Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 202.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 81,119 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 54,300 shares during the period. Accenture makes up 1.1% of Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $28,537,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. TD Private Client Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 15,903 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $5,595,000 after buying an additional 294 shares during the last quarter. Truepoint Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 30.6% in the fourth quarter. Truepoint Inc. now owns 4,424 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,556,000 after acquiring an additional 1,036 shares during the last quarter. Kiker Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $797,000. Ballast Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC now owns 5,183 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,823,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC grew its position in Accenture by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 269,782 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $94,907,000 after purchasing an additional 7,506 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Insider Activity
In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $378.91.
View Our Latest Analysis on Accenture
Accenture Price Performance
ACN traded up $1.79 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $308.97. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,889,341 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,771,908. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $398.35. 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 business's 50-day moving average price is $358.32 and its 200-day moving average price is $357.10. The stock has a market cap of $193.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.92, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.77 EPS. The business's revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share 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 issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.
About Accenture
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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.
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