Bridgewater Advisors Inc. Buys New Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Bridgewater Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 2,249 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $671,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $2,351,683,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Accenture by 30,256.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,067,651,000 after buying an additional 3,410,248 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Accenture by 10.7% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,582,344 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,667,393,000 after purchasing an additional 732,769 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN traded down $0.78 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $281.92. 961,049 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,913,788. The company has a market cap of $176.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm's fifty day moving average is $306.83 and its 200 day moving average is $325.21. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $273.19 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is 47.13%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Mizuho set a $348.00 price target on shares of Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Finally, Guggenheim cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $365.43.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $141,170.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at $644,582.22. The trade was a 17.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 5,454 shares of company stock worth $1,646,780. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture 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.