Heritage Investors Management Corp Raises Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Heritage Investors Management Corp lifted its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 6.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 56,532 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,401 shares during the period. Heritage Investors Management Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $17,640,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake 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 worth $21,246,236,000 after purchasing an additional 392,183 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,750,021,000 after buying an additional 136,665 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in Accenture by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,325,526,000 after buying an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Accenture by 22.8% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in Accenture by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,994,922,000 after buying an additional 181,449 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. The trade was a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on ACN. Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $330.00 price objective for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on Accenture in a research report on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating and a $290.00 price target on the stock. Benchmark reiterated a “mixed” rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Morgan Stanley cut 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, June 24th. Finally, Mizuho set a $348.00 price target on shares of Accenture and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $365.43.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $282.37 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $273.19 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46. The company has a market capitalization of $176.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a fifty day moving average of $306.32 and a 200-day moving average of $324.54.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.13 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.13%.

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.