Acacia Research Co. (NASDAQ:ACTG) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Acacia Research Co. (NASDAQ:ACTG) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,250,000 shares, a decline of 7.4% from the December 31st total of 1,350,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 259,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.8 days.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Isaac T. Kohlberg sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.57, for a total transaction of $68,550.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 69,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $316,582.18. The trade was a 17.80 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 1.65% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of ACTG. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Acacia Research by 9.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,151,647 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $14,687,000 after purchasing an additional 265,993 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Acacia Research by 15.2% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,772,295 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $8,878,000 after purchasing an additional 233,759 shares in the last quarter. Krilogy Financial LLC lifted its stake in Acacia Research by 7.2% in the 4th quarter. Krilogy Financial LLC now owns 1,038,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,505,000 after purchasing an additional 69,400 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its stake in Acacia Research by 8.7% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 393,584 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,834,000 after purchasing an additional 31,352 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Peapod Lane Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Acacia Research in the 4th quarter worth $1,033,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com cut shares of Acacia Research from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th.

Acacia Research Stock Down 0.5 %

ACTG opened at $4.36 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 15.95 and a current ratio of 16.39. Acacia Research has a fifty-two week low of $3.78 and a fifty-two week high of $5.74. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $4.41 and its 200 day moving average is $4.63. The stock has a market cap of $424.53 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.23 and a beta of 0.52.

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.