Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec Acquires 129,678 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 25.1%, acquiring an additional 129,678 shares during the first quarter, bringing its total holdings to 645,636 shares valued at approximately $201 million.
• Accenture recently declared a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share, which paid out an annualized yield of 2.3%, with a dividend payout ratio of 47.13%.
• Analysts have mixed ratings for Accenture, with a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $358.08, while individual ratings range from "Strong Buy" to "Sell."

Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 25.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 645,636 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 129,678 shares during the quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec owned 0.10% of Accenture worth $201,464,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $317,000. Boothbay Fund Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Boothbay Fund Management LLC now owns 2,285 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $804,000 after acquiring an additional 94 shares during the period. Quarry LP grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 11.5% during the 4th quarter. Quarry LP now owns 700 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $246,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 801,295 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $281,888,000 after acquiring an additional 24,386 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. HSBC assumed coverage on Accenture in a report on Monday, July 28th. They set a "reduce" rating and a $240.00 price objective on the stock. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Benchmark reissued a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, June 20th. Finally, Guggenheim dropped their price objective on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. One equities research 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 issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $358.08.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $258.8940 on Monday. The business's 50-day moving average price is $277.65 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $305.97. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $236.67 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $162.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.61, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.29. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%.The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.13 EPS. The company'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. As a group, equities analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares of the company's stock, valued at $644,582.22. This trade represents a 17.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 90 days. Corporate 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.

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