Capital Group Private Client Services Inc. Grows Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Capital Group Private Client Services Inc. grew its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 115.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 47,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 25,390 shares during the quarter. Capital Group Private Client Services Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $16,442,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 180.0% during the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 507.7% during the first quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 214.8% during the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on ACN. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Susquehanna decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $351.82.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $472,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded down $1.54 on Friday, reaching $328.58. 2,438,158 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,947,021. The company has a market cap of $205.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.09, a P/E/G ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $303.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $331.85. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The business had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.19 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.57%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.25%.

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.