Fred Alger Management LLC Sells 23,037 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Fred Alger Management LLC has sold 23,037 shares of Accenture PLC, reducing its holdings by 95.8% to just 1,002 shares, valued at approximately $313,000.
• Institutional investors continue to show interest, with Price T. Rowe Associates increasing its stake by 63.9% and Vanguard Group boosting its holdings by 5.7% in the first quarter.
• Accenture reported strong earnings with $3.49 EPS for the last quarter, surpassing estimates, and declared a quarterly dividend of $1.48, which represents an annual yield of 2.4%.

Fred Alger Management LLC lessened its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 95.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,002 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 23,037 shares during the quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $313,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 63.9% during the 1st 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 purchasing an additional 3,490,569 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $19,912,594,000 after purchasing an additional 3,419,577 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 30,256.8% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,067,651,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,248 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2,782.1% during the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,445,281 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $450,985,000 after purchasing an additional 1,395,135 shares during the period. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $225,217,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the company'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 $57,315.02. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ACN. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Accenture to a "moderate sell" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. 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. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $325.00 to $271.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $334.00 to $302.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "hold" rating and a $290.00 target price on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $348.12.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $243.01 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $152.21 billion, a PE ratio of 19.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $236.67 and a 12 month high of $398.35. 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's 50-day moving average price is $265.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $295.32.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.13 earnings per share. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

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.

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