Impax Asset Management Group plc Buys 1,054 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 3.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 33,390 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 1,054 shares during the period. Impax Asset Management Group plc's holdings in Accenture were worth $10,419,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in Accenture by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Alteri Wealth LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $321,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 47.6% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $861,000 after acquiring an additional 789 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its position in Accenture by 62.2% in the first quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $282,000 after acquiring an additional 347 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $317,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on ACN. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 price target (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Guggenheim dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Argus set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $370.71.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN traded down $4.30 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $300.48. 2,752,818 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,900,565. 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 50 day simple moving average of $309.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $329.26. Accenture PLC has a 1 year low of $273.19 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $188.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 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 earnings per share (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 analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.13 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 47.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the sale, the general counsel owned 17,237 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. 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.