Perpetual Ltd Purchases 51 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Perpetual Ltd increased its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 0.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 7,838 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 51 shares during the period. Perpetual Ltd’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,446,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Visionary Wealth Advisors grew its position in shares of Accenture by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $274,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP grew its position in shares of Accenture by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $147,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. United Community Bank grew its position in shares of Accenture by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. United Community Bank now owns 2,069 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $728,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tradition Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,981 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,863,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $295.26 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $184.93 billion, a PE ratio of 23.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.33. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $308.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $331.64. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $273.19 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 1.46.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued 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 dividend payout ratio is presently 47.13%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Guggenheim lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $370.71.

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.