Board of the Pension Protection Fund Takes Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 2,700 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $843,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 36.2% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $6,486,000 after buying an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $350,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its position in Accenture by 7.1% during the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 3,347 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,177,000 after purchasing an additional 222 shares during the last quarter. Simmons Bank raised its stake in Accenture by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Simmons Bank now owns 11,732 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,127,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the period. Finally, Whipplewood Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $78,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $0.82 during trading on Friday, hitting $295.26. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,159,093 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,943,751. The company has a market capitalization of $184.93 billion, a PE ratio of 23.51, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $273.19 and a fifty-two week 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's 50-day moving average price is $307.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $332.11.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.13 EPS. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.01%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.13%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. Benchmark restated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, June 20th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $370.71.

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.