Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) is Railway Pension Investments Ltd’s 2nd Largest Position

Railway Pension Investments Ltd lowered its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 636,021 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 18,600 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for about 2.1% of Railway Pension Investments Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Railway Pension Investments Ltd owned 0.09% of Accenture worth $220,451,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 507.7% in the first quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 214.8% during the 1st quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $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 subject of a number of research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. UBS Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, July 19th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on Accenture from $294.00 to $293.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $351.82.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of ACN stock traded down $4.93 on Friday, reaching $323.15. 2,682,736 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,095,611. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $305.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $331.07. The company has a market capitalization of $202.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.59, a PEG ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 1.23. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.19 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business 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 $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.60%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.25%.

Accenture Company 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.