Flputnam Investment Management Co. Raises Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Flputnam Investment Management Co. boosted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 143,338 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,834 shares during the period. Accenture makes up 1.2% of Flputnam Investment Management Co.’s holdings, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. Flputnam Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $50,299,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,945,673,000 after acquiring an additional 184,541 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Accenture by 2.7% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,453,884 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,560,765,000 after acquiring an additional 704,657 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Accenture by 14.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,642,841 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,440,976,000 after acquiring an additional 2,163,582 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 4.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,089,485,000 after acquiring an additional 565,505 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Accenture by 7.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,388,856,000 after acquiring an additional 720,647 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Mizuho restated a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 price objective (down previously from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Accenture Trading Down 0.7 %

ACN stock traded down $2.13 on Monday, hitting $313.27. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,995,259 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,355,702. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $360.55 and a two-hundred day moving average of $342.00. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $261.68 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $210.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.69 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.77, for a total value of $2,267,312.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 167,831 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,884,051.87. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $11,146,998 in the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.