Deutsche Bank AG Acquires 221,543 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Deutsche Bank AG boosted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,541,882 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 221,543 shares during the quarter. Deutsche Bank AG owned 0.57% of Accenture worth $1,245,999,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th 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 period. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Promus Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $306.07 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $305.84 and a two-hundred day moving average of $343.60. 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 stock has a market cap of $191.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. 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 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.77 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Guggenheim dropped their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $377.82.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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. The trade was a 17.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 6,016 shares of company stock valued at $1,694,866. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture 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.