Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Buys 359,389 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. significantly increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 340.7% during the first quarter, now holding 464,864 shares valued at $145.06 million.
• Accenture's stock has been rated with a consensus of "Moderate Buy" and has an average target price of $353.76.
• The company recently paid a quarterly dividend of $1.48, resulting in an annualized yield of 2.3%.

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 340.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 464,864 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 359,389 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. owned approximately 0.07% of Accenture worth $145,056,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter worth $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture 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 value of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 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 value of $141,170.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $644,582.22. This trade represents a 17.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Guggenheim decreased their target price on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Benchmark reiterated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, June 20th. Rothschild & Co Redburn downgraded Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $250.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on Accenture in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded Accenture to a "moderate sell" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. One investment 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 issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $353.76.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $0.84 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $255.79. 4,707,034 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,663,063. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $236.67 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 capitalization of $160.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.37, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.30. The company's 50-day moving average price is $268.80 and its 200-day moving average price is $296.75.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during 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 firm's revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.13 EPS. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. Accenture's dividend 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.