Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 6.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 268,967 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 16,530 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $83,928,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.
Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 36.2% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $6,486,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. Sigma Planning Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 2,526 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $889,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the period. Howard Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,531,000. MONECO Advisors LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 26.9% during the fourth quarter. MONECO Advisors LLC now owns 1,713 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $603,000 after acquiring an additional 363 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $350,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Accenture Stock Down 2.0%
ACN traded down $6.01 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $294.71. 3,157,805 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,943,211. Accenture PLC has a 1 year low of $273.19 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 1.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $184.59 billion, a PE ratio of 23.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $307.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $332.81.
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 analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for 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 company's revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.13 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.
Accenture Announces Dividend
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is 47.13%.
Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture
In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the 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 now owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
Several research firms recently issued reports on ACN. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Benchmark reiterated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, June 20th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Finally, Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $370.75.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on Accenture
Accenture Profile
(
Free Report)
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.
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