Panagora Asset Management Inc. Purchases 7,922 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 44.7%, acquiring an additional 7,922 shares, bringing its total holdings to 25,659 shares valued at approximately $8.01 million.
• Accenture reported earnings per share of $3.49 for the latest quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations, and its revenue rose 7.7% year-over-year to $17.73 billion.
• Accenture's quarterly dividend was declared at $1.48 per share, contributing to an annualized dividend yield of 2.3%, with a payout ratio of 47.13%.

Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 44.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,659 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 7,922 shares during the quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $8,007,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vident Advisory LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 70.3% in the 1st quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 25,144 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $7,847,000 after purchasing an additional 10,381 shares in the last quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 3.6% during the first quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 7,183 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,241,000 after buying an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 77.1% during the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 626,861 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $195,606,000 after buying an additional 272,953 shares during the last quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd raised its stake in Accenture by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 5,564 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,736,000 after buying an additional 190 shares during the last quarter. Finally, WPG Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $42,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 target price for the company. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Accenture to a "moderate sell" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Mizuho set a $348.00 price objective on Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $353.76.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $1.65 during trading on Friday, hitting $254.59. The company had a trading volume of 4,235,857 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,641,824. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $268.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $298.01. 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 12 month low of $236.67 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $159.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.29.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%.The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.13 EPS. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,482,002.66. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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.