Hudson Edge Investment Partners Inc. Raises Stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Hudson Edge Investment Partners Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 1.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,658 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 224 shares during the period. Hudson Edge Investment Partners Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,510,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $21,246,236,000 after purchasing an additional 392,183 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,750,021,000 after acquiring an additional 136,665 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in Accenture by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,325,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Accenture by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,283,225,000 after acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its position in Accenture by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,994,922,000 after purchasing an additional 181,449 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $302.00 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The company has a market cap of $189.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 1.29. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $309.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $330.41. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $273.19 and a 1-year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.13 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.96%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.13%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Guggenheim lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Benchmark reiterated a “mixed” rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $370.71.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 17,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 in the last 90 days. 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.