Clark Capital Management Group Inc. Acquires 144,470 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Clark Capital Management Group Inc. increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 3,793.9% during the first quarter, acquiring an additional 144,470 shares, totaling 148,278 shares valued at around $46.27 million.
• Accenture reported quarterly earnings of $3.49 per share, exceeding consensus estimates by $0.17, with revenue of $17.73 billion, which represents a 7.7% increase compared to the previous year.
• The company's stock is currently trading at $253.76, down by 0.9%, with a market capitalization of $158.94 billion and a projected average earnings per share (EPS) of 12.73 for the fiscal year.

Clark Capital Management Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 3,793.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 148,278 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 144,470 shares during the period. Clark Capital Management Group Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $46,269,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 63.9% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,953,621 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,793,889,000 after acquiring an additional 3,490,569 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 5.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $19,912,594,000 after purchasing an additional 3,419,577 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Accenture by 30,256.8% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,067,651,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,248 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 2,782.1% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,445,281 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $450,985,000 after purchasing an additional 1,395,135 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $225,217,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded up $0.84 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $255.79. 4,707,085 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,553,398. The firm has a market capitalization of $160.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.37, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $268.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $296.75. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $236.67 and a 52 week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. Accenture's revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.13 EPS. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate 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 issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. 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 payout ratio is presently 47.13%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Mizuho set a $348.00 target price on shares of Accenture and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Benchmark reaffirmed a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Rothschild Redb downgraded shares of Accenture from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $353.76.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the business'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 completion of the sale, the insider owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,482,002.66. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280 in the last quarter. 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.