Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Has $6.70 Million Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. reduced its stake in Accenture PLC by 14%, selling 3,497 shares and holding 21,463 shares valued at $6.7 million after the sale.
• Accenture recently reported earnings per share (EPS) of $3.49 for the last quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations, with a revenue of $17.73 billion.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share, reflecting an annualized payout of $5.92 and a yield of 2.5%, to be paid on August 15th.

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. trimmed its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 14.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 21,463 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 3,497 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,697,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 36.2% during 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 purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $317,000. SageView Advisory Group LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 47.3% during the 4th quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 2,429 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $855,000 after acquiring an additional 780 shares during the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 13.6% in the 4th quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 5,194 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,827,000 after purchasing an additional 623 shares during the period. Finally, Rossby Financial LCC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $202,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Evercore ISI started coverage on Accenture in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 price objective on the stock. Guggenheim dropped their price objective on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on Accenture in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "hold" rating and a $290.00 target price for the company. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Accenture to a "moderate sell" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, June 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $360.21.

Insider Buying and Selling 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at $2,290,387.05. The trade was a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $141,170.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $644,582.22. This represents a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $0.88 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $247.04. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,223,359 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,754,784. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $236.67 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The business's 50 day moving average price is $283.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $311.17. The company has a market cap of $154.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.29.

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 analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.13 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

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.