Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Grows Stock Holdings in Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 77.1% during the first quarter, now owning a total of 626,861 shares valued at approximately $195.6 million.
• Several other institutional investors, including Vanguard Group Inc. and Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD, also increased their holdings in Accenture, contributing to a total institutional ownership of 75.14% of the company's stock.
• Accenture recently declared a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share, translating to an annualized dividend yield of 2.3%.

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 77.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 626,861 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 272,953 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owned approximately 0.10% of Accenture worth $195,606,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Lipe & Dalton grew its position in Accenture by 2,087.4% during the first quarter. Lipe & Dalton now owns 5,031 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,570,000 after buying an additional 4,801 shares during the period. Alteri Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $321,000. United Bank purchased a new position in Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $758,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% during the first quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 347 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $317,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price target (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Argus set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Guggenheim dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Benchmark reaffirmed a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, June 20th. Finally, Evercore ISI assumed coverage on Accenture in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 price target for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $353.76.

Accenture Trading Down 1.1%

ACN traded down $2.80 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $253.37. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,124,938 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,527,467. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $236.67 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $271.30 and its 200-day moving average price is $300.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The stock has a market cap of $158.70 billion, a PE ratio of 20.18, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.29.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 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 business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.13 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th were given 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 currently 47.13%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the company'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 $141,170.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at $644,582.22. This represents a 17.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Company 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.