Victory Capital Management Inc. Has $100.19 Million Stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Victory Capital Management Inc. lessened its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 5.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 321,075 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 19,488 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned approximately 0.05% of Accenture worth $100,188,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $21,246,236,000 after buying an additional 392,183 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,750,021,000 after buying an additional 136,665 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in 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 worth $4,325,526,000 after buying an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Accenture by 22.8% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,283,225,000 after purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its stake in Accenture by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,994,922,000 after purchasing an additional 181,449 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $0.33 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $282.37. The company had a trading volume of 4,207,339 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,909,827. 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $306.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $324.37. The stock has a market cap of $176.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.48, a PEG ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $273.19 and a 52-week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.13 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of Accenture 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 in the company, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. This trade represents 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 have sold 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on ACN. Argus set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Benchmark reiterated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, June 20th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday. They issued a "hold" rating and a $290.00 price target for the company. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $365.43.

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.