9,225 Shares in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Purchased by Mufg Securities Americas Inc.

Mufg Securities Americas Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 9,225 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,245,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.5% during the 4th quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $22,314,000 after buying an additional 3,883 shares during the period. Davidson Trust Co. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $812,000 after acquiring an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in Accenture by 37.5% during the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,094 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,088,000 after acquiring an additional 843 shares during the period. SteelPeak Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 127.1% in the 4th quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $817,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Guggenheim decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price 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 equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $377.82.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 6,016 shares of company stock worth $1,694,866. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $322.47 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company has a market capitalization of $201.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $303.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $341.94.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results 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 net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.77 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.84%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Accenture Company 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.