American Alpha Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 1,259 Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• American Alpha Advisors LLC has acquired a new stake in Accenture PLC, purchasing 1,259 shares valued at approximately $393,000 during the first quarter.
• Several institutional investors have significantly increased their positions in Accenture, indicating strong confidence in the company's future; institutional investors now own 75.14% of the stock.
• Accenture recently reported a net revenue of $17.73 billion for the last quarter, exceeding estimates, and announced a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share to be paid on August 15th.

American Alpha Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,259 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $393,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in 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 period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake 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. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in Accenture by 16.8% during the fourth 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. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 2,782.1% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,445,281 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $450,985,000 after buying an additional 1,395,135 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Accenture by 10.7% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,582,344 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,667,393,000 after buying an additional 732,769 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Argus set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Mizuho set a $348.00 price objective on shares of Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. 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 note on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $360.21.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $0.93 on Tuesday, reaching $237.68. 4,832,289 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,535,819. The firm has a market capitalization of $148.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.92, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $236.67 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The business's 50-day moving average is $288.13 and its two-hundred day moving average is $313.86. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its 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 company had revenue of $17.73 billion for 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%. The firm's revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.13 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,290,387.05. This trade represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280 in the last quarter. Company 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.