Osaic Holdings Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN – Free Report) by 12.6% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 262,204 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 29,421 shares during the quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $80,980,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 48,035,644 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $13,729,067,000 after purchasing an additional 634,462 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,644,296 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $8,221,897,000 after purchasing an additional 190,412 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in Accenture by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,642,841 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,440,976,000 after acquiring an additional 2,163,582 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,816,701 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,636,842,000 after acquiring an additional 353,521 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Accenture by 21.7% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 11,535,663 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,297,009,000 after acquiring an additional 2,060,646 shares during the last quarter. 70.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of brokerages have weighed in on ACN. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $340.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 29th. Barclays upped their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 11th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 in a research note on Friday, September 29th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Accenture from $332.00 to $322.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 29th. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their price objective on Accenture from $312.00 to $300.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $337.26.
View Our Latest Stock Report on Accenture
Insider Transactions at Accenture
In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $291.41, for a total transaction of $2,622,690.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 35,830 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,441,220.30. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $291.41, for a total transaction of $2,622,690.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 35,830 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,441,220.30. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.48, for a total value of $1,567,020.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 20,265 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,048,697.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 36,334 shares of company stock valued at $10,939,027. Corporate insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.
Accenture Price Performance
Shares of ACN stock opened at $343.65 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $215.79 billion, a PE ratio of 31.91, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.23. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $242.80 and a 1-year high of $345.20. The business has a 50-day moving average of $317.95 and a 200 day moving average of $314.99.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 28th. The information technology services provider reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.65 by $0.06. Accenture had a return on equity of 29.74% and a net margin of 10.72%. The business had revenue of $15.99 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.07 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.60 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.2 EPS for the current year.
Accenture Increases Dividend
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 12th were given a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.50%. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.12. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.91%.
Accenture announced that its board has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, September 28th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to buy up to 2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.
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.
Further Reading
Want to see what other hedge funds are holding ACN? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN – Free Report).
Receive News & Ratings for Accenture Daily – Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts’ ratings for Accenture and related companies with MarketBeat.com’s FREE daily email newsletter.