Rathbones Group PLC Buys 106,915 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• Rathbones Group PLC increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 9.9%, now owning approximately $369.84 million worth of shares, making it the fund's 11th largest position.
• A quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share has been declared by Accenture, reflecting an annualized yield of 2.5% and a payout ratio of 47.13%.
• Accenture reported $3.49 EPS for the recent quarter, beating estimates, with revenues of $17.73 billion, illustrating a 7.7% year-over-year increase.

Rathbones Group PLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 9.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,185,243 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 106,915 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up about 1.8% of Rathbones Group PLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest holding. Rathbones Group PLC owned 0.19% of Accenture worth $369,843,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the first quarter valued at about $32,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, Navigoe LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $37,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the company'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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. This trade represents a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on ACN. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 price target (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on Accenture in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 price target on the stock. HSBC initiated coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Monday, July 28th. They set a "reduce" rating and a $240.00 price objective for the company. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Accenture to a "moderate sell" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $360.21.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock traded up $0.39 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $246.07. The company had a trading volume of 4,927,905 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,544,575. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46. The firm has a market cap of $154.12 billion, a PE ratio of 19.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $236.67 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $286.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $313.39.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 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 company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.13 EPS. Accenture's revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. 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.