Advisors Asset Management Inc. Acquires 9,165 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 20.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 54,705 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,165 shares during the quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $17,070,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake 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 stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $317,000. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 76,553 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $26,931,000 after acquiring an additional 1,004 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 107,466 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $37,806,000 after acquiring an additional 5,069 shares during the period. Finally, Capitolis Liquid Global Markets LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,179,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the firm’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 $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 trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $330.00 price target for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $334.00 to $302.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Accenture to a “moderate sell” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $358.08.

Accenture Stock Down 1.5%

Accenture stock opened at $255.99 on Wednesday. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $236.67 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $160.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.29. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $271.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $300.18. 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 (NYSE:ACN) last released 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 firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $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, equities research analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were given 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 was Thursday, July 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.13%.

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.