Vanguard Group Inc. Boosts Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 392,183 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 0.10% of Accenture worth $21,246,236,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Swedbank AB grew its stake in Accenture by 16.6% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $901,967,000 after purchasing an additional 363,401 shares during the period. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth $377,000. Navellier & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth $216,000. CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 13.9% in the third quarter. CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 1,060 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $375,000 after acquiring an additional 129 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Biltmore Family Office LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth $215,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Accenture from $425.00 to $370.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim dropped their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $380.05.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $305.17 on Friday. 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 business has a 50-day simple moving average of $359.16 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $357.24. The stock has a market cap of $190.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.60, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during 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 quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.