Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Boosts Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,681,940 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 154,328 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned 0.43% of Accenture worth $813,743,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 357 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $125,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. IronBridge Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. IronBridge Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,235 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $433,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,888 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,013,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,740 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,120,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, West Paces Advisors Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 10.2% in the first quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. now owns 346 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $120,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. Wedbush reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Accenture from $293.00 to $321.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, May 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Accenture in a research report on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price target for the company. Finally, Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $354.68.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,390,445.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $349.58 on Monday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $328.08 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $323.04. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $219.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.19 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were given a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.