Westfield Capital Management Co. LP Takes $5.80 Million Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• Westfield Capital Management Co. LP acquired a new stake in Accenture PLC, purchasing 18,581 shares valued at approximately $5,798,000 during the 1st quarter.
• Accenture recently announced a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share, which will be paid on August 15th, marking an annualized dividend yield of 2.3%.
• The company reported earnings of $3.49 per share for the last quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations and reflecting a 7.7% year-over-year revenue growth with total revenues of $17.73 billion.

Westfield Capital Management Co. LP purchased a new stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 18,581 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $5,798,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter worth about $32,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Navigoe LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $37,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "hold" rating and a $290.00 target price for the company. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Accenture to a "moderate sell" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. Argus set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $360.21.

Accenture Trading Down 2.3%

NYSE ACN traded down $5.72 on Thursday, hitting $241.82. The company's stock had a trading volume of 7,245,426 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,477,017. The company's 50-day moving average is $292.71 and its 200 day moving average is $316.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $239.82 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $151.46 billion, a PE ratio of 19.25, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.29.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.13 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $644,582.22. This trade represents a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Company Profile

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.