A

Institutional & Insider Ownership

86.7% of Acacia Research shares are held by institutional investors. 1.7% of Acacia Research shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 13.0% of Legacy Education Alliance shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Acacia Research and Legacy Education Alliance, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Acacia Research	1	0	1	0	2.00
Legacy Education Alliance	0	0	0	0	0.00

Acacia Research currently has a consensus price target of $6.00, suggesting a potential upside of 29.03%. Given Acacia Research’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Acacia Research is more favorable than Legacy Education Alliance.

Summary

Acacia Research beats Legacy Education Alliance on 7 of the 12 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 Legacy Education Alliance

Legacy Education Alliance, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides educational training on the topics of personal finance, entrepreneurship, real estate, and financial markets investing strategies and techniques in North America, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company markets its products and services under the Building Wealth with Legacy and Homemade Investor by Tarek El Moussa brands. It provides its programs through various formats and channels, including free workshops, basic trainings, forums, telephone mentoring, one-on-one mentoring, coaching, and e-learning. Legacy Education Alliance, Inc. was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Cape Coral, Florida.