Railway Pension Investments Ltd Has $23.91 Million Stake in Accenture PLC $ACN

Railway Pension Investments Ltd raised its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 113.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 192,138 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 101,913 shares during the period. Railway Pension Investments Ltd’s holdings in Accenture were worth $23,910,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 36.2% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,486,000 after acquiring an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 46.9% in the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,066 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $618,000 after purchasing an additional 660 shares during the last quarter. United Bank raised its position in shares of Accenture by 49.8% in the second quarter. United Bank now owns 3,639 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,088,000 after purchasing an additional 1,209 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 23.0% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 828 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $247,000 after buying an additional 155 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Main Street Financial Solutions LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 1,767 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $528,000 after buying an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. Evercore set a $180.00 target price on Accenture in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on Accenture from $225.00 to $185.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $315.00 to $270.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $177.00 to $130.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Twelve equities 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $194.19.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $190.02 on Tuesday. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $118.15 and a fifty-two week high of $291.09. The stock has a market cap of $126.90 billion, a PE ratio of 15.18, a PEG ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.34. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $157.03 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $177.54.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.70 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $18.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.78 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.66% and a return on equity of 26.47%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.49 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 13.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 9th were paid a $1.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 9th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.08%.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 10,498 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.98, for a total transaction of $1,710,964.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel owned 17,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,890,450.30. This trade represents a 37.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Company Profile

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.