E Fund Management Co. Ltd. Purchases 1,321 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

E Fund Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 7.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 19,499 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,321 shares during the quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,084,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 36.2% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,486,000 after buying an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $317,000. SageView Advisory Group LLC raised its stake 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 acquiring an additional 780 shares during the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC raised its position in Accenture by 13.6% during the 4th quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 5,194 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,827,000 after purchasing an additional 623 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rossby Financial LCC bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $202,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $141,170.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.4%

ACN opened at $237.68 on Wednesday. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $236.67 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The company has a 50 day moving average of $288.13 and a 200 day moving average of $313.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $148.87 billion, a PE ratio of 18.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.29.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.13 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.13%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Guggenheim lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Benchmark reiterated a “mixed” rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, June 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $290.00 price target for the company. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. One equities 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.