Strs Ohio Buys New Stake in Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in Accenture PLC during the first quarter, purchasing 224,596 shares valued at approximately $70 million.
• Accenture recently announced a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share, translating to an annual yield of 2.4% and a payout ratio of 47.13%.
• Despite a 3.6% decrease in share price, Accenture reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings, earning $3.49 EPS, surpassing analysts' estimates.

Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 224,596 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $70,083,000.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Turn8 Private Wealth Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 14.5% in the first quarter. Turn8 Private Wealth Inc. now owns 9,683 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $3,021,000 after buying an additional 1,226 shares during the period. Jacobi Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 11.9% in the first quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 5,810 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,813,000 after buying an additional 617 shares during the last quarter. Carderock Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 4.1% in the first quarter. Carderock Capital Management Inc. now owns 22,177 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $6,920,000 after buying an additional 883 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 101.9% in the 1st quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 250,118 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $78,047,000 after acquiring an additional 126,241 shares during the period. Finally, SWS Partners raised its holdings in Accenture by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. SWS Partners now owns 10,156 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $3,169,000 after acquiring an additional 392 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on Accenture in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "hold" rating and a $290.00 price objective for the company. Barclays cut their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $348.12.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $141,170.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at approximately $644,582.22. The trade was a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 completion of the sale, the insider owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Down 3.6%

Shares of ACN opened at $243.01 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $152.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.35, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.29. 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 business's fifty day moving average price is $265.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $295.32. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $236.67 and a 52 week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced 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. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.13 EPS. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

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