Van ECK Associates Corp Purchases 9,195 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 123,131 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 9,195 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $43,208,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ACN. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Accenture by 7.0% in 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 purchasing an additional 720,647 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 34.7% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,374,492 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $729,230,000 after purchasing an additional 611,376 shares in the last quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd grew its stake in Accenture by 71.4% in the fourth quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 1,388,701 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $487,309,000 after purchasing an additional 578,610 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 33,484.1% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 567,572 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $199,167,000 after purchasing an additional 565,882 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 4.4% in 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 buying an additional 565,505 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ACN. UBS Group raised their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Citigroup cut their price objective on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total transaction of $550,399.54. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 4,503 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,667,866.17. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total transaction of $550,399.54. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 4,503 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,667,866.17. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 31,639 shares of company stock worth $10,276,287 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $300.92 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $347.09 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $342.34. Accenture plc has a one year low of $261.68 and a one year high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $201.84 billion, a PE ratio of 27.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.69 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given 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 yield of 1.71%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

About Accenture

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.