Summit Global Investments Grows Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Summit Global Investments raised its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 121.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,096 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,432 shares during the period. Summit Global Investments’ holdings in Accenture were worth $1,605,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,070,930 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,726,831,000 after purchasing an additional 854,361 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Accenture by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 28,264,675 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,583,462,000 after buying an additional 129,610 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 17,471,554 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,687,867,000 after buying an additional 343,420 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,656,436 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,922,212,000 after buying an additional 218,719 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,693,994 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,869,199,000 after acquiring an additional 546,198 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Citigroup decreased their price target on Accenture from $215.00 to $195.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Accenture from $280.00 to $226.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Guggenheim decreased their target price on Accenture from $225.00 to $185.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Accenture from $315.00 to $270.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $275.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $192.96.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.14, for a total transaction of $863,026.08. Following the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $144.63 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $155.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $197.97. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $118.15 and a 12 month high of $291.09. The company has a market cap of $96.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.55, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.13. 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 (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 18th. The information technology services provider reported $3.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.78 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.49 earnings per share. The business’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. Sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 13.85 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 9th will be paid a $1.63 dividend. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.5%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 9th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 52.08%.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, June 23rd that allows the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 2.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.