Korea Investment CORP Has $105.43 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture PLC $ACN

Korea Investment CORP boosted its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 38.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 392,949 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 109,550 shares during the period. Korea Investment CORP owned approximately 0.06% of Accenture worth $105,428,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,070,930 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,726,831,000 after buying an additional 854,361 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Accenture by 0.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 28,135,065 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,938,156,000 after buying an additional 118,460 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 17,471,554 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,687,867,000 after buying an additional 343,420 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,656,436 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,922,212,000 after buying an additional 218,719 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in shares of Accenture by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,693,994 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,869,199,000 after acquiring an additional 546,198 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Accenture from $247.00 to $201.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $309.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 23rd. Oppenheimer set a $201.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Monday. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $300.00 to $230.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $259.89.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $169.95 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market cap of $113.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.08. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $155.82 and a 52 week high of $317.30. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $181.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $221.83.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 analyst estimates of $17.80 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.82 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 13.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.14, for a total transaction of $863,026.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 12,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,267,746.28. This represents a 27.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

About Accenture

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.