Sit Investment Associates Inc. Purchases 2,329 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• Sit Investment Associates Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture PLC by 3.0%, acquiring an additional 2,329 shares, bringing its total to 81,261 shares valued at approximately $25.36 million.
• Accenture recently reported a quarterly earnings of $3.49 per share, exceeding analyst expectations, with revenue of $17.73 billion, reflecting a 7.7% increase year-over-year.
• The company will pay a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share on August 15th, representing an annualized dividend of $5.92 and a yield of 2.4%.

Sit Investment Associates Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 3.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 81,261 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 2,329 shares during the period. Sit Investment Associates Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $25,357,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Lipe & Dalton raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2,087.4% during the 1st quarter. Lipe & Dalton now owns 5,031 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,570,000 after buying an additional 4,801 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after buying an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. Alteri Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $321,000. United Bank purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at about $758,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its position in Accenture by 62.2% during the 1st quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $282,000 after acquiring an additional 347 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 research firms recently issued reports on ACN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, June 16th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price target (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Argus set a $370.00 price target on Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. One equities research 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.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $360.21.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of Accenture 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. This trade represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of Accenture 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 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of ACN traded up $0.88 on Friday, reaching $247.04. The stock had a trading volume of 4,223,359 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,754,784. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $283.92 and a 200-day simple moving average of $311.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $154.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 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 company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.13 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. Accenture's payout ratio is presently 47.13%.

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.