115,000 Shares in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Bought by Shellback Capital LP

Shellback Capital LP purchased a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 115,000 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $40,456,000. Accenture accounts for 2.8% of Shellback Capital LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $2,351,683,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 22.8% during the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $666,495,000. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Accenture by 16.8% in 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 during the period. Finally, Swedbank AB raised its position in Accenture by 47.5% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,324,029,000 after purchasing an additional 1,212,011 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock opened at $323.17 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $202.41 billion, a PE ratio of 27.11, a price-to-earnings-growth 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. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $302.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $341.53. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.77 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 48.89%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Robert W. Baird raised shares of 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. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $381.76.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. This trade represents a 17.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.