Crew Capital Management Ltd. Raises Stock Holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Crew Capital Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 1.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,015 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the period. Accenture comprises 1.0% of Crew Capital Management Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest position. Crew Capital Management Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,253,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 1st quarter worth approximately $32,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Argus set a $370.00 price target on Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $370.71.

Accenture Stock Up 0.8%

ACN opened at $304.58 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $273.19 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $190.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.29. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $309.55 and its 200 day moving average price is $329.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.13 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.13%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 17,237 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. This trade represents a 17.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.