JPMorgan Chase & Co. Grows Position in AECOM (NYSE:ACM)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of AECOM (NYSE:ACM - Free Report) by 40.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 768,266 shares of the construction company's stock after buying an additional 220,035 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned about 0.58% of AECOM worth $79,339,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in shares of AECOM by 2,660.9% in the 2nd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,270 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $112,000 after purchasing an additional 1,224 shares during the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new position in AECOM in the 2nd quarter valued at $67,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its stake in AECOM by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 41,538 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $3,661,000 after buying an additional 833 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc raised its position in AECOM by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 12,489 shares of the construction company's stock worth $1,101,000 after buying an additional 352 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its stake in shares of AECOM by 15.5% in the 2nd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 1,752,487 shares of the construction company's stock worth $154,464,000 after acquiring an additional 235,350 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.41% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on ACM shares. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of AECOM from $113.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on AECOM from $119.00 to $129.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. KeyCorp raised their price target on AECOM from $115.00 to $122.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup lifted their price target on AECOM from $110.00 to $128.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded AECOM from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Sunday, October 27th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $119.38.

AECOM Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACM traded up $1.45 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $107.75. 419,564 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 553,682. The stock has a market cap of $14.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.40, a PEG ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.17. AECOM has a twelve month low of $82.23 and a twelve month high of $118.56. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $110.69 and a 200-day moving average price of $100.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03.

AECOM (NYSE:ACM - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 18th. The construction company reported $1.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.24 by $0.03. AECOM had a net margin of 2.50% and a return on equity of 25.46%. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.86 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.01 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that AECOM will post 5.1 earnings per share for the current year.

AECOM Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.97%. This is a positive change from AECOM's previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. AECOM's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.14%.

AECOM declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Monday, November 18th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the construction company to buy up to 6.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Gaurav Kapoor sold 42,400 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.34, for a total transaction of $4,890,416.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 31,228 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,601,837.52. This represents a 57.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.42% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About AECOM

AECOM, together with its subsidiaries, provides professional infrastructure consulting services worldwide. It operates in three segments: Americas, International, and AECOM Capital. The company offers planning, consulting, architectural and engineering design, construction and program management, and investment and development services to public and private clients.