Capital International Investors Grows Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Capital International Investors lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 181,449 shares during the period. Capital International Investors’ holdings in Accenture were worth $2,994,922,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 64.2% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Baird R W raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $377.82.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $282.28 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $176.80 billion, a PE ratio of 23.68, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $328.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $350.21. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.77 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.10%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, 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 transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 23,778 shares of company stock worth $8,408,087 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.