Cooper Investors PTY Ltd. Has $13.34 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Cooper Investors PTY Ltd. cut its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 2.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 42,754 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 888 shares during the period. Accenture makes up about 2.2% of Cooper Investors PTY Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 20th biggest holding. Cooper Investors PTY Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $13,341,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $21,246,236,000 after buying an additional 392,183 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,750,021,000 after acquiring an additional 136,665 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in Accenture by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,325,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Accenture by 22.8% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,283,225,000 after acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its position in Accenture by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,994,922,000 after acquiring an additional 181,449 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $295.03 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market capitalization of $184.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.49, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.33. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $307.08 and a 200 day moving average of $333.04. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $273.19 and a 12 month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. Accenture’s revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.13 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.01%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.13%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Mizuho reduced their price target on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Guggenheim reduced their price target on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $374.00.

About Accenture

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.