Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Grows Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 25.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,894 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 3,383 shares during the quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $5,943,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA grew its position in Accenture by 6.5% during the 4th 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. Davidson Trust Co. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $812,000 after buying an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC raised its holdings in Accenture by 126.8% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 40,051 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $14,090,000 after acquiring an additional 22,391 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Accenture by 37.5% in the 4th quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,094 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,088,000 after acquiring an additional 843 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SteelPeak Wealth LLC raised its position in Accenture by 127.1% in the 4th quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $817,000 after buying an additional 1,300 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Remove Ads

Accenture Trading Up 0.8 %

ACN traded up $2.48 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $311.38. The company had a trading volume of 3,669,622 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,767,183. 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 business has a 50 day simple moving average of $356.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $356.56. The stock has a market cap of $194.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.12, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $398.35.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Guggenheim dropped their price objective 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. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $378.23.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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.