Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Purchases 164,573 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 3.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,129,053 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 164,573 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned about 0.82% of Accenture worth $1,600,470,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 36.2% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,486,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $317,000. Advisory Services Network LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 23,469 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $8,256,000 after acquiring an additional 1,206 shares during the last quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P increased its stake in Accenture by 18.1% in the fourth quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P now owns 80,136 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,191,000 after acquiring an additional 12,270 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Texas Yale Capital Corp. raised its position in Accenture by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Texas Yale Capital Corp. now owns 5,959 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,096,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $247.61 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $294.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $317.47. The stock has a market cap of $155.08 billion, a PE ratio of 19.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $244.00 and a 12 month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The business 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%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.13 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,290,387.05. The trade was a 21.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $141,170.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at $644,582.22. This trade represents a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $290.00 price objective for the company. Argus set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Evercore ISI assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $330.00 price target for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $360.21.

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.