Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations Raises Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 0.9%, holding 122,238 shares worth $38,143,000, making it the fund's 12th biggest holding.
• Accenture reported a quarterly earnings of $3.49 per share, exceeding expectations, with revenue rising 7.7% year-over-year to $17.73 billion.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share, set to be paid on August 15th, reflecting a 2.4% dividend yield.

Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations increased its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 0.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 122,238 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 1,107 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for 1.8% of Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations' holdings, making the stock its 12th biggest holding. Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations' holdings in Accenture were worth $38,143,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Brighton Jones LLC boosted 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 purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $317,000. Texas Yale Capital Corp. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Texas Yale Capital Corp. now owns 5,959 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,096,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the period. F M Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $206,000. Finally, Phoenix Financial Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 19.7% in the fourth quarter. Phoenix Financial Ltd. now owns 13,361 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,701,000 after buying an additional 2,198 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Down 2.3%

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $241.82 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $151.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.25, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.29. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $292.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $316.70. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $239.82 and a 52-week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The business 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 business's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.13 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.13%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on ACN. Hsbc Global Res raised Accenture to a "moderate sell" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Argus set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $360.21.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, 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. The trade was a 21.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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.

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