The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Buys 466,452 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 24.3% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,384,954 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 466,452 shares during the quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in Accenture were worth $472,913,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 27.7% in the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 282,340 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $75,752,000 after purchasing an additional 61,314 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 197.2% during the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 141,484 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $37,960,000 after purchasing an additional 93,880 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in Accenture by 36.6% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 557,516 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $149,582,000 after purchasing an additional 149,357 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,070,930 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,726,831,000 after buying an additional 854,361 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd increased its stake in Accenture by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 335,314 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $89,965,000 after buying an additional 36,037 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird set a $190.00 price objective on Accenture in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Mizuho reduced their price target on Accenture from $280.00 to $226.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Oppenheimer set a $201.00 price target on Accenture in a research note on Monday, June 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Accenture from $247.00 to $201.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Evercore set a $180.00 price objective on Accenture in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $192.96.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $154.22 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $118.15 and a 12 month high of $291.09. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $153.46 and a 200-day moving average of $193.65. The company has a market capitalization of $102.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.13.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 18th. The information technology services provider reported $3.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.70 by $0.10. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.47% and a net margin of 10.66%.The business had revenue of $18.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.78 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.49 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.780-13.900 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 13.85 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 9th will be issued a dividend of $1.63 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 9th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.2%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 52.08%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, June 23rd that permits the company to buyback $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to buy up to 2.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.14, for a total value of $863,026.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,267,746.28. This represents a 27.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global professional services company that provides a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. The firm works with organizations across industries to design and implement business transformation programs, deploy and manage enterprise technology, optimize operations, and develop customer and digital experiences. Its offerings encompass management and technology consulting, systems integration, application and infrastructure services, cloud migration and managed services, as well as security and analytics capabilities.

The company delivers industry- and function-specific solutions, combining consulting expertise with proprietary tools, platforms and partnerships with major technology vendors.