Rice Partnership LLC Makes New Investment in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Rice Partnership LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 10,034 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $3,131,000.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on ACN. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Baird R W raised Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 target price (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $370.71.

Accenture Stock Down 1.4%

Shares of ACN traded down $4.30 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $300.48. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,752,818 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,900,565. Accenture PLC has a 12-month low of $273.19 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $188.20 billion, a PE ratio of 23.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.29. 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 company's 50 day moving average is $309.55 and its 200 day moving average is $329.26.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.13 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.97%. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel directly owned 17,237 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. This trade represents a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

About Accenture

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.