Riverbridge Partners LLC Raises Holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Riverbridge Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 2.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,108 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 113 shares during the period. Riverbridge Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,282,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, Promus Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 6.8%

Shares of ACN stock opened at $285.66 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $178.92 billion, a PE ratio of 23.59, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $273.19 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The business has a 50-day moving average of $306.98 and a 200 day moving average of $333.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 1.48.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.49% and a net margin of 11.43%. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.13 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.07%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on ACN. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 12th. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Barclays decreased their price objective on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Benchmark restated a “mixed” rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $380.00.

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.