New Age Alpha Advisors LLC Increases Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

New Age Alpha Advisors LLC raised its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 6,335.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,995 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 1,964 shares during the period. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $702,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $2,351,683,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $666,495,000. Swedbank AB grew its position in shares of Accenture by 47.5% during the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,324,029,000 after buying an additional 1,212,011 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 51,837.3% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 860,601 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $302,751,000 after buying an additional 858,944 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi boosted its stake in Accenture by 27.9% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 3,790,069 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,353,909,000 after acquiring an additional 826,038 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report 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 note on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight investment 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's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $378.23.

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Accenture Stock Down 4.7 %

Shares of ACN traded down $14.99 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $301.34. The company had a trading volume of 3,612,838 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,939,824. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $188.74 billion, a PE ratio of 25.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company's fifty day moving average price is $352.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $355.28.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at $3,073,892.12. This represents a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

About Accenture

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.