Vontobel Holding Ltd. Raises Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 23.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,132,903 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 212,249 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises approximately 1.4% of Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 23rd largest holding. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $398,544,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA boosted its holdings in Accenture by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $22,314,000 after purchasing an additional 3,883 shares during the last quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 78.6% in the third quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,047,000 after buying an additional 5,038 shares during the last quarter. MQS Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $1,040,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 70.6% in the third quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 35,591 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,581,000 after acquiring an additional 14,724 shares during the period. Finally, M&G PLC boosted its position in Accenture by 34.1% in the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $103,361,000 after purchasing an additional 74,438 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $389.71 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $364.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $353.43. The stock has a market cap of $243.88 billion, a PE ratio of 32.69, a P/E/G ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.52%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price 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. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.22.

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.