M&G Plc Takes $19.01 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

M&G Plc purchased a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 54,774 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $19,007,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 180.0% during the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC raised 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 worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. raised 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 worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Wedbush dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $294.00 to $293.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 21st. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $351.82.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 13,276 shares of company stock worth $4,103,233 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN traded up $1.09 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $329.19. 5,376,237 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,941,180. The firm has a market capitalization of $206.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.15, a P/E/G ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 1.23. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $300.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $332.09. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month 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 for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.19 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be issued a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date 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%.

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.