Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Grows Stake in Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 63.9% in Q1, owning nearly 9 million shares valued at approximately $2.79 billion.
• Accenture reported $3.49 EPS for the last quarter, exceeding estimates by $0.17, with revenues of $17.73 billion, up 7.7% year-over-year.
• Accenture's recent dividend was $1.48 per share, translating to an annual yield of 2.3%, with a payout ratio of 47.13%.

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 63.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,953,621 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 3,490,569 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned approximately 1.43% of Accenture worth $2,793,889,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the first quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Navigoe LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Up 1.9%

ACN stock traded up $4.9040 during trading on Friday, reaching $258.8940. The stock had a trading volume of 3,102,553 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,885,374. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $236.67 and a one year 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 is $277.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $306.53. The company has a market capitalization of $162.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.29.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.13 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue 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. Equities research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. Argus set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $334.00 to $302.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target 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. Mizuho set a $348.00 price target on shares of Accenture and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $358.08.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $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.