Trexquant Investment LP Takes $7.24 Million Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Trexquant Investment LP has made a new investment of approximately $7.24 million in Accenture PLC, acquiring 23,187 shares of the company in the first quarter.
• Accenture's stock has been rated with a mix of opinions, including a "strong buy," "buy," and "hold," resulting in an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a price target of $358.08.
• The company recently declared a quarterly dividend of $1.48, reflecting an annual yield of 2.3%, with a payout ratio of 47.13% of earnings.

Trexquant Investment LP purchased a new position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 23,187 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $7,235,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 5.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $19,912,594,000 after acquiring an additional 3,419,577 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Accenture by 63.9% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,953,621 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,793,889,000 after purchasing an additional 3,490,569 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,766,369 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,111,378,000 after purchasing an additional 228,939 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 9.9% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 6,036,845 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,123,702,000 after purchasing an additional 545,109 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.3% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,129,053 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,600,470,000 after purchasing an additional 164,573 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $644,582.22. The trade was a 17.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at $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. In the last three months, insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $0.50 during trading on Thursday, hitting $253.65. The company had a trading volume of 2,783,342 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,533,324. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $270.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $299.86. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $158.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $236.67 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.13 earnings per share. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is 47.13%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Rothschild & Co Redburn cut shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $250.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Accenture to a "moderate sell" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "hold" rating and a $290.00 price target on the stock. Rothschild Redb lowered shares of Accenture from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Evercore ISI assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 price target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $353.76.

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.