Investment Management Corp of Ontario Grows Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Investment Management Corp of Ontario grew its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 64.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 34,346 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,523 shares during the period. Investment Management Corp of Ontario’s holdings in Accenture were worth $12,083,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $182,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $230,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $147,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M3 Advisory Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. M3 Advisory Group LLC now owns 753 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $265,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $307.85 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $275.01 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $192.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.83, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $304.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $342.50.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.77 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Barclays cut their price target on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price 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. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $377.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,857,041.86. The trade was a 17.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 6,016 shares of company stock worth $1,694,866 over the last three months. 0.02% 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.