Crawford & Company (NYSE:CRD.A) and Acacia Research (NASDAQ:ACTG) Head to Head Survey

Acacia Research (NASDAQ:ACTG) and Crawford & Company (NYSE:CRD.A) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, dividends, earnings, valuation and institutional ownership.

Risk & Volatility

Acacia Research has a beta of 0.49, indicating that its share price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Crawford & Company has a beta of 0.83, indicating that its share price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

86.7% of Acacia Research shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 22.6% of Crawford & Company shares are held by institutional investors. 1.1% of Acacia Research shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 54.3% of Crawford & Company shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Acacia Research and Crawford & Company”s 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	1.55	$21.68 million	($0.18)	-25.50
Crawford & Company	$1.31 billion	0.38	$19.63 million	$0.36	28.35

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Acacia Research and Crawford & Company, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Acacia Research	1	0	1	0	2.00
Crawford & Company	0	0	1	0	3.00

Acacia Research presently has a consensus target price of $6.00, indicating a potential upside of 30.72%. Crawford & Company has a consensus target price of $14.00, indicating a potential upside of 37.19%. Given Crawford & Company’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Crawford & Company is more favorable than Acacia Research.

Profitability

This table compares Acacia Research and Crawford & Company’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%
Crawford & Company	1.37%	24.21%	5.46%

Summary

Crawford & Company beats Acacia Research on 10 of the 13 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 Crawford & Company

Crawford & Company provides claims management and outsourcing solutions to the risk management and insurance industry, and self-insured entities. The company's Crawford Claims Solutions segment offers claims management services related to property, casualty, and catastrophe losses caused by physical damage to commercial and residential real properties, and personal properties, as well as marine losses. It also offers services in the areas of field investigation, catastrophe, evaluation, and resolution of property and casualty insurance claims; and various on-demand inspection, verification, and other task specific field services for businesses and consumers through a mobile platform. Its Crawford TPA Solutions segment provides claims and risk management services; desktop claim adjusting and claims evaluation services; initial loss reporting services for claimants; loss mitigation services, such as medical bill review and case management, and vocational rehabilitation services; and risk management information services, as well as administers trust funds established to pay claims. It offers services for workers' compensation, auto and liability, disability absence and medical management, and accident and health markets. The company's Crawford Specialty Solutions segment offers claims management services related to large and complex losses in various industries, such as commercial property, aviation, forensic accounting, marine and transportation, retail, building and construction, cyber, and energy. It also provides a customer-centric solution for various loss types comprising high-frequency and low-complexity claims, and large complex repairs; and outsourced contractor management services to personal and commercial insurance carriers, and consumer markets. The company operates in the United States, the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe, Canada, Australia, and internationally. Crawford & Company was founded in 1941 and is based in Peachtree Corners, Georgia.