Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Purchased by American Century Companies Inc.

Key Points

• American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 17.6% in Q1, now owning approximately 0.07% of the company, valued at $139.98 million.
• CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares, reducing her ownership by 21.73%, while another CEO, Mauro Macchi, sold 500 shares, marking a 17.97% decrease in his stake.
• Accenture announced a quarterly dividend of $1.48, providing an annual yield of 2.4% with a payout ratio of 47.13%.

American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 17.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 448,596 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 67,097 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned 0.07% of Accenture worth $139,980,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in Accenture by 36.2% during 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 in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $317,000. Capital International Sarl lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Sarl now owns 19,360 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $6,811,000 after buying an additional 441 shares in the last quarter. Commerce Bank lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 49,016 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $17,243,000 after purchasing an additional 1,100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Ltd. CA increased its holdings in Accenture by 5.6% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Ltd. CA now owns 6,235 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,193,000 after buying an additional 329 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. This trade represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The sale 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 business's 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 completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 target price (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $334.00 to $302.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. 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. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $358.08.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN traded down $1.3230 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $253.7270. The company had a trading volume of 2,652,269 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,556,189. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The firm has a market cap of $158.92 billion, a PE ratio of 20.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.29. The business's 50 day moving average price is $279.99 and its 200-day moving average price is $308.98. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $236.67 and a 1-year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.13 EPS. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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