China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. Acquires 843 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 37.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,094 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 843 shares during the quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,088,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA grew its holdings 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 worth $22,314,000 after acquiring an additional 3,883 shares during the period. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 78.6% in the 3rd 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 purchased a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth $1,040,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 14,724 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&G PLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 34.1% in the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $103,361,000 after acquiring an additional 74,438 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $4.20 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $395.82. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,377,761 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,725,141. The company has a market capitalization of $247.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.21, a P/E/G ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $396.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $360.63 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $351.08.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.27 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $387.22.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 13,255 shares of company stock valued at $4,756,101 over the last three months. Corporate 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.