Acacia Research Corporation (ACTG)
🔔 Watch stock
symbol.quality_heading
The business works in principle, but one material question is open. As long as it stays open, our findings do not carry a quality verdict.
The asset base is proven and not in dispute: $307.5 million of cash and $528.5 million of equity as of March 31, 2026, $90.5 million of debt held solely at the subsidiaries and not due until 2029, plus $58.5 million of free cash flow in 2025 — none of it points to a threat to the going concern. What is open is a purely operational question, and it carries weight: 88 percent of the record 2025 profit came from a single licensee, and in the first quarter of 2026 that segment booked just $0.7 million and acquired not a single new patent portfolio. Behind it sits a head office that consumed $24.7 million in 2025, 79 percent of the $31.1 million of total segment income — whether acquisitions ever earn that superstructure back is unproven so far. The three remaining segments do run steadily ($53.5 million of revenue in the first quarter of 2026 after $54.5 million), but they do not yet carry the holding company on their own. That is not a threat to substance, but it is not proven earnings quality either — hence yellow. The decision is yours.
symbol.quality_note
At first glance Acacia Research looks like a bargain: $307.5 million in cash as of March 31, 2026, a book value of $5.47 per share - and a share price below it. The filings with the U.S. securities regulator, the SEC, tell the other half of the story. In 2025 a single licensee delivered 88 percent of patent revenue; in the first quarter of 2026 that segment booked $0.7 million, down from $69.9 million a year earlier. The four operating businesses earned $31.1 million in 2025 while the head office cost $24.7 million. And above all of it sits Starboard Value with 63.4 percent of the stock. Let us read what the vault actually holds - and who decides about it.
Read the analysis
Stock Watch
This analysis is as of July 26, 2026. Stock Watch will tell you what's changed at ACTG since then.
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Appears in These Scanners
This stock currently matches 6 of our scanner strategies — each hit links to the scanner.
Only genuine hits from verified scanners count; pure ranking metrics (P/E, P/S, and similar, which just sort the whole universe) don't count as a hit. View all scanners
Trading Day
Key levels of the most recently completed trading day — not a live quote.
52-Week Range
Current price 4.40 $ — 60% of the range above the low.
Lowest and highest closing price over the last 52 weeks. The marker shows where the current price sits within that range: close to the high speaks for strength, close to the low for weakness.
Basics
Performance
Technical Indicators
Calculated from the price history · as of 08/03/2026
Valuation
Profitability
Balance Sheet & Safety
Growth
Dividend
This stock currently pays no dividend.
Quality & Screener
AI Rating
NeutralIn den sechs ausgewerteten SEC-Berichten (2 Geschäftsberichte 10-K, 4 Quartalsberichte 10-Q, Zeitraum 17.03.2025 bis 07.05.2026) kommt kein einziger Treffer zu „artificial intelligence“, „AI“, „machine learning“ oder „generative“ vor — weder als Umsatzquelle noch als Risiko im eigenen Geschäftsmodell; die vier Sparten Patentverwertung, Industriedrucker, Öl und Gas sowie Kunststoff-Fertigung werden ohne KI-Bezug beschrieben.
View the full file — quotes, sources, reviewed filings
Filings Reviewed: 10-K 2026-03-12 · 10-K 2025-03-17 · 10-Q 2026-05-07 · 10-Q 2025-11-06 · 10-Q 2025-08-07 · 10-Q 2025-05-09
Rated on July 25, 2026 · How the Rating Is Built
Highlighted are things our editorial team noticed: green = stands out as strong, red = deserves a closer look. No single metric is a verdict on its own — always read it in context.
Analysts & Price Target
The price target sits 36.4% above the current price.
- Consensus
- Strong Sell
- Analyst Ratings
- 1
Combined picture of the price targets and recommendations of every analyst covering the stock. Price targets are expectations for the next 12 months, not promises — and they often follow the price rather than predict it.
Estimates by Fiscal Year
| Fiscal Year | EPS Estimate ($) | EPS Range ($) | Revenue Estimate ($M) | Expected Growth | Analysts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12/31/2026 | -0.44 | -0.44 – -0.44 | 194 | -246.7% | 1 |
| 12/31/2027 | – | – | 0 | – | – |
Average of the analyst estimates for the coming fiscal years. The range shows how far the most optimistic and the most cautious estimate sit apart — the wider it is, the less certain the expectation.
Next Reporting Date
- Expected Earnings per Share
- -0.09 $
Expected date of the next quarterly or annual figures. Dates do shift occasionally — only the invitation issued by the company is binding.
Revenue & Profit
Cash Flow
Balance Sheet
Margins
Per Share
Click the chart or tab into it, then use ← and → to step through the periods.
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· Total · per year
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The figures could not be loaded right now.
Source: fundamental data
Quarterly Figures
| Quarter | EPS (Earnings Per Share) | EPS YoY (%) | Sales ($M) | Sales YoY (%) | Net Margin (%) | OCF ($M) | FCF ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024: Q2 | -0.02 | 88.90 | 26 | 226.90 | -32.70 | 16 | -136 |
| 2024: Q3 | -0.08 | 50.00 | 23 | 131.20 | -60.00 | -1 | -7 |
| 2024: Q4 | -0.18 | -128.30 | 49 | -47.10 | -27.50 | -20 | -24 |
| 2025: Q1 | 0.34 | 21.40 | 124 | 411.60 | 19.50 | 2 | 0 |
| 2025: Q2 | -0.06 | -200.00 | 51 | 98.30 | -6.40 | 50 | 48 |
| 2025: Q3 | -0.03 | 62.50 | 59 | 155.00 | -4.60 | 10 | 4 |
| 2025: Q4 | 0.03 | 116.80 | 50 | 2.60 | 6.80 | 13 | 7 |
| 2026: Q1 | -0.07 | -120.60 | 54 | -56.40 | -29.00 | 3 | -6 |
- EPS (Earnings Per Share):
- Quarterly profit divided by the total share count — how much of the profit works out to a single share.
- YoY (Year over Year):
- Change versus the same quarter a year ago — this is how you compare without seasonal distortion (e.g. the holiday shopping season).
- Sales:
- All revenue for the quarter, before any costs are deducted — the top line of the income statement.
- Net Margin:
- What percentage of sales is left over as profit in the end. Negative means the company is posting a loss.
- OCF (Operating Cash Flow):
- The cash that actually flows into the till from the core business during the quarter — harder to dress up than book profit.
- FCF (Free Cash Flow):
- Operating cash flow minus capital expenditures — the money that's genuinely free to use, say for paying down debt, buybacks, or dividends.
Annual Figures
| Fiscal Year | Revenue ($M) | EBIT ($M) | Net Income ($M) | EPS ($) | Operating Cash Flow ($M) | Equity ($M) | Total Assets ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 153 | -37 | -54 | -1.08 | 34 | 267 | 296 |
| 2017 | 65 | -27 | 22 | 0.44 | 24 | 296 | 309 |
| 2018 | 132 | -25 | -105 | -2.10 | 21 | 191 | 224 |
| 2019 | 11 | -23 | -17 | -0.34 | -2 | 175 | 218 |
| 2020 | 30 | -20 | 109 | 1.90 | -20 | 293 | 516 |
| 2021 | 88 | 15 | 149 | 1.52 | 13 | 419 | 799 |
| 2022 | 59 | -40 | -125 | -1.37 | -37 | 258 | 483 |
| 2023 | 125 | 21 | 67 | 0.73 | -23 | 568 | 634 |
| 2024 | 122 | -33 | -36 | -0.36 | 50 | 515 | 756 |
| 2025 | 285 | 6 | 22 | 0.22 | 75 | 543 | 771 |
Fiscal years from the audited annual reports, oldest first. EBIT is the operating profit before interest and taxes; total assets are everything the company owns.
Assessment: Opportunities & Risks
As of March 31, 2026 the books held $307.5 million of cash and $528.5 million of equity; the $90.5 million of debt sits at the subsidiaries and runs to 2029. Free cash flow came to $58.5 million in 2025. The asset base is real and recently grew larger.
The 2025 profit hung on a single licensee that accounted for 88 percent of patent revenue; $69.9 million of the $78.4 million landed in one quarter. In the first quarter of 2026 the patent segment booked $0.7 million and posted a $7.4 million operating loss. Without that one-off, earning power sits in the low tens of millions.
Parent general and administrative expenses ran to $24.7 million in 2025 - 79 percent of the $31.1 million of total segment income; in 2024 it was $30.3 million against a $2.6 million segment loss. In the first quarter of 2026 that line rose 41 percent to $6.7 million. The superstructure still has to earn its keep.
Starboard Value LP owns roughly 63.4 percent (as of March 9, 2026) and is named the controlling shareholder in the annual report. The filing itself warns that this concentration may delay or deter a change of control and reduce the value of the investment. A takeover premium is effectively impossible without Starboard.
Industrial, energy and manufacturing booked $53.5 million together in the first quarter of 2026 after $54.5 million a year earlier - stable, but without growth. Benchmark Energy delivered its strongest quarter since the acquisition at $18.7 million, yet lost $10.7 million on its price hedge over the same period.
At roughly $450 million of market value (as of July 25, 2026) and $5.47 of book value per share (March 31, 2026) the stock trades at about 0.85 times book; on paper the four operating businesses cost around $210 million. Cheap - but with no dividend since 2015 and no buyback since December 2024, the lever that would close the discount is missing.
Acacia Research is the vault trap in its purest form: $307.5 million of cash and a book value above the share price look like a safety net, yet 88 percent of the record 2025 profit came from a single licensee, the head office consumed $24.7 million of the $31.1 million of segment income, and in the first quarter of 2026 the patent segment booked just $0.7 million. Above it all sits Starboard Value with 63.4 percent - and with no dividend since 2015 and no buyback since December 2024 there is currently no mechanism that closes the discount to book value. Not investment advice.
- Acacia Research reached our research list through our in-house stock scanner "Big Earnings Surprise" (U.S. selection, rank 46 of 81 hits, RS rating 63, as of July 25, 2026). The lists are recalculated daily. One important qualification: the measured surprise refers to the adjusted earnings figure (Q1 2026: -$0.07 per share), not the GAAP number (-$0.16). The run of quarters is also not unbroken - the quarter ended June 30, 2025 came in 20 percent below the estimate.
- As-of dates differ and are stated with every figure: balance sheet and segment values as of December 31, 2025 (Form 10-K) and March 31, 2026 (Form 10-Q), share count as of May 4, 2026 (10-Q cover page), the Starboard stake as of March 9, 2026, market data as of July 25, 2026. The closing price of July 24, 2026 serves solely as a dated valuation anchor, not as an argument to buy.
- Easily confused: Acacia Research Corporation (Nasdaq: ACTG) is unrelated to similarly named consulting or real estate firms and should not be mixed up with its subsidiary Acacia Research Group, which denotes only the patent segment. The segments trade under their own brands - Printronix, Benchmark Energy, Deflecto.
About the Company
Acacia Research Corporation operates as an acquirer and operator of businesses across industrial, energy, and technology sectors in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. It operates through four segments: Intellectual Property Operations, Industrial Operations, Energy Operations, and Manufacturing Operations. The company is involved in investing in IP; and licensing and enforcement of patented technologies. It also designs and manufactures printers, including hardware and embedded software, as well as consumable products, such as inked ribbons for various industrial printing applications. In addition, the company acquires, explores, develops, and produces oil and natural gas resources located in Texas and Oklahoma. Further, it designs and manufactures purchase brochure, folder, and applications display holders; plastic injection-molded office supply, as well as arts, crafts, and education products; plastic and aluminum air venting and air control products; extruded vinyl chair mats; safety reflectors for bicycles; and emergency warning triangles, mud flaps, and splash guards for the heavy duty truck market and transportation industry. Acacia Research Corporation was incorporated in 1993 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
| Employees | 986 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | New York, NY |
| Address | 777 Third Avenue, 10017 New York, United States |
| Phone | 332 236 8500 |
| Website | acaciaresearch.com |
| IPO Date | 8. Jul 1996 |
| ISIN | US0038813079 |
| Stock Split | 11:10 on 11/19/2001 |
Management
| Name | Title | Birth Year |
|---|---|---|
| Martin D. McNulty Jr. | CEO, COO, Head of M&A and Director | 1978 |
| Michael Zambito | Chief Financial Officer | – |
| Robert Rasamny | Chief Administrative Officer | 1979 |
| Jason W. Soncini J.D. | General Counsel | 1977 |
| Kirsten Hoover | Controller | 1979 |
| Daniel Troy | Principal | – |
| Jennifer Graff | Corporate Secretary | – |
Executives per the latest required filings; titles kept in their original language. Source: fundamental data.
Chart
Interactive price chart (TradingView).
Data as of: July 31, 2026 · Source: fundamental data & SEC filings (annual and quarterly reports, 10-K/10-Q)
Note: pure fact-based analysis, not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell. All figures without guarantee.