Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Acquired by USS Investment Management Ltd

USS Investment Management Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 5.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 106,098 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,790 shares during the period. USS Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Accenture were worth $28,475,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 36.2% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,486,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 46.9% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,066 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $618,000 after purchasing an additional 660 shares in the last quarter. United Bank raised its holdings in Accenture by 49.8% during the second quarter. United Bank now owns 3,639 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,088,000 after purchasing an additional 1,209 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia raised its holdings in Accenture by 23.0% during the second quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 828 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $247,000 after purchasing an additional 155 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Main Street Financial Solutions LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 4.2% during the second quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 1,767 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $528,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 9th. Truist Financial cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $260.00 to $210.00 in a report on Monday, June 1st. Oppenheimer set a $201.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Monday, June 8th. TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $282.00 to $258.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $210.00 to $199.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $257.56.

Accenture Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of ACN opened at $169.95 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $181.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $221.68. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $155.82 and a 1-year high of $317.30. The stock has a market cap of $113.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.09.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.84 by $0.09. Accenture had a net margin of 10.61% and a return on equity of 26.33%. The company had revenue of $18.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.80 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.82 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 13.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were paid a dividend of $1.63 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.8%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 53.40%.

Insider Activity

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