Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Buys 13,093 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 0.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,523,898 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 13,093 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned 0.24% of Accenture worth $475,517,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $21,246,236,000 after purchasing an additional 392,183 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,750,021,000 after purchasing an additional 136,665 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Accenture by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,325,526,000 after buying an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Accenture by 22.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,994,922,000 after acquiring an additional 181,449 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Up 0.8%

ACN traded up $2.45 during trading on Monday, reaching $297.91. The stock had a trading volume of 1,321,922 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,335,442. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $273.19 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $186.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock's 50 day moving average is $308.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $331.22.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.13 earnings per share. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 47.13%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Benchmark reaffirmed a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, June 20th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $370.71.

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.