Aristides Capital LLC Has $4.68 Million Holdings in Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Aristides Capital LLC increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 120.1% during the first quarter, owning nearly 15,000 shares valued at approximately $4.68 million.
• Accenture recently reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, surpassing analysts' expectations, with revenues reaching $17.73 billion.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share, representing an annualized dividend of $5.92 and a yield of 2.3%.

Aristides Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 120.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 14,992 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 8,182 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for approximately 1.4% of Aristides Capital LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest holding. Aristides Capital LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $4,678,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Accenture by 63.9% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,953,621 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,793,889,000 after buying an additional 3,490,569 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 5.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $19,912,594,000 after purchasing an additional 3,419,577 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 30,256.8% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,067,651,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,248 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 2,782.1% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,445,281 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $450,985,000 after purchasing an additional 1,395,135 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Accenture by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,582,344 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,667,393,000 after purchasing an additional 732,769 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Up 1.5%

Shares of ACN stock traded up $3.95 on Friday, hitting $260.12. The stock had a trading volume of 2,805,715 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,542,648. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $236.67 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $162.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.71, a PEG ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $273.40 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $303.49.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.13 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the sale, the insider owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. The trade was a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI began coverage on Accenture in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Benchmark restated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, June 20th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Accenture from $334.00 to $302.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $358.08.

About Accenture

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.