Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Sold by Rafferty Asset Management LLC

Key Points

• Rafferty Asset Management LLC reduced its holdings in Accenture PLC by 21.1%, owning 167,897 shares worth approximately $52.39 million after selling 44,801 shares.
• Accenture reported earnings of $3.49 per share, exceeding analysts' estimates, and had a quarterly revenue of $17.73 billion, a 7.7% increase year-over-year.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share, reflecting a yield of 2.3%, with a payout ratio of 47.13%.

Rafferty Asset Management LLC trimmed its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 21.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 167,897 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 44,801 shares during the period. Rafferty Asset Management LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $52,391,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of ACN. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 36.2% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $6,486,000 after acquiring an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $317,000. Boothbay Fund Management LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Boothbay Fund Management LLC now owns 2,285 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $804,000 after buying an additional 94 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP increased its holdings in Accenture by 11.5% in the fourth quarter. Quarry LP now owns 700 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $246,000 after buying an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in Accenture by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 801,295 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $281,888,000 after buying an additional 24,386 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Accenture from $334.00 to $302.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 20th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on Accenture in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 price objective on the stock. HSBC initiated coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Monday, July 28th. They set a "reduce" rating and a $240.00 target price for the company. Finally, Argus set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $358.08.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of Accenture 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 $57,315.02. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on 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. This trade represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN traded up $3.95 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $260.12. 2,805,715 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,719,596. 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 has a 50-day simple moving average of $272.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $301.99. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $236.67 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $162.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.71, a PEG ratio of 2.37 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 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 analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.13 EPS. The company's revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is presently 47.13%.

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.