Vise Technologies Inc. Purchases 3,758 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Vise Technologies Inc. lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 35.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 14,434 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,758 shares during the period. Vise Technologies Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,078,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $22,314,000 after purchasing an additional 3,883 shares in the last quarter. Davidson Trust Co. grew its stake in Accenture by 7.4% during 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 in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake 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 in the last quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 127.1% during the fourth quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $817,000 after acquiring an additional 1,300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in Accenture by 16.8% during the fourth 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 acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of ACN opened at $316.22 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company has a 50-day moving average of $302.36 and a 200 day moving average of $340.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $198.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.53, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.77 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Guggenheim lowered their price objective 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. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective 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. Seven 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $382.14.

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.