China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. Boosts Stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 12.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,476 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 382 shares during the period. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,085,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted 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 valued at $21,246,236,000 after purchasing an additional 392,183 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $4,750,021,000 after purchasing an additional 136,665 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of 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 valued at $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of 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 valued at $2,994,922,000 after buying an additional 181,449 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were 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 owned 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ACN. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price 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. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $370.71.

Accenture Trading Up 0.9%

NYSE ACN opened at $303.27 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $309.78 and its 200 day moving average price is $328.62. The company has a market capitalization of $189.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 1.29. 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 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.13 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

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.