Weitz Investment Management Inc. Has $43.58 Million Stock Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• Weitz Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 30.7%, owning approximately $43.58 million worth of shares, marking it as their 18th largest holding.
• Accenture announced a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share, which translates to an annualized dividend yield of 2.3%, with a payout ratio of 47.13%.
• The company's recent earnings report revealed an EPS of $3.49, surpassing the consensus estimate, and a revenue of $17.73 billion, reflecting a year-over-year growth of 7.7%.

Weitz Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 30.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 139,650 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 32,800 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up approximately 2.3% of Weitz Investment Management Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Weitz Investment Management Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $43,576,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 30,256.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,067,651,000 after buying an additional 3,410,248 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in Accenture by 16.8% during the fourth 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 acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 2,782.1% during the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,445,281 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $450,985,000 after acquiring an additional 1,395,135 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Accenture by 10.7% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,582,344 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,667,393,000 after acquiring an additional 732,769 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $225,217,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Down 4.5%

Accenture stock opened at $255.18 on Monday. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $254.20 and a fifty-two week 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. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $297.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $319.10. The stock has a market cap of $159.83 billion, a PE ratio of 20.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.29.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion during 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%. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.13 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued 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 is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is 47.13%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on ACN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Mizuho set a $348.00 price objective on shares of Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 target price (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Accenture to a "moderate sell" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $360.21.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of Accenture 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 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 document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 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 $57,315.02. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, 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. Insiders sold a total of 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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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