Thomas Story & Son LLC Has $10.18 Million Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• Thomas Story & Son LLC increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 3.3%, holding a total of 32,627 shares valued at approximately $10.18 million.
• Accenture reported a net margin of 11.61% and revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share, with an annualized yield of 2.5%.

Thomas Story & Son LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 3.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 32,627 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 1,057 shares during the period. Accenture comprises about 4.0% of Thomas Story & Son LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest holding. Thomas Story & Son LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $10,181,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 36.2% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $6,486,000 after acquiring an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $317,000. Savvy Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 13.2% during the fourth quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 3,119 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,097,000 after buying an additional 364 shares during the last quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 47.3% during the fourth quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 2,429 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $855,000 after buying an additional 780 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CreativeOne Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 13.6% during the fourth quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 5,194 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,827,000 after buying an additional 623 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ACN. Mizuho set a $348.00 price objective on shares of Accenture and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Benchmark reissued a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Guggenheim dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $360.21.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at approximately $644,582.22. This trade represents a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer 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. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $238.48 on Tuesday. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $236.96 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $149.37 billion, a PE ratio of 18.99, a PEG ratio of 2.18 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 firm's 50 day moving average price is $289.64 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $314.40.

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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.13 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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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