AQR Capital Management LLC Increases Stock Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 7.1%, owning 205,473 shares worth approximately $62.32 million as of the end of the most recent quarter.
• Accenture reported earnings of $3.49 per share, exceeding analyst expectations, and its revenue reached $17.73 billion, reflecting a year-over-year growth of 7.7%.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share, translating to an annualized dividend of $5.92 and a dividend yield of 2.3%.

AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 7.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 205,473 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 13,651 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $62,318,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in Accenture by 63.9% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,953,621 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,793,889,000 after acquiring an additional 3,490,569 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 5.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $19,912,594,000 after acquiring an additional 3,419,577 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position 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 acquiring an additional 3,410,248 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position 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 acquiring an additional 1,395,135 shares during the period. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $225,217,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.3%

Accenture stock traded up $0.84 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $255.79. 4,707,034 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,663,063. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $236.67 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $160.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.37, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.30. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $267.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $295.99. 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 (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.13 earnings per share. Accenture's revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.13%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. Mizuho set a $348.00 price objective on shares of Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target 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. Guggenheim lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Benchmark restated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Finally, 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 price target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $353.76.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the insider owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 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 $141,170.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $644,582.22. This trade represents a 17.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.