Rathbones Group PLC Has $369.84 Million Stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Rathbones Group PLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 9.9% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,185,243 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 106,915 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for 1.8% of Rathbones Group PLC’s holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Rathbones Group PLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $369,843,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 5.7% in the 1st 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 buying an additional 3,419,577 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 30,256.8% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,067,651,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,248 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake 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 valued at $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 2,782.1% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,445,281 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $450,985,000 after purchasing an additional 1,395,135 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in 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 valued at $2,667,393,000 after purchasing an additional 732,769 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $238.48 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $149.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $236.96 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $289.64 and its 200 day moving average is $314.40.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.13 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate 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. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $644,582.22. The trade was a 17.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the transaction, 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. Insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on Accenture in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $330.00 price objective for the company. Benchmark restated a “mixed” rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, June 20th. Guggenheim cut their price target on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on Accenture in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They set a “hold” rating and a $290.00 price target for the company. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded Accenture to a “moderate sell” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $360.21.

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.