Davis R M Inc. Buys 2,209 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• Davis R M Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture PLC by 1.5% during Q1, now owning a total of 149,404 shares valued at approximately $46.62 million.
• Accenture reported a quarterly earnings per share of $3.49, beating consensus estimates and achieving revenue of $17.73 billion, which was 7.7% higher than the same quarter last year.
• The company has announced a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share, with a dividend yield of 2.16%, set to be paid on August 15th to stockholders of record.

Davis R M Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 1.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 149,404 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 2,209 shares during the quarter. Davis R M Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $46,620,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Foster & Motley Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 2.8% in the first quarter. Foster & Motley Inc. now owns 18,100 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $5,648,000 after buying an additional 487 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 91.8% during the first quarter. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC now owns 771 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $241,000 after purchasing an additional 369 shares during the period. Woodley Farra Manion Portfolio Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the first quarter. Woodley Farra Manion Portfolio Management Inc. now owns 220,345 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $68,756,000 after purchasing an additional 2,610 shares during the period. Arkadios Wealth Advisors increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 42.1% during the first quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 6,186 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,930,000 after purchasing an additional 1,832 shares during the period. Finally, Tredje AP fonden increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 40.4% during the first quarter. Tredje AP fonden now owns 277,097 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $86,465,000 after purchasing an additional 79,692 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ACN. Argus set a $370.00 price target on Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Hsbc Global Res raised Accenture to a "moderate sell" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $360.21.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN traded down $11.92 on Friday, hitting $255.18. The company had a trading volume of 6,041,752 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,530,415. The company's fifty day moving average price is $297.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $319.33. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $254.20 and a 1-year high of $398.35. 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 $159.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.29.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.13 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Accenture's payout ratio is 47.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at $1,482,002.66. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 15,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780 in the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.