Victory Capital Management Inc. Boosts Holdings in Accenture PLC $ACN

Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 4.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,141,635 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 44,389 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned approximately 0.19% of Accenture worth $306,302,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Weitz Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 28.8% in the third quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. now owns 160,550 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $39,592,000 after buying an additional 35,900 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 27.7% in the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 282,340 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $75,752,000 after buying an additional 61,314 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 180.4% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 404,680 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $99,794,000 after buying an additional 260,357 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 197.2% in the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 141,484 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $37,960,000 after buying an additional 93,880 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 36.6% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 557,516 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $149,582,000 after buying an additional 149,357 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Truist Financial lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $260.00 to $210.00 in a research note on Monday, June 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $247.00 to $201.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 8th. HSBC decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Piper Sandler set a $282.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $320.00 to $240.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 16th. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $259.89.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 30th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,267,746.28. The trade was a 27.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $169.95 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a 1 year low of $155.82 and a 1 year high of $317.30. The company has a market cap of $113.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.08. 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 fifty day moving average of $181.79 and a 200-day moving average of $221.83.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Accenture Profile

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.