Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Position Increased by TD Waterhouse Canada Inc.

TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 61,999 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 995 shares during the period. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $21,829,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,351,683,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $666,495,000. Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in Accenture by 16.8% in 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 buying an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB increased its position in Accenture by 47.5% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212,011 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barclays decreased their price target on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price 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 price target on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $377.82.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 23,778 shares of company stock valued at $8,408,087 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $282.28 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $326.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $349.60. The company has a market capitalization of $176.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.68, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 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.