Montag & Caldwell LLC Increases Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Montag & Caldwell LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 19.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 29,614 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 4,839 shares during the period. Accenture makes up about 2.2% of Montag & Caldwell LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest position. Montag & Caldwell LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $10,418,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 23,778 shares of company stock valued at $8,408,087 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight 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.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $377.82.

Accenture Stock Down 1.0 %

ACN stock traded down $2.96 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $282.28. The stock had a trading volume of 2,320,335 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,007,591. 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 firm has a market cap of $176.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The business has a 50-day moving average of $326.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $349.73. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $275.01 and a 52-week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) 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, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The company 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%. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.