Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Gateway Investment Advisers LLC

Gateway Investment Advisers LLC raised its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 14.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 45,551 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,739 shares during the quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $15,788,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $2,061,490,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its position in shares of Accenture by 100.0% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $614,615,000 after purchasing an additional 875,723 shares during the period. Winslow Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $288,168,000. Generation Investment Management LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $286,220,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $263,421,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Accenture in a research report on Monday. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price objective for the company. Piper Sandler Companies lowered their price target on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. Susquehanna lowered their price target on Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 27th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $357.09.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at $9,705,516.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,705,516.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total value of $1,974,437.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $51,045,053.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 20,083 shares of company stock worth $6,302,285 over the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $307.23 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $300.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $336.88. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $206.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 1.22.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.19 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.96 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Accenture Profile

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.