Ninety One UK Ltd Decreases Stock Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Ninety One UK Ltd decreased its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 5.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 254,189 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 13,263 shares during the quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd's holdings in Accenture were worth $79,317,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 36.2% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $6,486,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 47.6% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $861,000 after acquiring an additional 789 shares during the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,019,000. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.7% during the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,300 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $457,000 after acquiring an additional 186 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.6% during the fourth quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 1,610 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $566,000 after acquiring an additional 229 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on ACN. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 target price (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Argus set a $370.00 target price on Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. Benchmark reissued a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, June 20th. Finally, Guggenheim dropped their price target on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $370.71.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 2.5%

Accenture stock traded down $7.35 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $281.01. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,075,765 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,924,704. The firm has a market capitalization of $176.00 billion, a PE ratio of 22.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a 1 year low of $273.19 and a 1 year high of $398.35. 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 stock's fifty day moving average is $309.00 and its two-hundred day moving average is $327.36.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.11%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

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.