Retireful LLC Makes New Investment in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Retireful LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,823 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $641,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in Accenture by 378.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,941,219,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345,039 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 44.7% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $822,238,000 after buying an additional 837,677 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 251.3% during the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 995,896 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $302,165,000 after buying an additional 712,400 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in Accenture by 2,666.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 715,219 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $251,607,000 after acquiring an additional 689,366 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP bought a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $204,895,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Up 0.5 %

ACN stock traded up $1.77 during trading on Friday, hitting $352.33. 4,061,199 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,629,327. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $357.65 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $345.02. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $220.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.56, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released 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 firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.27 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ACN. UBS Group lifted their target price on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $385.04.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 26,125 shares of company stock valued at $9,570,260 over 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.