Private Client Services LLC Makes New $204,000 Investment in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Private Client Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 653 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,351,683,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 30,256.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,067,651,000 after acquiring an additional 3,410,248 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Accenture by 22.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,283,225,000 after purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $666,495,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $382.14.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $316.71 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $198.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.57, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $302.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $338.74. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $275.01 and a 52 week high of $398.35.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.87%. 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.