Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. trimmed its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 28.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 76,666 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 30,956 shares during the period. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $23,923,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 36.2% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $6,486,000 after acquiring an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $317,000. Ostrum Asset Management increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 34.0% during the 4th quarter. Ostrum Asset Management now owns 8,199 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,884,000 after acquiring an additional 2,081 shares during the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 135,197 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $47,561,000 after acquiring an additional 2,356 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 61,999 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $21,829,000 after acquiring an additional 995 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Insider Activity
In other news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $141,170.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at approximately $644,582.22. This represents a 17.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the transaction, the insider owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "hold" rating and a $290.00 target price for the company. Guggenheim dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. HSBC started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Monday, July 28th. They set a "reduce" rating and a $240.00 target price for the company. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 target price for the company. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $358.08.
Read Our Latest Analysis on Accenture
Accenture Stock Up 1.9%
NYSE:ACN traded up $4.9040 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $258.8940. The stock had a trading volume of 3,102,553 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,885,374. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $236.67 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $277.65 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $307.16. The company has a market cap of $162.15 billion, a PE ratio of 20.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.29.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%.The business's revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.13 EPS. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. Analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.
Accenture Announces Dividend
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is 47.13%.
Accenture Company Profile
(
Free Report)
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.
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